Highlights 2019

To further sharpen its international profile, Arcada established the new position of Director of Academic Partnerships. D.H.Sc. Camilla Wikström-Grotell takes on this new role from 1 January 2019.

Arcada could pride itself on being the first to offer specialisation for osteoporosis nurses. A second course took place in the autumn of 2019.

The ultramodern Arcada Hall was inaugurated Wednesday 27 March. The first floors incorporate 103 student flats while the top floor consists of the sports hall, a gym and a test lab.

• For the admissions round in 2019, a new type of Social Services programme in Swedish was launched at Arcada. The new programme was popular from the start and had the highest number of applicants per place this year. A total of 150 people wanted to try Arcada's new concept: to study full-time alongside work. The programme combines online and on-campus studies arranged during evenings and weekends.
• Arcada established a partnership with the MyTech-programme which is coordinated by Technology Industries of Finland (Teknologiateollisuus ry). Arcada’s Department of Energy and Materials Technology can now offer various projects to the participants in the MyTech programme, such as circular economy and climate change. The programme aims to raise interest in technology.

The amazing contribution of Cultural Management students Moa West and Emma Koskenvesa brought them to the finals in the global student competition RSA Student Design Awards in London. Their project focuses on how to repurpose an old commuter train station.

• Arcada hosted the NordYrk conference June 12-14, welcoming a large number of participants. The theme of the conference was Nordic networking and the latest competencies in professional pedagogics.
• The first experts in Big Data Analytics graduated from Arcada. This one-year Master’s programme is the first of its kind in Finland.
• Arcada took part in Pride for the first time.

For the first time, Arcada took part in SuomiAreena in Pori. The themes for 2019 were know-how and innovations for the future. Together with the Helsinki summer University and the Ministry for Education and Culture Arcada organized a panel debate where future know-how and work prospects were discussed. Arcada’s rector Mona Forsskåhl participated in the discussion ”Machine or Man – Cutting-edge expertise for the Job Market of Tomorrow”.

Arcada’s rector Mona Forsskåhl was chosen as new chairperson for Samordningsdelegationen för den svenskspråkiga högskoleutbildningen i Finland, an organisation coordinating Swedish-language university education in Finland. Forsskåhl took over August 15 after her predecessor Åbo Akademi University’s former rector Mikko Hupa.

Arcada alumni created the Swedish-language series Badrumsliv (Bathroom Life), launched in 2019. Screenplay and direction are both Kaya Pakaslahti’s. This successful web series comprises 18 instalments and caused quite a stir from the very beginning. In September some 60 000 people in Finland had seen the first episode. The series, described as feminist comedy, is based on social media stories by young women, collected by Pakaslahti. The series was one of the contestants for best TV program at the Kultainen Venla gala in January 2020.

Chia Palkonen is the second-year student in Mechanical and Sustainability Engineering who with her team Hermes won the maritime competition Intelligence Hunt. The competition, held in Oslo on June 7, focuses on current topics in maritime supply-chain related business. Palkonen’s task was to develop an application that calculates the most efficient means of transport taking into account time, cost and carbon footprint. The first prize took the team westward: in October team Hermes competed in the finals in Florida.

Project NURED (Nurse + Education + Development) is financed by the EU through The Central Baltic Programme. The programme produced two new curricula in home care education for assistant nursing and nursing students in the Baltic region. Arcada, the lead partner in this three-year project, hosted the final seminar on November 14.

• Arcada launched the new online Master’s degree programme Leadership for Nordic Healthcare. The new programme is a direct response to the new demands which leaders in the social and healthcare sector face. Applications to the programme were accepted from December 2.
• Linnea Mattson won the idea competition Arcada MindVentures. Her idea can possibly save many lives on roads in the future. In the course of her studies Mattson discovered that traffic accident victims die because of blocked airways. a type of neck collar with motion sensors, made to be worn when driving a car. With the help of Mattson’s neck collar traffic accident victims won’t be left sitting in a position that blocks the airways, as the collar lifts the chin by only a few centimetres in case of a collision.