A year of change – and confidence in the future
The year 2022 was in many ways one of change and one of adapting to new realities. The academic year commenced with a new organisational structure for Arcada. The work of developing new guidelines and processes to fit the new structures began before the new model was introduced, and continued throughout the first academic year.
The beginning of the year came with major adjustments that required both time and effort to complete. The situation came to a head when we were obliged to begin our year with a sudden campus closure. A new Covid wave resulted in the authorities reintroducing the most severe restrictions. Remote studies were a familiar phenomenon, and the transition was smooth, but another period of remote work was a strain on both staff and students. After an extended period of physical isolation, the students really needed to start establishing the invaluable social networks provided by student life. The staff also needed to get together and develop the new work procedures that were introduced with the new organisational structures.
When we once more opened the campus in February, several rounds of active efforts were required to revert to routine physical meetings and activities on campus. Only in the autumn term did the campus become fully operational, with staff and students in normal attendance. Even so, campus activities were not quite what they had been. The new organisational structure created new routines and operational guidelines. The new office layouts for different tasks, combined with new models for supporting remote work, created new routines for several people. Both the organisational restructuring and the campus transformation were designed to create new informal meetings and exchanges of information over team boundaries. The experiences of the year seem to support that reasoning.
The anniversary campaign Arcada 25
In February Arcada University of Applied Sciences (UAS) was in a position, remote work notwithstanding, to celebrate our anniversary with the Arcada 25 campaign. The aim of the campaign is to create new and upgraded labs and learning environments to meet current and future requirements for a digital reality. The campaign had a visible launch in February and was successful for the rest of the year. By the end of the year the campaign had reached halfway to the monetary goal and several valuable collaborations and relations were strengthened. Before the end of December some of the planned environments were already constructed and some spaces taken into use, with others still under construction. Arcada’s new Entrepreneurship Hub was introduced in the autumn and the centre for health technology research and rehabilitation opened in anticipation of the finishing touches. Apart from the valuable new learning and research environments gained, one is bound to observe that all the positive feedback the campaign elicited from the stakeholders we approached, is in itself of value. Arcada is, and will remain, at the forefront – for the benefit of students and society.
Arcada continues to focus on the aim of creating smart solutions for a rewarding and sustainable life.
In the spring of 2022 Finland’s Eastern neighbour attacked Ukraine. The war continued all year, but it also had obvious consequences for the higher education sector of Finland from the very beginning. People were severely impacted by the uncertainty and fear that the aggressive war caused. The institutions of higher education in Finland, Arcada included, followed the general European agreements about sanctions and restrictions on collaboration with Russian entities that were swiftly implemented and ended all collaborative projects in progress and any other interaction with official Russian agencies. After the initial phase of acute measures, the sector continued by providing a variety of educational opportunities and other support measures for Ukrainian refugees. Arcada was very quickly able to provide guidance in Russian, which turned out to be valuable. Various education modules were also put in place for the refugees. In the spring, even the students at Arcada were engaged in creating various events in order to show their support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.
Open Science and publication
During the year we completed a survey and analysis of Arcada’s publishing operations. Our particular focus was on the extent to which Arcada lives up to the Recommendation on Open Science and open publication. It transpired that the measures taken to increase openness in our research and research reporting has borne fruit. In research culture, research data and research infrastructures, Arcada has reached the highest degree of openness. Our publishing openness remains one level under the national average. The reason is that we have a high level of ambition and quality for our research. When Arcada researchers publish in high-ranking publishing channels, it sometimes means that open publication is not feasible. Arcada has a greater number of publications (more than 30 %) than the national average (less than 10 %) in peer reviewed series and channels, which are open after a delay or not at all. Our researchers, with the emphatic support of the UAS, have made a conscious decision to prioritise the higher value of quality and scientific reputation that come with closed expert publications.
The aftermath of the pandemic and the Russian aggression has destabilized the global economy. The situation was uncertain even before the attack on Ukraine, but the ongoing war and a new formation of blocs caused market confidence in the economy to fall further – and with it the investments of the UAS. This is the main reason the financial statement for the year is distinctly negative. The operating result also ended in the red. This is partly due to the acceleration of inflation, particularly in the autumn months, and partly because we were unable to fully make use of certain project financing as originally planned. We did have a positive trend in the increased number of international, paying students. They not only provide everyone with the opportunity to learn to act in an international environment, but also entail added revenue, not least in the light of the fact that these students will also need special guidance and career support during their studies. Another positive economic trend, continuing from previous years, is the expansion of the UAS´s project portfolio. This suggests that research financing is available and that our researchers and research teams are ambitious and successful. Arcada continues to focus on the aim of creating smart solutions for a rewarding and sustainable life.
09 May 2023 in Helsinki
Mona Forsskåhl
