Category: In English

Arctic Researcher

From the perspective of Anastasia Emelyanova, postdoctoral researcher investigating demographic trends in the Arctic, it is important to make sure that the special characteristics of the North will not get lost in national decision-making. As a researcher, she also wishes the results would be reflected more in practice.

In English

TEKSTI Jenni Maalismaa

Looking at the Earth from the North Pole, it can take a while to recognise different areas. For Anastasia ­Emelyanova, postdoctoral researcher from the Thule Institute of the University of Oulu specialising in Arctic health and demography, a pole-centric angle is one of the most familiar ones.

Emelyanova, who is from Arkhangelsk, a north-western city in Russia located approximately in parallel with Oulu, finds it natural to interpret the world from an Arctic perspective. Although understanding the value of the Arctic comes naturally for someone born and working in the region, on a worldwide scale it is only seen as “somewhere far in the north.”

A couple of years of research scholarship in Austria gave a new perspective for how northern issues are seen from elsewhere.

“When people asked me about my field of research, ‘arctic’ was most of the time mixed up with ‘art’,” Emelyanova describes a common point of confusion with a laugh.

At the University of Oulu, Arctic themes are familiar at least in advertisement and attitude. In the beginning of 2023, the first Arctic strategy of the university was established aiming to respond to current megatrends while taking welfare of the planet and business targets into account.

What are the unique ways in which these global challenges affect the North?

Differences and Commonalities in the Area

Arctic administrative areas only include one country in its entirety, Iceland, located south of the Arctic Circle. Therefore, as a topic of research, the area is not strictly limited to the circle of latitude commonly thought of as the true mark of the North, but rather it follows the borders of national administrative areas. For example, in Finland, Lapland, Northern Ostrobothnia, and Kainuu regions are often included into Arctic research.

Emelyanova emphasises the heterogeneity of the area and its residents. It is important to research diverse areas as a whole to prevent northern special characteristics from getting lost in national decision-making. Thus, there is no one solution that would fit an area with a population of approximately 10 million people residing the 10 percent of the land area of Earth.

Climate is the most obvious commonality in the area. This is also reflected in Emelyanova’s currently ongoing Nordic research project, where she acts as coordinator and principal investigator from Finland. A current point of interest is the area’s ageing population’s experience of spending time outdoors during the winter.

Solutions are sought for round the world to the demographic megatrend of societal ageing. To advance resident-­oriented policy, solutions must be found for each individual region, and it is important to include local people in planning and decision-making.

Population growth and decline in the Arctic area largely follow the global trend of moving towards smaller numbers of children and longer life expectancy. In the areas predominantly populated with indigenous people, the number of children may still deviate from global trends and be larger. As for life expectancy, different parts of the region can still vary by up to 20 years.

Another commonality is transfer of human capital from the northernmost areas to southern, more populated regions or capitals. Something should be done to ensure that expertise gained from working and studying remains also in the North. Innovative, creative, and skilled people certainly add to the attractiveness of cities, but first the trend of attractiveness must be turned around.

Working Together Towards the Better Future

“As a researcher, I find it important to make sure my results aren’t hidden in my computer. For example, we write Policy Briefs for decision makers, and deliver the results both to the scientific community and the local community in question.”

However, this beautiful goal of integrating research into real life rarely happens as well as hoped for. The efforts are not all in vain, but there is still room for improvement in decision makers willingness to include the data in their processes.

Wide-ranging research collaboration is emphasised when dealing with multidimensional challenges. The work of an international research team, which Emelyanova is part of, is one example of the activities of the One Health spearhead in the Arctic Strategy of the University of Oulu. According to the spearhead, the health of people, animals, and the ecosystem go hand in hand.

The One Health research team is also part of the Arctic Five forum in which five northern universities collaborate in research and education. Another community adding to the internationality of Emelyanova’s work is the globally more widespread UArctic cooperative network consisting of 230 actors. Emelyanova is  the Vice Lead of its Arctic Health Thematic Network.

She also serves as an example of the opportunities provided by the UArctic network, as she has graduated with master’s and doctoral degrees, which have been created by the universities in the network to strengthen the research competence in the area.

Arctic demography as a field of science sets its own requirements for cooperation between universities. International cooperation provides important points of comparison within the Arctic area as well as outside of it.

“The university’s Arctic Strategy is assumed to increase visibility of the theme in the lives of all students,” Emelyanova anticipates.

Effects of the War in Research

A few years ago, Emelyanova was still in close cooperation with Russian Arctic researchers. Now many databases have become unavailable, and researchers are kept more in the dark regarding the regional development of Russia. This brings massive challenges to Arctic research.

“Russia makes up roughly 75 percent of the Arctic population and about 50 percent of the land areas. How can we determine the ongoing changes if half of the area is missing from the statistics and research data? It is currently not possible to analyse the area as a whole.”

The lack of information is highlighted in climate change research as well. Many publications in the field have been forced to admit that the lack of data from Russia may render Arctic climate forecasting meaningless.

The many aspects of research have become clear to Emelyanova. Attending conferences and seminars, working with societal matters important to oneself, as well as working with motivated people all add to the appeal of the work. At the same time, regardless of the quality of one’s own work, there is always lingering uncertainty.

“Sometimes I think I should just retire from research and get another, more stable job,” Emelyanova laughs.

Regardless of its challenges, research still feels appealing, and combining it with everyday family life feels rewarding.

Map of the Arctic Administrative Areas.
Map: Arto Vitikka, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland.
Credit for the border data: Runfola, D. et al. (2020) geoBoundaries: A global database of political administrative boundaries. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0231866. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231866e.
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Jenni Maalismaa

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Jenni Maalismaa

Aiming for the Death Penalty

Lauri Moilanen studies suicidal murders from hundreds of years ago. Desperate people could not kill themselves, so bystanders suffered. The knives and axes were especially heavy in Ostrobothnia.

In English

TEKSTI Kalle Parviainen

KUVAT Maiju Putkonen

In the autumn of 1797, soldiers Simo Storm and Henric Qvist invaded the house of Kankaanpää in the village of Launola (now Laakkola). They murdered a ten-year-old girl in the house by hitting her over the head with an axe several times. The men’s aim was to get the death sentence, a so-called suicidal murder.

PhD researcher Lauri Moilanen has been studying such atrocities since 2020 in the History of Science and Ideas Department at the University of Oulu. 

According to Moilanen’s definition, ”suicidal murder was a type of crime that became widespread in the 17th and 1700s, in which the perpetrator murdered an innocent bystander with the aim of being sentenced to death.” 

How did Moilanen become interested in such a macabre topic? ”I was working for the Puolanka magazine in 2016 and interviewed non-fiction writer Mikko Moilanen. He has been researching death sentences in Finland and tipped me off about an unusual case he had found: the topic had not been researched in Finland and the material was ready, so it would have been foolish not to take it on board. We are still on the same path”, says Moilanen.

Moilanen was interested in studying history already when he was in high school, and during the early stages of his undergraduate studies at university, he was thinking about writing his doctoral thesis. Since graduating with a Master’s degree, Moilanen’s research career at the Faculty of Humanities has been fairly straightforward. ”Many stars aligned when I received funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation for 2020, and after that I got a job at the University of Oulu Graduate School.”

Moilanen’s research material consists of transcripts of court cases, i.e. dockets. Studying the handwritten and Swedish judgement books required learning old handwriting and the old Swedish language. ”The courses were of little use, as each scribe has a different handwriting. Judgement books follow a certain pattern, so with time and enough reading you learn to recognise the essentials”, Moilanen explains. Moilanen has used an early 19th century dictionary from an antiquarian bookshop and various translation programs to help him in his translation work. The material for the forthcoming doctoral thesis consists of the court records of just under forty trials – well over two thousand pages. ”A single trial is between 20 and 80 pages long, so there is plenty to study”, says Moilanen.

Women as Murderers, Everyday Tools as Tools of the Trade

One of Moilanen’s main research questions is whether the suicidal murders in Finland were related to similar acts in Europe. There are many similarities with the suicidal murders in Germany, Denmark and Stockholm. ”The acts were planned and the victims were mostly young children. In addition, around 60% of the perpetrators were women, which is exceptional in the context of the history of homicide.”

The social class of the perpetrators is also clearly visible: there are many maids and soldiers among the condemned, while priests, nobles and bourgeois are almost absent.

Based on Moilanen’s data, suicidal murders were committed especially in Ostrobothnia. ”The suicidal murders were to become a chapter in the region’s extraordinary criminal history.” Moilanen cites the knife junkies that were active in South Ostrobothnia from the late 17th century to the end of the 19th century and the numerous witch trials in the 17th century as other special features of the region. Moilanen is currently investigating the reason for the concentration of crime in the region. ”The reasons may be related to the religious and social culture of Ostrobothnia and the region’s close commercial and cultural links with the mother country, especially Stockholm, where an alarming number of suicidal murders were committed between the 1680s and 1720s.”

Moilanen cites the weapons used in the Finnish suicide murders as one of the special features of the killings: knives have been used everywhere, but in Finland axes were often used in the killings. The choice of murder weapon, he says, reflects a feature of rural society: ”We have needed more axes in everyday life than in the big cities, Stockholm, Hamburg and Copenhagen. In the Finnish cases, the axe was used to kill adults while the knife was used to kill children. This suggests that the perpetrators wanted to be sure of a successful murder.”

The methods of committing suicidal murders may have been described in great detail in the court records of the trials. Towards the end of the 17th century, the inquest became more professionalised, and doctors were increasingly consulted in trials, whereas previously laymen and at most laymen’s witnesses had been used. The investigation of the cause of death of the victim was included in every judgment. ”In my thesis, I do not repeat in great detail these exceptionally brutal acts, but then again, I do not hide them either.”

Historical research often borrows perspectives from other disciplines. Moilanen’s dissertation combines perspectives from historical criminology, sociology and cultural history. ”The study of suicidal murder – like the study of the history of crime in general – intersects with many branches of research. I study these crimes as a criminal phenomenon from a criminological perspective, but also as a social phenomenon through social history and sociology. From a cultural-historical point of view, I am particularly interested in the connection between crime and religion. The study of the state of mind of the accused, on the other hand, can be traced back to the early history of forensic psychiatry.”

Moilanen is among the few even internationally. ”I am the first in our country to have studied these crimes in depth. There are only a handful of researchers in the world who have studied the subject, so I’m in good company.”

There are both pros and cons to the narrowness of the research field. ”I pretty much know all the other researchers in the field and we work together. Of course, this can be a real headache if you make a gross misinterpretation.”

PhD researcher Lauri Moilanen has been studying suicidal murders since 2020. Photo: Kalle Parviainen.

Moilanen says that historical research is always about interpretation. ”The most important thing is to try to understand what kind of world these people have lived in. Even the people of the past acted rationally in their own environment, even if it may sound funny to us. They acted according to their own cultural code.”

Connections to the Present

The soldiers Storm and Qvist mentioned at the beginning of the article had previously assaulted a corporal in their company. Not wanting to face the punishment that would follow, they decided to commit a much worse crime that would certainly and quickly get them the death penalty. According to court records, the men finally got what they wanted: both ended their earthly journeys with execution.

In the 1700s, the execution of a death row inmate was, according to Moilanen, a popular event. ”The whole village was invited, from baby to grandfather. Executions were even ecstatic events, especially in Sweden in the 1700s: hymns were sung, sermons were preached and some people might be in a state of ecstasy. The executed criminal was even compared in holiness to Jesus, who atoned for the sins of mankind on the cross. This may have attracted some people who were tired of their lives and self-destructive to seek attention to end their lives.”

Moilanen sees similarities between suicidal murders and modern-day acts, and mentions police-assisted suicide. ”Suicide by cop is a type of crime where the aim is to behave aggressively towards the police, with the aim of getting the police to shoot.” In addition, mass shootings, for example, may seek media attention. Some suicidal murders can also be interpreted as extended suicides, where the perpetrator wanted to extend his self-destructiveness to someone else, such as his own child.

Suicidal murder as a type of crime has been explained in many ways, for example by religious reasons. ”Some people were extremely desperate, but not prepared to kill themselves for either religious or human reasons. Killing oneself can be difficult for many reasons, so it was easier if someone else did it,” Moilanen says. Ultimately, the death penalty allows suicidal murder to exist. ”In societies where death sentences are enforced, it is possible to commit suicide by beheading.”

Moilanen reveals that suicidal murders practically stopped in Finland by 1825 at the latest, when the death penalty was abolished and death row inmates were sent to Siberia. In Europe, too, the phenomenon faded as the 19th century progressed. ”In contrast, in the United States, for example, in states that allow the death penalty, acts of suicidal murder have occurred to this day.”

“I could think of something else”

The suicidal murders have been Moilanen’s research topic since his bachelor thesis. ”Now I’m starting to feel like I could be thinking about something else”, he says. ”For eight years I’ve been thinking about these things every day.” Breaking away from difficult topics was a challenge in the early stages of writing his dissertation. He cites the pandemic and working from home, which meant he had to work, play, and sleep in the same room.

For Moilanen, art is a counterbalance to his doctoral work. He’s a songwriter, singer and guitarist in a black metal band called Leskentuska, which plays several gigs a year. ”Music is a good way to deal with these issues.”

The dissertation monograph is due to be completed in spring 2025, but Moilanen does not want to plan too far ahead. ”My thoughts are on the dissertation and there is no thought of a later stage. Writing is close to my heart, but it doesn’t have to be academic. I want to finish the dissertation topic and then see what comes up.” •

In addition to the interview, the article ”Murder for fear of God. A warning to priests.” The role of religious beliefs in the suicide murders of the Suicides in North Ostrobothnia at the turn of the 1700s and 1800s by Lauri Moilanen has been used as a source.

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Kalle Parviainen

Kirjoittaja on Oulun ylioppilaslehden entinen toimitusharjoittelija ja opiskelee tiedeviestintää. Hän haluaa parantaa maailmaa viestimällä innostavasti monimutkaisista aiheista.

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Kalle Parviainen

The Soup of Joint Studies Remains Unstirred

The University of Oulu and the Oulu University of Applied Sciences have existed on the shared Linnanmaa campus for three years now. However, teaching co-operation has not been as extensive as was planned before the relocation. The Oulu Student Magazine set out to unravel what the problem is about.

In English

TEKSTI Kalle Parviainen

KUVAT Viima Iivonen

Two higher education institutions operate on the Linnanmaa campus: the University of Oulu and the Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oamk). Oamk’s relocation to Linnanmaa was decided on at the end of 2016 and teaching in the renovated facilities began during 2020. The northern parts of the Linnanmaa campus became home to Oamk’s engineering, natural resources, culture, and business studies. Healthcare studies stayed at the Kontinkangas campus.

The arguments for the relocation included shared facilities, services, and teaching co-operation. In Kaleva’s news article in 2018, Jouko Niinimäki, the rector of the University of Oulu, painted images of future possibilities: ’by developing co-operation we could create an internationally charismatic community of science, education, and innovation.’ In 2021, a year after the relocation, Heidi Fagerholm, the vice rector of Oamk, enthused about the future in an announcement published by the University of Oulu, saying that ‘in principle, a student can enroll on any course as long as the admission requirements for the course are met and the course has the free space.’

‘It requires a large amount of work from both higher education institutes’

How have the joint studies been going then? Browsing through the study guides, the catalogue of cross-institutional studies is very diverse and it looks different for every faculty and field of study. Cross-institutional studies mean courses or study modules that are open for the students of both institutes of higher education. For instance, in the Faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Science there is no active course offering due to a lack of demand, but according to Tuomo Glumoff, the dean for education, the institutions are open for co-operation if the offered studies included a course suitable for the students of Oamk. On the other hand, the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering offers so many cross-institutional courses that if they all are counted together, they are worth a whopping 260 credits. 

In this dual model, Oamk’s supply for the other party is quite limited. They have a few dozen courses to offer. For example, the study guide does not include any cross-institutional courses from the fields of engineering or natural resources. Business economics offers study modules only regarding entrepreneurship. Most of the courses are offered as online versions, which, on a positive note, enable more flexible completion of courses.

Both institutions of higher education offer studies from the fields of healthcare and social services, engineering, and communication, so some common fields surely exist. The Oulu Student Magazine reported on education co-operation in 2020. Back then, the fields of engineering (architecture and civil engineering), information science, and business were mentioned as possible fields for co-operation.

‘There has been little collaboration on the curriculum level, except for a few individual study units’, says Jyrki Laitinen, the vice rector of Oamk. ‘In this regard, the initial aim was to build flexible study paths to facilitate transitions from one sector to another after getting a bachelor’s degree, which would bring new kinds of opportunities for students. This requires a large amount of work from both institutions of higher education. It remains to be seen if this will happen in the next few years.’ 

Satu Nätti, the dean for education of Oulu Business School, says that the coronavirus pandemic is one of the reasons for the lack of co-operation: all resources were simply spent on coping with the change in the educational situation. The situation has now returned to normal, but the discussions regarding co-operation haven’t been newly kicked off yet. ‘The important thing, of course, is that a person who has graduated as a Bachelor of Business Administration has the right to apply directly to our Master’s Degree, and many people with such a degree who have wanted to continue their studies have utilized this opportunity.’

Jere Tapio, the specialist of academic affairs of the Student Union of the University of Oulu (OYY), also thinks that closer education co-operation is still an untouched topic. ‘I have acted in various educational bodies for the last year. Only a few of the discussions have dealt with questions on how to benefit from the neighbouring institute, but all concrete actions have mainly been seen only in the education service units.’ 

Cross-institutional studies also have practical issues. For instance, 250 freshmen begin their studies annually at the Oulu Business School. According to the education dean Nätti, it is challenging to organize systematic, mutually beneficial cross-institutional studies for such a large number of students. ‘How we could get real benefits out of this, for example saving on education resources without making the number of students per group absurd, is a good question.’ 

According to vice rector Laitinen, there are ways to make close co-operation possible. ‘Shared campuses or the proximity of campuses, shared services, and high-quality course selection support co-operation. Both higher education institutions are multidisciplinary by nature so finding equivalent programmes is easy.’

The University of Oulu became the chief shareholder of Oamk in 2018. Shared services for the both institutions include for example the library and information management.

Besides joint facilities and studies, the University of Oulu and Oamk collaborate on research, development, and innovation activities (RDI). Laitinen mentions that on the RDI side, external funding is pushing them towards co-operation. For example, projects funded through the European Union’s regional and structural policy programmes are often carried out in co-operation between several higher education institutions and other organizations.

Nätti also mentions EU-funded development projects as a functional form of co-operation. ‘Intensive co-operation was done in the Myski project, for example. Several joint projects related to female entrepreneurship and leadership have also been conducted.’ The Sales expertise as the core of growth (Myski) project, led by Oamk, was implemented in 2019 – 2022 and, among other things, it aimed to better the sales expertise of the staff of both institutions.

Strategic development requires resources

In practice, higher education institutions do things that they will be measured on and things that they are paid for. The funding model of the Ministry of Education and Culture (OKM) does not really reward cross-institutional studies, so it is quite understandable that individual faculties and institutions are not too enthusiastic about developing them. There also are not that many statistics available on cross-institutional studies. The education services of the university do not directly collect data on cross-institutional studies, and even in the statistics service of the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI), all teaching co-operation is lumped under the same, ‘inter-university co-operation’ category.

In fact, Laitinen states laconically that the financial incentive is quite limited at the moment. ‘What comes to education, the financial motive comes mostly from the funding model of the OKM in which the importance of collaborative studies is very low. In our case, the motive might be student orientedness, that is, increased study opportunities.’ 

With the digital transformation, the higher education study offerings are also in quite a turmoil. The Digivisio 2030 project invites higher education institutions to think in a new way. It is therefore not necessarily sensible to develop local operating models because the national project might soon send differing instructions to guide the operations.

According to Tapio, the specialist of academic affairs, the Digivisio project aims to gather studies onto a platform called opin.fi, which would include open course offerings from all universities. In the future, a study module of 25 credits that consists of five courses could be offered so that each of the courses is offered by a different university. Laitinen also mentions the opin.fi platform. ‘Most likely from 2025 onwards supply will be moved to that platform.’

However, Moodle, the joint learning platform of the higher education institutions of Oulu, is one of the options to develop. ‘Moodle is developed in close collaboration. Going forward this platform could make it more flexible for students to view and move between different institutions and their study offerings’, mentions Laitinen.

Is it more natural for higher education institutions to seek partners from far away? Tapio from OYY thinks that co-operation between some degree programmes might be easier with a similar higher education institution that is further away than with another institution that happens to be nearby.

Satu Nätti agrees with Tapio. She mentions that the AACSB quality assurance system, which Oulu Business School has in place, slows down co-operation. Oulu Business School cannot ensure the same accreditation for teaching outside of their faculty. ‘Basically, in this sense the best co-operation partners are other accredited schools that operate within the same quality assurance system. We are trying to develop, for instance, international exchanges with such schools’, says Nätti.

The money appointed to strategic development is scarce, and developing co-operation would possibly demand long-term work. Laitinen also mentions that there really isn’t any pressure to increase the amount of cross-institutional studies. ‘Universities of applied sciences offer a wide selection of CampusOnline studies on a joint agreement.’

Besides funding, motivating staff for changes is also a challenge. ‘Situations in which we let go of something that we already have and replace it with jointly implemented supply or with supply implemented by only one of the parties, are great challenges that deal with management’, says Laitinen.

What could the joint study offerings of the University of Oulu and Oamk look like by the end of the decade? Laitinen does not want to paint images of wild visions: ‘The future is hard to predict in this case, too. One of the big challenges is the fierce competition over students due to the declining population. Regarding this matter, Oulu’s assets could include the wide study offerings brought forth by the increasing co-operation and the aforementioned flexible study paths.’

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Kalle Parviainen

Kirjoittaja on Oulun ylioppilaslehden entinen toimitusharjoittelija ja opiskelee tiedeviestintää. Hän haluaa parantaa maailmaa viestimällä innostavasti monimutkaisista aiheista.

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Kalle Parviainen

Common factor: Concern over environment

The Climate Café network is expanding to Oulu, as two residents of Oulu worried about climate change want to create a safe and open community for everyone. In the meetings, topics such as climate change as well as other environmental and preoccupying issues are discussed. The aim is to come up with local solutions to […]

In English Kulttuuri

TEKSTI Marjut Lauronen

KUVAT Tuuli Heikura

The Climate Café network is expanding to Oulu, as two residents of Oulu worried about climate change want to create a safe and open community for everyone. In the meetings, topics such as climate change as well as other environmental and preoccupying issues are discussed. The aim is to come up with local solutions to challenges posed by climate change from a northern perspective.

A relaxed hustle and bustle fills the Paljetti café at the Cultural Centre Valve on a Thursday evening in October. Oulu’s first Climate Café, which is part of the Climate Café movement, has gathered at the Paljetti café to talk about climate, environment, and sustainable development. Although the meeting is the first of its kind, nearly thirty persons interested in the subject have arrived there to chat about the topics.

As a phenomenon, the roots of the Climate Cafés are in 2015 in Scotland where a public lecture on climate change provoked discussion among the locals. People wanted to talk more about the topic and the idea of a monthly discussion group started forming.

Over time, the Climate Café community grew and new sub branches of it were formed all over Scotland and the world. The same goal connects all of the Climate Cafés that are part of the movement: to create safe spaces for conversations where everyone gets to chat and act on things that are dear to them.

Petr Stepanek, one of the organizers of Oulu’s Climate Café, also thinks that the people’s desire to talk about climate-related topics is strong, but finding a suitable environment for such discussions can be challenging.

“Climate change affects us all and it raises a lot of questions and worries. Many would like to talk about these things but they might not have gotten a chance to share their thoughts”, Stepanek notes. “Many also have the urge to influence and act on things but have no knowledge of how to do so.”


“Public discourse about climate change is also often very exaggerated”, mentions Veera Juntunen, one of the organizers. “Open and shared discussion could prove that this doesn’t have to be the case.”

Stepanek and Juntunen accidentally ended up talking with each other after one public lecture at the end of summer. During the summer, Stepanek had thought of organizing Climate Café activities at Oulu but he was faced with a language issue: he would need the help of someone fluent in Finnish because a shared language would help to handle things on a large enough scale and with the proper sensitivity.

When people are discussing difficult and worry-inducing topics, many find it is easier to talk about them in their native language. The threshold for participating in the Climate Café activities would be lower for many thanks to the use of two languages. Stepanek and Juntunen got on the same page very quickly and decided to bring Climate Café to Oulu.

Stepanek and Juntunen are both researchers at the University of Oulu. Stepanek works as a post-doctoral researcher of chemical physics in the NMR research unit and he also studies environmental engineering. Juntunen is working on a doctoral thesis about the production of solar hydrogen. Outside of work they are united by the worry about climate change and its impact on our environment which is why they are organizing a Climate Café in their freetime as a shared discussion space for the residents of Oulu.

“Above all we want to create communality, not an academic bubble. We are organizing the Climate Café as private persons, not in connection with the university”, Juntunen says.

The idea of the Climate Café is simple: those interested in the issue meet once a month over a cup of tea – or a cup of coffee, as we are in Finland – to chat about matters relating to climate change and other environmental challenges.

The communality cherished by the Climate Café concept is visible in the very first meeting as everyone gets to introduce themselves in turns. The participants come from different backgrounds but they all are brought together by the same thing: worry over the climate and our environment. Discussions are held both in Finnish and English in the meetings.

There is no specific, readily planned programme for future meetings as they are built around the wishes and needs of the participants. Besides discussion groups, the meetings can also include workshops or visiting speakers.

In Scotland, the local Climate Cafés have already been noticed by the decision-makers. In the beginning of October, in their meeting, the Scottish Parliament discussed the local effectiveness of the Climate Cafés as they managed to encourage local residents to save electricity by collaborating with the Heat energy guidance project.

The end result was impressive. The project reached over 700 households which means the amount of saved electricity was outstanding. Does the Climate Café of Oulu have similar goals?

Stepanek and Juntunen also hope that the ideas that develop in the Climate Café could be implemented in practice. “The ultimate idea of the Climate Café is to share thoughts and experiences”, Stepanek says.

“Oulu is a relatively large city and lots of professionals from different fields live here. We would like to have local experts with hands-on experience and insight on the topics at hand as our speakers.”

In fact, Stepanek and Juntunen want to highlight the northern outlook in the topics of the Climate Café. The Climate Café is meant to become a discussion space for the local community where ideas are expressed from the perspective of their own area, taking their needs into account. The goal is to find local solutions that mirror the experiences and wishes of the residents of Oulu.

When examining Oulu from the perspective of the northern climate, one of the changes caused by climate change is the increase in the rainfall in the future. Is the infrastructure of the city prepared for increasing rainfall? What’s the situation like outside of the city? Additionally, the issues with fast fashion and renewable energy provoke discussion also here in Finland. The organizers of the Climate Café are hoping to get experts to speak of these topics among other things, as well as of new topics that come up in the conversations.

When it comes to societal influencing and appealing to decision-makers, Stepanek and Juntunen emphasize that the Climate Café is politically unaffiliated. They want to maintain the meetings as spaces for discussion that are open for everyone. They don’t want to politicize the conversations that are had in the Climate Café but due to the nature of them, they might sometimes turn political. That is not the intention, however.

“The people coming to these meetings come here as professionals of their field, not as political figures. Apoliticism means the discussions remain open and welcoming for all participants”, says Stepanek.

You don’t have to be a professional of the field or know exactly what it is that you want to do to participate in the Climate Café. It’s also not mandatory to partake in the conversations: it’s enough that you are interested in the topic and want to listen to others’ experiences and ideas.

Stepanek and Juntunen encourage people to attend the meetings and just be themselves. Children are also welcome in the Climate Café. If you are unsure about participating, you can drop in without commitments and just feel out the atmosphere. To those who are thinking about what to bring up in the discussions of the Climate Café and to those who are thinking if they have anything to say, Stepanek and Juntunen say encouragingly: 

“Come as you are”.

The Climate Café gathers together once a month on Thursdays. More specific dates and locations can be found on the Climate Cafe Oulu Facebook page and on Instagram @climatecafeoulu.

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Marjut Lauronen

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Marjut Lauronen

A good servant, but a bad master

Artificial intelligence has been slowly developing over the years, until recently it has nearly exploded due to newest advancements. In conversations, it’s even compared to electricity thanks to its upheavals. Some are afraid that AI will take their jobs, but at the same time AI eases our lives greatly. Advancements in AI’s development have intrigued […]

Ilmiöt In English Tiede

TEKSTI Jere Laitinen

KUVAT Jenna Pakonen

Artificial intelligence has been slowly developing over the years, until recently it has nearly exploded due to newest advancements. In conversations, it’s even compared to electricity thanks to its upheavals. Some are afraid that AI will take their jobs, but at the same time AI eases our lives greatly.

Advancements in AI’s development have intrigued people ever since Alan Turing made his observations on artificial intelligence in the 1950s. Nowadays speaking of AI might arouse visions of independently thinking autonomous robots, which are slowly becoming more common in public services. Although this vision feels distant, recent advancements might make it a reality faster than previously thought. Professor Olli Silvén and professor emeritus Matti Pietikäinen, who have both meritoriously studied and popularised the development of AI, state in their new work Miten tekoäly vaikuttaa elämäämme 2050-luvulla? (How will AI affect our lives in the 2050s? Only in Finnish) that they believe AI to be an assistant of people, not a master.

Today the AI models developed by OpenAI and other AI companies can be applied to the work done by humans, from coding to teaching, information searching, marketing, and creative writing. ChatGPT, which has gained viral success, has actively provoked discussion over the possibilities it has to offer. The possibilities of AI are manifold, but at the same time the concern over its increasing presence in our everyday lives is growing.

In education, the presence and effects of AI have been widely recognized. This autumn the University of Oulu will introduce guidelines regarding AI in education. Despite these common guidelines, the possibilities offered by AI have challenged teachers to examine their course practices in a new light. The guidelines also leave some room for the teachers to assess their course policies in accordance with their own consideration.

The ethicality of profitable AI

ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), published by the American OpenAI in November 2022, is an AI-based language model that can discuss with its user on an expert level. The user can ask it to write school essays, write the beginning of the user’s own story based on a given topic, open up problems in written code or explain the terms of quantum physics in a simple manner.

The AI in question has existed ever since 2018, after which newer and more intelligent versions of it have been developed. ChatGPT-4, published in March 2023, is the fourth version of the GPT language model and it’s already capable of achieving top scores in exams aimed at humans. As a new feature it can assess images with words and it can be used in different languages, for instance in Finnish.

Thanks to these advancements, ChatGPT has especially provoked discussion regarding the suitability of its use in studies. It’s not easy to tell apart whether an essay has been written by a student or ChatGPT. In Italy the use of ChatGPT has already been banned in March, and according to the supervising authority its use is seen to “expose underage children to completely inappropriate answers when compared with their level of development and awareness.” It’s also debatable whether ChatGPT adheres to EU’s general data protection regulations.

Finnish higher education institutions have also reacted to AI’s presence in the students’ lives. The guidelines introduced in August 2023 by the University of Oulu recognize AI’s inevitable effects on society and the academic world. The guidelines offer guiding principles on how to approach AI from the viewpoint of education.

For instance, the guidelines define that a teacher can decide if using AI is permitted during their certain course. This means that teachers can, within the limits of the guidelines, permit, prohibit, or limit the use of AI depending on what is pedagogically meaningful in relation to the learning objectives. The teacher can utilise AI for instance in the planning of courses, compiling assignments, and assessments. The guidelines emphasise that it’s important to have a shared understanding of what is permitted and prohibited.

OYY, which is responsible for advocating for the students’ rights, has taken part in the preparation of the guidelines. Mikko Hakoniemi, the vice chair of the board of OYY, sums up the guidelines completed in the spring of 2023 with the words transparency and equality. “In a multidisciplinary university, the role of AI will be manifold. Instead of clearly banning or permitting the use of it, the guidelines lead us towards open discussion in courses and towards sharing knowledge of new tools and their possibilities to all members of the community”, says Hakoniemi.

Although utilising AI has awakened opposing views on its ethicality even in Oulu, AI still doesn’t compensate for the students’ own thinking and it cannot graduate from a degree programme on the student’s behalf. The texts generated by AI still need to be checked for factual errors, and AI doesn’t offer any references. The University of Oulu’s guidelines for using AI in studies remind us that students are always responsible for the assignments they turn in, and texts and other creations crafted by AI cannot be presented as the student’s own or as references. The guidelines emphasise that AI doesn’t make up for personal learning, thinking, information processing, and training.

The accountability of using AI is crystallised into equality and following the ethical principles according to the University of Oulu’s guidelines. If AI is used on a certain course, every student must have the same possibilities to do so. In practice this means that assignments cannot demand the use of software that is not free. Ethicality is still based on following good scientific principles and on the same definition of cheating as before. Cheating means any actions the student takes to paint an incorrect picture of their competence.


AI can instead be utilised for instance to form exam questions by teachers. “The teachers can input their ideas on the site, which ChatGPT then turns into polished questions and perhaps gives new viewpoints on the topic. Quite many of the researchers and teachers understand that their questions must be demanding and varied, so that any misconduct cannot happen”, said Susanna Pirttikangas, the research director of the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the University of Oulu, in an interview with Yle in January 2023.

It’s particularly because of misconduct that it’s important to create ethical guidelines and supervision mechanisms so that AI isn’t used for vandalism, manipulation or spreading false information. It’s important to be able to recognize information created by an AI. Although AI can answer demanding placement test questions with great success, the factual contents of its creations are still often inaccurate.

“In view of developing education, it’s important to assess AI and both its possibilities and threats analytically and many-sidedly. AI and its methods of application are developing quickly, and it’s good if education keeps up with this development”, describes Elina Niemitalo-Haapola, the programme manager of the Noste development programme. The University of Oulu’s guidelines on AI will be updated as needed, at least once per academic year.

AI in the world of art 

In addition to regular texts, AI can also succeed in creative projects. Based on a given word or premise, AIs are capable of creating stories, poems, stock photos, and even works of art. The creations of AI are also ready within seconds, unlike humans’ creations which generally take up more time.

For instance, regarding art, AI has created new ways of thinking about what art actually is. AIs that create art have become more common especially in 2022, and these AIs include AIs such as DALL-E 2, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion. In the same year at the Colorado State Fair’s annual art competition, for the first time ever, an AI artwork won the award. The art piece in question is called “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial”. This piece of art was made by the artist Jason M. Allen, who faced criticism for winning the award although he had openly announced to have used the Midjourney AI in the creation of his artwork.

In Finland, the University of Tampere has studied the suitability of AI in arts with their UrbanAI Art project. The pieces created in the project were on display at the University of Oulu in March 2023. The AI created a new work of art every couple of seconds by combining features that had been programmed in advance. This way it’s theoretically possible to create a limitless amount of unique images with the materials at hand.

“This art piece raises questions about what art is and what artists are needed for”, said Jussi Lahtinen, the artist of UrbanAI Art project, in an Yle interview in March 2023. 

In relation to the exhibition, it was deemed important to observe how people reacted to art created by AI. The presence of AI and robots in humans’ everyday life often increase anxiety and lessen the feeling of belonging. Art made by AI represents a new trend in the art world and the role of traditional artists, if an artist, or the AI they employ, creates art.

“Artists have always used tools and technologies in their work. Creating art has been collective, and perhaps AI for one deconstructs the myth about artists that there’s only one party creating new things”, said Atte Oksanen, a professor of social psychology, in an interview with Yle in March 2023. Oksanen leads the UrbanAI Art project at the University of Tampere.

Despite its threats, creating art this way can also create new opportunities. AI can be compared with a digital camera which was originally thought to take the jobs of illustrators and drawers because of its ability to capture exact images.

“The main point has always been the idea and the thought of what you as an artist are trying to convey. You use the tools that you have. It’s awesome that artists can use AI that’s capable of learning, because at the best there will be such interactions that feed both the AI and the artist,” said Arja Miller in Yle’s Kulttuuricocktail live show in the autumn of 2022.

In audiovisual productions on social media, the usage of AI is already common for experienced people. Instead of using the everlasting photo directories and their very limited contents, e.g. content creators on YouTube can create more varied, unique, and relevant illustrations than previously to illustrate their videos, enriching the viewing experience. Especially Midjourney seems to be in the favour of content creators in creating visual worlds and images.

Will AI take over future jobs?

Due to its fast and innovative development, AI has arisen questions about the ways it could change today’s society. Especially worrying is whether AI will take jobs traditionally done by humans, and if it will make it difficult to get jobs in different fields. In theory, the need for people would lessen in certain sections if AI took care of similar tasks more efficiently and without using the same amount of time as humans when creating texts and creative works.

AI would have the biggest impact on the jobs of educated experts, such as law firms, according to a study conducted by the universities of the USA. A news article in Helsingin Sanomat mentioned in March 2023 that according to a report by the American Goldman Sachs bank, AI might replace “a quarter of the current jobs in Europe and USA”.

On the other hand, according to the same report, the wider implementation of AI and ChatGPT “would increase the annual gross domestic product of the world by seven percent in ten years.” AI would automate certain simple tasks, which would free the workers to work on other, more profitable tasks. However, AI wouldn’t create new jobs according to the report.

It’s not wise to trust AI on completely independent work. It cannot think intelligently, so to speak, so it’s dependent on the restrictions and databases set by humans. For this reason it’s better suited for instance for defining terms and for simplifying difficult terms.

To keep AI from becoming too influential and threatening, for now there are certain means of restriction in use. For example, the sufficient development of supervision mechanisms and charging fees for using ChatGPT have held back the expansion of AI, but these practices are only temporary.

At the moment, the European Human Rights Council and the European Union are preparing their own legislature regarding the usage of AI, and at the centre of it are human rights questions. Anna-Mari Rusanen, a university lecturer and philosopher in Cognitive Science at the University of Helsinki, notes that implementing AI isn’t adaptable to all situations equally. 

“The concern behind the hype is that we will automate everything, and that at the same time we won’t notice we are bringing forth an ideology we don’t actually want”, Rusanen said to Yle in February 2023. 

Rusanen thinks that understanding algorithmic operations is slowly becoming a civic skill. In science the effects of AI are a point of fascination and there are high expectations for it, but at the same time, it’s important to remember its effects as it spreads. It’s still very important to keep the development of AI controlled so that the horrifying pictures painted by the media about self-driving cars and the revolution of robots wouldn’t become realised in a catastrophic and uncontrollable manner.

*The illustrations of this article have been crafted by real human hands.

* Translation: Jenni Isokääntä.

Julkaistu

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Jere Laitinen

Oulun ylioppilaslehden toimitusharjoittelija. Opiskelutaustaltaan kokenut ainejärjestöaktiivi ja opiskelijavaikuttaja sekä innokas pelaaja ja kokkailija. 

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Kaukana kotoa

Vaihto-opintoja markkinoidaan yhtenä parhaista tavoista hankkia kansainvälistä kokemusta. Oulun yliopistossa on valittavana useita eri vaihto-ohjelmia sekä satoja eri korkeakouluja niin Euroopassa, Pohjois-ja Etelä-Amerikassa, Aasiassa kuin Oseaniassa. Millainen kokemus vaihtojakso on? Kysyimme asiaa kahdelta viime lukuvuonna vaihdossa olleelta opiskelijalta.  Pitkäaikaisen unelman täyttymys Oulun yliopistossa luokanopettajaksi opiskeleva Meri Jurvansuu oli 12-vuotias, kun hänen ystävänsä sisko oli palannut Australiasta […]

Ihmiset Ilmiöt In English Opiskelu

TEKSTI Tuuli Heikura

KUVAT Tuuli Heikura

Vaihto-opintoja markkinoidaan yhtenä parhaista tavoista hankkia kansainvälistä kokemusta. Oulun yliopistossa on valittavana useita eri vaihto-ohjelmia sekä satoja eri korkeakouluja niin Euroopassa, Pohjois-ja Etelä-Amerikassa, Aasiassa kuin Oseaniassa. Millainen kokemus vaihtojakso on? Kysyimme asiaa kahdelta viime lukuvuonna vaihdossa olleelta opiskelijalta. 

Pitkäaikaisen unelman täyttymys

Oulun yliopistossa luokanopettajaksi opiskeleva Meri Jurvansuu oli 12-vuotias, kun hänen ystävänsä sisko oli palannut Australiasta ja kertoi kokemuksistaan upeasta ilmastosta, työskentelystä farmilla ja yleisesti vuodestaan maassa. Seitsemännellä luokalla nuori ilmoitti, että hän menee yliopistoon ja lähtee vaihtoon Australiaan. 

Helmikuussa 2023 tuo unelma toteutui, kun Jurvansuu laskeutui Melbourneen ja aloitti puolen vuoden vaihtojakson Melbournen yliopistossa. “Kaukovaihtoihin pitää hakea todella aikaisin, joten tiesin lähdöstä jo vuotta ennen itse vaihdon alkamista”, Jurvansuu kertoo. Kaukokohteisiin hakuprosessi on muutenkin erilainen kuin esimerkiksi Erasmus-vaihtoon. Valintakriteereinä käytetään akateemisia perusteluita vaihtoon hakeutumiselle, motivaatiota, opintomenestystä ja kielitaitoa. SoleMove-hakemuksen lisäksi valintaprosessiin kuuluu ryhmähaastattelu. “Hakuprosessi oli aika raskas, mutta se todellakin kannatti”, Jurvansuu palaa muistelemaan epävarmaa hakuaikaa. 

Jurvansuu palasi Australiasta heinäkuussa ja aloittaa nyt viimeisen vuoden opintojaan Oulun yliopistossa. Vajaan puolen vuoden vaihtojakso hidasti opintoja hieman, sillä hän ei pystynyt suorittamaan toista sivuainetta loppuun viime keväänä Australiasta. “Nyt minulla on vain hieman kirittävää tänä vuonna. Kyllä tässä joutuu töitä tekemään.” Valmistuminen ajallaan on kuitenkin edelleen mahdollista. “Ei minulla toisaalta ole myöskään kiire valmistua, jos työmäärä tuntuu liian suurelta”, hän lisää. 

Vaihto-opiskelu on eittämättä rikastava ja arvokas kokemus ihan vain jo kansainvälistymisen näkökulmasta. Jurvansuun mielestä kuitenkaan ainakaan hänen tutkinto-ohjelmassaan mahdollisuudesta ei kerrota tarpeeksi. Ystäviensä kanssa keskustellessa hän on huomannut, että tutkinto-ohjelmien välillä on huomattavasti eroja, kuinka paljon vaihtoon lähtemiseen kannustetaan. Hän toivoisi, että vaihto-opiskelun mahdollisuutta painotettaisiin enemmän heti opintojen alusta. 

Kulttuurikokemuksia

Vaikka Jurvansuu ei kokenut suurta kulttuurishokkia muuttaessaan yli 15 000 kilometrin päähän, oli esimerkiksi opiskelijan arki hyvin erilaista Melbournessa. “Opiskelu oli hyvin itsenäistä, kävin yliopistolla vain kahtena päivänä viikossa ja muut päivät tein itsekseni tehtäviä.” Myös opiskelijakulttuuri oli erilainen, esimerkiksi haalareita ei opiskelijoilla näe Australiassa. Yleensä opiskelijayhteisön tapahtumat olivat päiväsaikaan tapahtuvia, kuten piknikkejä tai kampuksella olevia tapahtumia, ja alkoholittomia. 

Melbournea pidetään Australian kulttuurin ja taiteen keskuksena, eikä turhaan.  “Melbournessa tapahtuu aina jotain. Usein lähdin vain kävelemään päämäärättömästi ja aina tuli jotain tapahtumia, kuten katutaidetta tai konsertteja eteen. Kaupungissa on myös paljon ilmaisia museoita.” Ilmaiset elämykset olivat opiskelijalle iso plussa, koska kaupunki on muuten melko kallis ja erityisesti asuminen on kallista Melbournessa. “Säästöjä kannattaa olla, jos lähtee Australiaan.”

Vaihto-opiskelussa toiseen kulttuuriin soluttautuessa altistuu vääjäämättä itselle uusille asioille, ja ainakin Jurvansuun oman kokemuksen mukaan se laajentaa maailmankatsomusta ja tietämystä kulttuureista. “Meille muodostui tiivis vaihtareista koostunut porukka, jossa hoksasimme, että meillä kaikilla oli eri uskonto. Opin enemmän uskonnoista tuona aikana kuin ikinä koulussa”, hän kertoo esimerkkinä. 

Oppeja ja itsevarmuutta

Vaihto-opintoihin asti sosiaalinen ja muiden seurasta nauttiva Jurvansuu oli vältellyt yksinoloa. Vaihdossa hänen täytyi opetella olemaan myös yksin. “En ole koskaan ollut noin paljon itsekseni kuin Melbournessa. Opin nauttimaan omasta seurastani ja yksin asioiden tekemisestä.” Hän kuitenkin kertoo, että tunsi olonsa välillä yksinäiseksi ja jos nyt saisi päättää, hän olisi valinnut ajalle kimppakämpän. “Ajattelin silloin, että minulla olisi epämukava olo asua tuntemattomien kanssa. Olisi kuitenkin ollut kiva, jos olisi ollut aina joku, jolle jutella.” Vaihtoaika opettikin arvostamaan läheisiä entistä enemmän. Hän lähes herkistyy puhuessaan, kuinka perheen ja ystävien merkitys korostui ja erossa vietetty aika sai tajuamaan, kuinka rakkaita ihmisiä hänellä on ympärillään. 

Alkuun Jurvansuu myös koki, että omaa persoonaa oli vaikea tuoda esille englanniksi. Puhelias ja sarkastiseen huumoriin tottunut huomasi, että vaikka hän puhui hyvin englantia, hän ei pystynyt reagoimaan keskusteluissa yhtä nopeasti ja nokkelasti kuin omalla äidinkielellään. “Aluksi ajattelin, että nyt kaikki luulevat, että olen ihan tylsä. Englanti kuitenkin parani todella paljon ja nopeasti, ja tämäkin helpottui vaihdon myötä”, Jurvansuu muistelee. 

Vaikka tuleva luokanopettaja ei lähtenyt vaihtoon niinkään akateemisen puolen vuoksi, merkittävimpiä asioita, joita hän otti vaihtovuodesta mukaansa, olivat akateemisten taitojen kehittyminen ja opintoihin panostaminen. Jurvansuu kertoo, että Australian korkeaan tasoon pyrkivä opiskelukulttuuri vaikutti häneen positiivisesti ja kannusti panostamaan kurssisuorituksiin. “Opin kirjoittamaan todella hyviä esseitä”, hän yksilöi. 

Vaihtoaika vahvisti Jurvansuun tahtoa hakeutua valmistumisen jälkeen vapaaehtoistöihin. Hän kokee, että uuteen hyppääminen ja toiselle puolelle muuttaminen toi rohkeutta ja varmuutta omasta identiteetistä. “Tuli varmuutta, että kyllä mä pärjään ja pystyn. Nyt kynnys lähteä uuteen ja tuntemattomaan on matalampi.” 

Jurvansuu kannustaa kaikkia lähtemään vaihtoon. “Se on niin rikastuttava kokemus tulevaisuuden, kielitaidon ja itsevarmuuden kannalta.” Hän myös muistuttaa, kuinka ainutlaatuinen mahdollisuus se on kokea uutta. “Ei samankaltaista mahdollisuutta välttämättä ikinä myöhemmin elämässä tule, se kannattaa todellakin hyödyntää.”

All about education

When Jian Lee, 32, decided to spend a year in France she had only one goal – getting a degree. Jian had come to Finland to get her Master’s in Marketing just under a year ago when she moved again to study the second part of her degree in Bourdeaux, France. The arrangement was included in her Master’s studies as a double degree program student. 

Double degree programs are available in Oulu Business School for a limited amount of students. In the program a student receives a Master’s degree from two universities having studied in both for one year. 

Lee knew the year in France would not be about getting experiences, travelling or other traditionally associated activities during one’s exchange year but full-on studying. “I wrote my thesis remotely and went to courses in France, it was quite hectic”, Lee explains. She would be completing her degree in Oulu Business School simultaneously with another tuition in France.

But she didn’t mind. Finland was already the international experience she had longed for. This was about education. 

Lee felt that the more European degrees she can get the better for employment. Now graduated Master of Science plans to stay in Finland and going to France was a milestone for achieving this goal. 

“I felt that having various degrees in European countries it might be easier to get a job. Some people may feel like they want to get the foreign experience but in my case it was different because I was already a foreigner in Finland. I needed a degree, a diploma.” 

Even though Lee went to Bordeaux with one sole purpose in mind, in time she realized there was more to take away from the journey. “I was really busy and swamped, but I tried to find small windows of periods of time to go out in the city. I enjoyed the small stuff.” She mentions the good food and wineries of Bordeaux. 

Set a purpose for why you are going there. It will help you keep yourself uplifted in times of doubt.

It’s not all sunshine and roses

Being in a melting pot of people with different backgrounds made Lee aware of the diversity issues she was confronted with on a daily basis. “Diversity was just a textbook concept for me, but after experiencing the negative and positive things I learned how to deal with and manage issues with diversity”, she explains.

Having to meet new people from all over the world was also the greatest gift. “I made many international friends.The study program offers a lot of opportunities to be mixed with people from different backgrounds from all over the world.”

She also feels that being around people from different cultures expands one’s perspective. “The more I experience different cultures the more I can think about the person instead of the culture”, Lee says. During that year she learned to focus on the people she meets instead of the culture they represent. Once she opened her mind it helped her to grow as a global citizen of the world. This lesson has stayed with her after returning to Finland. “I proved many stereotypes to be wrong.”

For anyone thinking about going to exchange or preparing to leave, Lee has two pieces of advice. “First, set a purpose for why you are going there. It will help you keep yourself uplifted in times of doubt. Second, be open. Don’t have too many stereotypes. Learning about the culture beforehand is wise, but too much prevents you from having smooth experiences.”

Julkaistu

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Tuuli Heikura

Oulun ylioppilaslehden päätoimittaja ja kauppatieteiden maisteri, joka nauttii syväluotaavista ilmiöjutuista, kuluttaa lenkkipolkuja kahden koiransa kanssa ja haaveilee mankelin omistamisesta.

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