Students innovate: Tampere becomes a well-known student city in Europe
The City of Tampere and Tampere Universities participated with a joint commission in the Sprint Innovation Festival for higher education students on 15-19 November. Six multidisciplinary student teams had the chance to present the jury their ideas on how to make Tampere the most attractive student city in Europe in 2030.
Higher education students were hoped to approach the challenge in an open-minded manner. The OpporTunity idea includes elements which sit well with the strategies of the City of Tampere, Tampere University of Applied Sciences and Tampere University. The core idea of the festival is to gather students, alumni and residents of the city to a joint event whose programme and setting honour Tampere as a communal, equal and sustainable model city. All this is shared in social media channels widely and visibly.
“All student teams’ ideas were of high quality and inspiring. The OpporTunity festival was chosen as the winner due to its potential and viability. The festival would be a great opportunity to welcome new students into the city and universities community in a highly visible manner,” justifies a member of the jury, Head of Student Services Kaisa Keskitalo from Tampere University.
“The name of the idea, OpporTunity, already tells that this is a great chance to build a unique event concept which raises Tampere among internationally interesting student cities. We also want local entrepreneurs to join the event implementation,” states TAMK’s Head of Communications and Marketing Services Piritta Palokangas.
“The new event concept is nicely connected to the new city strategy. One of its aims is to be a home for creative people and attract people to experiences around the year,” says Manager, PR and Marketing Iina Ojala from the City of Tampere.
The team which invented the OpporTunity idea are invited to present their proposal to the strategic cooperation group of the City of Tampere and Tampere Universities in December. The strategic partnership aims at increasing the attraction of Tampere as an internationally interesting city.
More about this: https://www.tuni.fi/en/news/city-tampere-and-tampere-universities-sign-strategic-partnership-agreement
More than 550 higher education students, mostly from Tampere University of Applied Sciences and Tampere University, participated in the Sprint Innovation Festival organised by HUBS of Tampere Universities. The event was made possible by more than 30 cooperation partners, 18 coaches, 17 assistant coaches and 25 volunteers.
The students worked for a week with 15 different challenges in multidisciplinary and multilingual teams. In return, they gained valuable experience, contacts and credits. The challenges were given by companies and public sector organisations.
Further information
City of Tampere: Iina Ojala, Manager, PR and Marketing, tel. 040 801 6189, iina.ojala [at] tampere.fi (iina[dot]ojala[at]tampere[dot]fi)
Tampere University: Kaisa Keskitalo, Head of Student Services, tel. 040 754 5951, kaisa.keskitalo [at] tuni.fi (kaisa[dot]keskitalo[at]tuni[dot]fi)
Tampere University of Applied Sciences: Piritta Palokangas, Head of Communications and Marketing Services, tel. 040 548 6124, piritta.palokangas [at] tuni.fi (piritta[dot]palokangas[at]tuni[dot]fi)
Sprint Innovation Festival (HUBS): Sanna Tahlo, Producer, tel. 050 454 2262, sanna.tahlo [at] tuni.fi (sanna[dot]tahlo[at]tuni[dot]fi)
Photo: Jonne Renvall
