In addition, KOPPI held a trusteeship circle, a chairperson circle and an event circle. Trusteeship circle was open for all interested parties.

Transcription

1 Memo: KOPPI 4/ Managing Director, President Riitta Konkola s question hour Approximately 50 students participated to the question hour. Background: METKA s Chairperson of the Board Pirja Vitikka welcomed the participants to the first KOPPI of the autumn. Special guest for the evening was Metropolia s Managing Director, President Riitta Konkola. The students had the opportunity to ask questions from President Konkola regarding all study-related topics. In addition, KOPPI held a trusteeship circle, a chairperson circle and an event circle. Trusteeship circle was open for all interested parties. President s question hour: Metropolia s President Riitta Konkola introduced herself and gave a short background update about the changes in Metropolia. The President emphasized that she arrived to the meeting without preparations, so that she would be in a better position to really listen to the concerns of the students. Changes in Metropolia The Learner s Path -model and the knowledge based curriculums in Metropolia are a hot topic right now. Is Metropolia going to introduce major and minor subjects to all study fields? We will introduce the Learner s Path -model in the autumn 2014 and with it the major and minor subjects. At the moment, we are in the process of building the academic year schedule in a way that it enables the major-minor-model and the multi-disciplinary nature of the studies. This means a more flexible and unified timetable for all study fields in Metropolia, through which it is possible to choose minors outside of one s study field and basically from any available study field in Metropolia. In addition, we will be offering premade major-minor options to all study fields. The budget cuts in Metropolia are huge and we are running out of money. Where are the necessary budget cuts coming from? Through layoffs? The Metropolia campus strategy will create huge budget savings in the future, but unfortunately this will be after your time in the school. We have a lot of money tied to our campuses, but through phased changes in campuses we will be able to save money. In addition, the systematic development of our organization model, starting from the highest management level and going down from there, will create balance in the budget. We are doing what we can to avoid radical changes in the teaching staff and we have created instructions for all staff members regarding expenses they can avoid, such as coffee services in meetings, traveling expenses etc. The budget cuts area is, however, quite big and most of the expenses in Metropolia are related to personnel. It might be that we are forced to grow student group sizes and through this cut the number of teachers. In the beginning of the academic year, a Tuubi announcement was made regarding the employer-employee negotiations. This announcement included the degree programmes that are planned to be discontinued. The degree programme in health informatics is not mentioned in the list of degree programmes that will continue. Why is that? In the field of technology, we will move towards larger application targets that include several of the old degree programmes. Most likely health informatics will be included in one of those six to seven larger application entities as a major subject option. So, in the future one cannot apply directly to health informatics, but to a larger application entity that enables one to choose this discipline as a major subject.

2 Health informatics is a programme that is highly interesting to many and has been a topic in many discussions lately. It will strengthen in the upcoming model and through project activities. We understand that Metropolia s budget had a surplus in the past couple of business years. Where did the profit go? All the profits Metropolia has made in the last years have been invested back into the development of Metropolia. It is good that this profit was made, as it enables us to go forward with for example the campus strategy. The money does not go to the owners of Metropolia - it is directed back to Metropolia. All the information from the student union METKA comes in English, but this is not the case with Metropolia. Why can t Metropolia communicate to students in both Finnish and English and how can Metropolia call itself international in this situation? We are trying to communicate with both languages for example in Tuubi. We try hard to get all the important news and bulletins to the students with both English and Finnish, but we do recognize that there is room for improvement and we are doing our best to improve the situation. Campus strategy The upcoming Myllypuro campus and topics related to it, such as sufficient space, are of interest to the students. At this moment budget cuts are done in health care and nursing by increasing the size of study groups and increasing group work. We have several thousand students in our field. How are the topics related to group sizes, sufficient number of auditoriums and different group work spaces met in Myllypuro? In addition, we are worried about the premises reserved for student associations in the new campuses and how are the students heard in these matters? The campus strategy has been in execution for over a year now. The last semester we had campus teams that had representation from METKA. Now we have four project groups that all have student representation from METKA and in addition a special group for Myllypuro that have student representation. METKA s comment: Asking about the space requirements, I would say that they are very well taken into consideration. Myllypuro will have multiple auditoriums and cafes and spaces for the student union and student organizations as well as group work spaces etc. Obviously, we have to operate around the budget and space limitations, but at the moment everything is looking good. We have heard premises designers and I am confident that the requirements are met. The slot where we are building in Myllypuro is proving a bit challenging, but we will find solutions. METKA has also made sure that everyone knows that the student associations require space to operate within. We have representation in the Myllypuro group and we have made sure the group working space issues and requirements for space modifications are met. What kind of spaces are there for the student associations and are they located in the darkest cellars where no one will find us? None of the spaces have been marked for anyone so far. The planning is not in that stage yet. METKA s comment:

3 The spaces for student associations are still a question mark as we do not really know how many associations will operate and in which campuses. We have made a request that the student association premises will be close to METKA s offices and the student services. The campus strategy will however mean that some of the current student associations will have to reform, as they are based on the old campus structure and we will need to evaluate their purpose in the future. Oral hygiene students in Mannerheimintie campus are worried about their dental care unit where they do their first practical trainings. Will there be one in Myllypuro? The situation as of now is that the university dentistry field is moving out of Mannerheimintie during the year The dental care unit is something that these students will also require. Even though as of now we cannot say for sure where these premises will be located, I am sure that the cooperation between these two fields will continue in the future and the first practical trainings will be done with actual patients. The requirements are known and will be met. All of the culture field will be located in Arabianranta - but at what premises? There are speculations related to Taikki s space that will be free as they move out? The different options are still under consideration. The current premises are not sufficient as more students and staff will relocate to Arabianranta from Tikkurila. We are thinking about building new space and looking into other options for cooperation with outside parties such as the POP/Jazz Conservatory, or renting some additional space. All the options are still open and we will soon determine what the right plan for action is. Taikki is an open topic too, but we have a project team in Arabianranta with METKA s student representatives that you can contact in these matters. Arabianranta is the last of the four new campuses without a clear concept, but we will look into this and have it sorted out in October. What will be the administrative center for Metropolia in the future? The central administration will be located in Myllypuro, but student services and all the necessary services for students will be in every campus. METKA s comment: In addition, we will most likely have METKA Cafes and a student union member service point in every campus, even though our office will be located in Myllypuro. The fate of the three degree programmes Do you feel anything, when you tell about discontinued degree programmes like music? Or when you tell about staff layoffs? Of course. However, regardless of how I feel these hard decisions have to be made and sometimes the issues can be hard and the facts cold. Financial issues have been a big issue this year. In regards to the music programme, like with all programmes that are planned to be discontinued, there has been a lot of feedback - some of it very emotional. Most of the feedback has been very well backed up and based on them we have had a lot of discussions about the preliminary views. The summary of all the feedback will be delivered to the company board so they can make their final decisions.

4 But on the matter of these issues making me stay awake during the night - they do not. I sleep well and handle stress equally well. A question related to these discontinued degree programmes. Will they affect early childhood music pedagogues? It is one of the major subjects even now and we are in the process of thinking about these major study options. At this moment, I am unable to give you a straight answer as it is mostly a topic related to curriculum planning. With the major and minor subject model we are able to take into consideration a lot of the requirements for education compared to the old model. What has happened after the summer period in regards to the three degree programmes planned for discontinuation? Nothing official. We have been going through feedback on these topics and talked with numerous entities. The students and I had a meeting a few weeks ago and this week we will have a meeting with the company board where the final education responsibilities will be decided. After the school started, the students of performing arts in Hämeentie campus have become active and created a project called Lets save TIO together. Is it too late to do anything? We are constantly receiving feedback. You still have this week to make a difference. The performing arts students are preparing a plan to reorganize their degree programme to meet the financial difficulties and we plan to give our views to the school tomorrow. The students have really focused on financial issues. The staff has already given their view and now we will give ours. It is really nice to hear, that the feedback has been taken into consideration and it has led to something. We hope that this feedback of ours will also be considered. This is exactly the way to operate in a situation like this and we have all the time said that all these three programmes have excellent knowledge we do not want to lose. It is really a shame, that reasons that are totally out of our hands force us to make these difficult decisions. Our goal is to ensure that the knowledge stays in Metropolia. However, the financial reality is what it is and so far the original calculations have been correct. Due to the new financial model we must look into the financial structures of all the degree programmes and make our decisions based on them. We are talking about premises, educational methods, investments etc. that affect the financial situation. Student lunch Many of the students are very disappointed about the changes in student lunch operators. Big topic is the food coupons that Palmia sold to students even just before summer. Many of the students purchased these coupons with hundreds of euros and they are now useless. Unicafe won t accept them. What is Metropolia going to do about this? We are legally bound to go through tendering when it comes to selecting a new lunch operator to Metropolia. This means that in every deal worth over we need to go through a bidding process. Unfortunately, due to some complaints in this process the decision was postponed to the end of June.

5 If you have purchased Palmia coupons, unfortunately they are no longer valid. It is an unfortunate situation, where we cannot do much, but with the new Unicafe coupons we have clear dates that state how long they are valid and where they will be accepted. Unfortunately, with Palmia there is little we can do. With Unicafe as it was with Palmia, we are in constant communication through lunch committee. This makes feedback very important. As far as I know, Palmia s food coupons are still valid in other Palmia restaurants. Quality of education We have heard that there are different student guidance procedures in different campuses of Metropolia. What are you planning to do to unify them? In this like in many other topics we have different practices. The vice president has done a lot to find a solution to these issues and for example during Vesa s Week he noticed many concrete issues. We have a lot of good practices and some that need attention. We made a change in our management system last spring in which a management system based on division leadership model where four directors share a matrix of responsibilities. One of these directors is responsible of pedagogy and through this we aim to unify our guidance practices throughout Metropolia. Every campus and degree programme will function under the same set of practices. This is related to Learner s Path, collaborative pedagogy development and renewal of the curriculums and these things are moving forward fast. It is our goal to ensure that every student in Metropolia has equal student guidance regardless of their campus. Regarding the curriculums, who is supervising them and who makes them? Our degree programme has suffered from lacking curriculums for a long time now? The curriculums are done annually. They are shown to the cluster s advisory councils who state if they are relevant from working life s perspective. The inner board of Metropolia approves them. After the board approval an execution plan is filled with further information about the studies: projects, schedules, group work, evaluation etc. This can be seen in the study guide. If this has not been done or is done imperfect, the teacher in question is responsible. It is the teacher s responsibility to fill them in and load them to the study guide. If the information is lacking, the students best plan of action is to contact the teacher in question or administration. This relates to course feedback, which is really important as it is viewed annually by the staff and executives of Metropolia. Feedback system is flawed regarding the course feedback in given May and June. The timing is bad as students are already in vacation and working for summer. This makes students suspicious to whether the teachers even want the feedback. The course feedback system is linked to the course timetable in Winha. If the course end date is marked on June then the feedback opens after that date - regardless of when the actual teaching ends. This must be dealt with, so that we can get feedback from summer as well. However, the overall number of feedback has increased which is a positive matter. Excellent point you have raised!

6 Metropolia has mandatory innovation projects in all study fields that are supposed to be multi-disciplinary. However, all the study fields have their own dates for innovation projects on a weekly basis, so how is it possible to have them in a multi-disciplinary fashion? For example our project is on hold for two weeks as we wait for Myyrmäki to provide students for the project. This is a good example about bad practices. However, the coming academic year the new schedule will eliminate this issue as we will have joint innovation project dates for all of Metropolia. At the end of the question hour, President Konkola was surprised with a special programme: MURU ry and the music students of Metropolia participated in the event by handing President Konkola a petition signed by over 2000 people. They also handed several statements from piano pedagogues and music colleges. In addition, the music students performed an adaptation of the song We deserve value too, which you can hear from here. President Konkola accepted the petition and statements and listened to the students presentation. She thanked the students for excellent discussion and questions.