3.5.2012

Universities of Applied Sciences received the decisions from the Ministry

More business competence for the region

Last autumn, the Ministry of Education and Culture assigned the task of preparing the reduction of TUAS’s education supply to TUAS’s maintainer i.e. the City of Turku.  In cooperation with TUAS, the City of Turku prepared a counterproposal to the Ministry of Education and Culture’s proposal, and TUAS delivered it to the Ministry on February 8. Now the Ministry has made a decision on the matter.

According to the MINEDU decision, the number of cuts in TUAS’s starting places will be 177, as was proposed earlier. The cuts are mostly in line with the City’s and TUAS’s counterproposal. In the field of Culture, MINEDU will cut 20 places more than what was suggested in the counterproposal, and these 20 places will be reallocated to Social and Health Care. In terms of these and new Degree Programmes, the discussion with the Ministry and the maintainer i.e. the City of Turku will continue. TUAS’s Board discussed the matter in its meeting on April 12.

“The decision has no immediate impact on the status of the staff. In the long term, as the number of jobs decreases, the number of staff will primarily be adjusted through natural wastage. Our estimate is that this decade approximately 160 persons will retire. It is possible that the City of Turku will help with the reallocation to new jobs inside the city concern”, says Vice Rector Olli Mertanen.

“Now it is important to find concrete technical and contentual solutions to how we will proceed after these decisions”, says Mertanen.

The number of graduates more important than the number of starting places

The Ministry’s decision means that TUAS’s education in the field of business will strengthen. Education in the fields of natural sciences, natural resources and tourism, catering and hospitality services will discontinue, which means that starting from 2013, new groups will no longer be started.

“It is also important to keep in mind that these decisions do not affect the completion of studies of current students or the joint application this spring.  Thus, students who begin their studies this autumn get to study safely in the degree programme they have now applied to”, Vice Rector Olli Mertanen emphasises.

In TUAS, these structural reforms will mean cutting 177 starting places, which is nearly 10 per cent of the number of all starting places. In terms of working life, however, the number of graduates is more important than the number of starting places.

The Ministry of Education and Culture tries to clarify Universities of Applied Sciences’ profiles thus that the strategic focus areas are clearly highlighted and offer better premises for the Universities’ operations. Means to advance this are e.g. cuts in the number of starting places and reallocations.

More information

Olli Mertanen, Vice Rector