Highlights 2020

Our society has a great demand for skilled engineers who speak more than one language. This was the reason Arcada took a strategic decision to aim for broad engineering programmes with an interdisciplinary focus. At the same time, Arcada increased the goal for the number of engineering graduates.

Arcada and Folkhälsan signed a major co-operation agreement. Now two Swedish-language actors will engage to work on integration in Swedish, personnel development, sports and education as well as large scale interdisciplinary research projects.

• Something that was not a highlight, but nevertheless a big event, was when Arcada closed down campus due to COVID-19. On 16 March all activities were moved online.

• The humanoid robots Amy and Alf arrived at Arcada from China and were introduced at Arcada’s virtual research fair Future Ready on 31 March. The robots were acquired for the Humanoid Service Robot Project (AFORA). One of the project aims is to teach students and personnel at Arcada more about robotics and how robots perform in different service sectors.

In order to counter the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Arcada decided to offer the unemployed and laid-off access to Arcada continuing education, free of charge.

• Arcada donated and lent medical equipment to hospitals as part of the UAS's effort to alleviate the consequences of COVID-19.
  
• Arcada concluded an agreement with, and became a member of, the Helsinki EU office. The membership will improve Arcada’s opportunities to act globally and to become a leading educator and research institute.

A global comparison of 1900 universities of applied sciences ranked Arcada in the top 25 in the category of co-publishing with industry.

Despite the pandemic forcing all activities online and with strict restrictions in place, 282 Arcada students still graduated.

• Arcada and Diak introduced a unique, bilingual nursing programme. The new programme introduces teaching in both Swedish and Finnish, but also features flexible online and on-campus teaching. The aim of the programme is to remedy the shortage of nurses capable of providing care in both Swedish and Finnish. In 2020 Arcada admitted a record number of nursing students.

• The Arcada campus was re-opened on 3 August after providing remote teaching since March.

• Arcada launched a new strategy “Arcada at the forefront – we put education and culture to work for a rewarding and sustainable life” for the period 2021–2030. Arcada will help foster a dynamic work life, a vigorous Swedish-language culture and a multi-cultural Finland. Other corner stones in the strategy are continuing education and life-long career support.

• Arcada has appointed Anne Söderlund the first affiliated professor in a move to enhance the Nordic profile. Söderlund is a professor of physiotherapy at Mälardalen University, Sweden.

• The Arcada short film Emotional Labour Club was nominated at the Helsinki International Film Festival. The film was produced by film and media students at Arcada and directed by Sofie Häkkinen. Emotional Labour Club was nominated in the domestic short film category.

• Arcada launched its first network of international student ambassadors, comprising both current students and an alumna. The ambassadors have an important role in marketing Arcada. They spread the word about Arcada by engaging in webinars, giving presentations, blogging and taking over the Arcada Instagram account for a while. Arcada already has a network of national ambassadors who visit schools all over the country and host visiting groups on campus.

• A donor’s wall was unveiled on 16 October. The unveiling took place virtually. The Donor’s wall is a collection of illuminated digital screens thanking donors to the fundraiser Tomorrow’s heroes - Made by Arcada.

• Arcada became the first Swedish-language SIMHE higher education institution in Finland. Arcada offers SIMHE services (Supporting Immigrants in Higher Education in Finland) which means the UAS supports highly educated immigrants in their further studies or career, in Swedish.

• A research project led by Arcada showed that self-managing teams show promise in the care of the elderly.

• Arcada broke the all-time record in the number of graduates. A total of 507 students graduated from Arcada. 71 of the graduates were engineers, equal to the record year 2015.

• On 17 December, module-based study plans with sustainability as the common denominator for all degree programmes, were approved. The new study plans are well in line with the agreement to promote sustainability that Arcada, together with all other Finnish universities of applied sciences, has signed.