Blog | Arcada

From Bangladesh to Helsinki: my journey of transformation at Arcada

Stepping away from nearly a decade in corporate banking to start over as a student wasn’t an easy decision for Afrin Sadat. From studying online in Bangladesh to finally walking through Arcada’s snow-covered campus in Helsinki, her MBA journey has been shaped by resilience, gratitude, and a deep desire to grow.

Category: Blog

Understanding the meaning of professionalism in healthcare students through the PROGRESS project

Ask any nursing or paramedic educators to define professionalism and you will likely get as many answers as there are educators. Ask them whether it matters, and the answer will be unanimous; yes, it does. This gap between how hard professionalism is to pin down and its agreed essentiality is one of the more persistent challenges in the education of healthcare professionals.

Category: Publication

"Samkunskapande" – What it really means to build knowledge together

Insights, provocations, and paths forward from the Global Impact Forum, Sunrise Summit, and a meeting with the Center for Welfare Change. This is part two of two in the blog series Connecting for global impact.

Category: Publication

Rooted locally, reaching globally: A case for international co-creation

The institutional case for international co-creation and how a visit to Mälardalen University fits into Arcada’s broader ambitions. This is part one of two in the blog series Connecting for global impact.

Category: Publication

Future-oriented solutions for a circular society: Insights from CHARLO 2026 in Oslo

Through real-life business cases, international teamwork, and the Circulab methodology, CHARLO 2026 showed how sustainability goes beyond environmental action. The programme highlighted the importance of social inclusion, regenerative thinking, and collaborative innovation in shaping resilient Nordic futures.

Category: Publication

Burnt rice, big lessons: growing into confidence at Arcada

MSE student Aqib arrived in Finland with one suitcase and zero cooking skills, facing a new country, new studies, and total uncertainty. This is the story of how small failures turned into confidence—and how Arcada became more than just a place to study.

Category: Blog

How I started studying IT by mistake

Some people carefully plan their future. Arcada IT student Annika didn’t—she stumbled into hers by accident. A late-night mistake during course registration led her away from biology and into programming, setting her on an unexpected path toward a new life in a different country.

Category: Blog

From classroom learning to real projects: reflections on studying Mechanical and Sustainable Engineering at Arcada

Hussein expected equations and theory—but instead found himself testing materials, building prototypes, and solving real engineering problems from the start. Studying Mechanical and Sustainable Engineering at Arcada quickly turned out to be far more hands-on than anticipated, shaping his skills through practical experience with labs, projects, and engineering tools rather than textbooks alone.

Category: Blog

From dashboards to decisions: why practical data skills are becoming essential in modern Finnish business education

Finnish business life is becoming increasingly data-driven, and future professionals need more than theoretical knowledge about digital transformation. Practical Power BI work can help students connect data, sustainability, customer behaviour and managerial decision-making in a modern business learning environment.

Category: Publication