On the 14th and 15th October 2021, the ErasmusDays event was organised by Laurea, Haaga-Helia and Metropolia Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS). This was a two-day virtual event which included three sessions. The event was a great success. Thanks to all the participants for your activeness and ideas during the entire event. Laurea, Haaga-Helia and Metropolia will look forward to meeting you in the next edition of #ErasmusDays2022. This newsletter contains the highlights of the event’s activities and its purpose to students, staff and partner institutions.
The first day was organised especially for the students. The day was attended by over 100+ students from around European Union, the majority being from our partner institutions. The day was covered with topics such as Finnish culture, environment, study life, food and festivals, study exchange practicalities and experiences. Laurea and Metropolia student unions played an important role in familiarizing our potential incoming students with the union key activities, Finnish university cultures and actual essence of their wellbeing as incoming students. The incoming students had the opportunity to understand the overall education standards and the reasons to choose to study in Finland by listening to our experts, student unions and students experience who are now studying here.
Later on the day, the potential outgoing students joined the event. At the start of the session Terhi Topi Erasmus Institutional Coordinator from Metropolia UAS spoke about Green Erasmus. Following that students met to discuss key issues regarding the Erasmus mobilities and showed high interest in Green Erasmus. It was a joy to hear students excited about looking for sustainable ways for traveling to exchange destinations and suggesting ideas. Students seemed positive that Covid-19 pandemic is easing, and they get the possibilities to study at Erasmus destinations. In addition to that, potential outgoing students got hints on the key administrative elements while organising their mobilities.
In both sessions, experienced students were invited to share their views, mobility experiences and survival tricks during their mobilities in Finland and abroad.
On the second day, the session for the representatives of the partner universities was organised. The vibrant session started with introduction to 3AMK/ 3UAS by Metropolia’s and Haaga-Helia’s International Affairs Directors Niina Huovinen and Sirpa Holmström. The core of the opening touched on the cooperation between the three universities of applied sciences, i.e. Laurea, Metropolia and Haaga-Helia. It was important that our partner institutions get to understand our cooperation and open potential new partnerships amongst the participants.
The partner session focused on three themes breakout rooms namely: Sustainable mobility, inclusion and diversity in mobility and digital tools for mobility. In these breakout rooms everyone had the chance to discuss about the topics, share new ideas, good practices and better mobility. Padlet was used for each theme to share ideas and questions.
#ErasmusDays has been a great experience in many ways. Discussion and listening to different points of view have given our event an important role in co-creating knowledge with and amongst the participants. It is the belief of the organisation team that the future of our Erasmus collaboration will yield more results in terms of mobility numbers physically and virtually as well as diversified ways of collaboration. In the upcoming year 2022, we wish to welcome you to attend the event and continue to make an impact in the Erasmus success story!