TYY International Guide for Organisations

TYY International Guide for Organisations

Table of contents 1st edition 2017 Writing: Satu Nurmi, Ali Benkherouf Published by Turun yliopiston ylioppilaskunta (Student Union of the University of Turku) Please send any comments, corrections or improvement suggestions to tyy-kvsihteeri@utu.fi Introduction 1 Promotion of interest of inter- 13 national students International Students at 2 Promotion of international 13 the University of Turku exchange students interests Exchange Students 3 Promotion of Finnish exchange 13 International Degree Students 3 students interests Doctoral Students 4 International Staff and Researchers 4 How to make your organisation 14 more international? TYY International 5 Board member for international affairs 14 Website 14 Who are we? 6 Weekly mails 14 TYY Specialist for International Affairs 6 Translations 15 TYY Executive Board Member 6 Mailing lists 15 for International Affairs Social media 15 TYY International Wing 6 Events 15 TYY International Council 7 International students as organisation 15 Tutoring 7 members and officials Communication 9 TYY International Award 16 TYY International Facebook site 9 TYY International Infomarket 9 Internationalisation at home 17 Visibility in TYY s international guides 10 TYY s event calendar brings together 11 Supports offered by TYY 18 organisations events! Financial support 18 Activity support 18 Project support and separate support 19 Important links 20

Introduction Welcome to TYY International! Our viewpoint is that all TYY s organisations are international. Internationalism and related skills are currently a significant part of our daily lives, and their appreciation in the job markets is growing every year. Therefore, obtaining international experience already during studies is extremely important. The Student Union of the University of Turku has decided to create great preconditions for internationalisation in the University of Turku. The aim is that each member of the Student Union and its organisations meets cultural diversity during studies and learns the skills needed in the rapidly internationalising operational environment. Thence, this guide is created to help advance the international outlook of your organisation and increase the visibility of your events and activities to the international students studying at the University of Turku and beyond. If you have any questions or if you are in need of support remember we are here for you and you can always contact us. Best regards Satu Nurmi, specialist in international affairs, tyy-kvsihteeri@utu.fi Ali Benkherouf, member of the executive board, international affairs, tyy-kv@utu.fi 1

International Students at the University of Turku The University of Turku (UTU) has students and staff from over 100 different nationalities. There are over 20 000 universities in the world and our university is among the best 1 %. University of Turku has been ranked also as one of the 200 most international universities in the world, being the only Finnish university on the list. In 2017 there were around 1600 international students studying at the University of Turku, meaning that around 8 % of all students are international. Internationalisation has an important role in the university s strategy and it should be seen cross-cutting all its activities. Some International Master s Degree Programmes are taught entirely in English and every student should get a possibility to improve their international skills during their studies. International Students University of Turku is international at several different levels. International students refer, in these instructions, to all the following: Exchange students remaining between a term and a year International degree students completing a two-year master s degree Doctoral students writing their dissertations for a certain period Visiting students, staff or researchers who do not complete a whole degree 2

Exchange Students The International Office helps all students coming to Finland as exchange students and leaving Finland to do exchange studies abroad. In 2016 there were 451* incoming students doing exchange or internship at the University of Turku and 573* outgoing students doing exchange studies or internship abroad. International Office is responsible for the contracts and cooperation that our university has abroad. Membership of TYY is voluntary but recommended for all exchange students. *duration of more than 3 months International Degree Students There are International Master s Degree Programmes taught in English in every faculty. Since autumn 2017 there has been tuition fees for students coming from non-eu countries and our university offers scholarships for 30 % of paying students. Around 100-200 new students start in Master Programmes every autumn, there are also domestic students among them. Students coming from non-eu country must have a residence permit to study in Finland unless they are in Finland for other reasons such as family or work. Membership of TYY is compulsory for all master students. Every master programme is guided by a responsible coordinator. At TYY we want to improve cooperation between master coordinators and programmes own student organisations. That way international students opinion and voice can be heard better at the university. On our web page we have listed all ongoing programmes and their student organisations (updated in 2017). Please note that the supply of programmes varies annually. International students are encouraged to contact their own organisation. You can also send e-mail to programme coordinator and ask him/her to forward your information to the students. You will also have a chance to meet students in many kinds of events during the academic year. See the ongoing programmes here: https://www.tyy.fi/en/students/masters-degree-programmes-and-their-ownorganisations 3

Doctoral Students There are 16 Doctoral Programmes in the University of Turku. In 2017 there were around 346 international doctoral students studying at the university. There are no tuition fees for doctoral students. Membership of TYY is voluntary for all doctoral students. International Staff and Researchers The University of Turku supports visiting staff and researchers who come to the university for a shorter time. Membership of TYY is not available for staff and researchers but TYY welcomes them to the activities and mailing lists and communication channels. 4

TYY International The corner stone of TYY s international activities is the promotion of student interests. We want to make international students life in Turku as pleasant as possible and also offer domestic students possibility to internationalise at home. TYY International participates annually in the international tutoring of the University of Turku with trainings and events, and attends the orientation of arriving international students. TYY has also been an active influencer in international issues at the level of the university, the City and the entire country. You can find information about TYY s international news and events on the Facebook page: TYY International. We inform about academic affairs with international scope on Facebook page called TYY International Council. TYY has a wide variety of student organisations that are independent of TYY and maintained by the students for the students. Organisations are divided in subjectspecific organisations for different faculties, internationally oriented organisations, student nations, ideological organisations, cultural organisations, sport organisations and other organisations. 5

Who are we? The Student Union of the University of Turku supports organisations in issues related to international affairs. TYY Specialist for International Affairs The Specialist in International Affairs is an authority in matters concerning student exchange, internationalisation and development cooperation. She organises international tutor training, oversees the coordination of the Starting Package Storage service for incoming exchange students and coordinates the TYY cooperation development projects. Specialist for International Affairs works permanently at the Student Union. The Specialist may inform in issues related to organisations internationalisation, exchange periods and home internationalisation. Email: tyykvsihteeri@utu.fi TYY Executive Board Member for International Affairs Annually rotating Executive Board Member responsible for International Affairs of the Student Union is responsible for implementing TYY s annual Plan of Action together with the Specialist for International Affairs. Board member for international affairs oversights multiculturalism, student exchange and intercultural encounter. Through events, distribution of information and division activities, the Executive Board member for international affairs wants to get local and international students to encounter and be active together. He/she also follows up on the latest decisions concerning local and international students at both the University of Turku and inside and outside the borders of Finland. TYY Executive Board Member for International Affairs may also be consulted in issues related to organisations internationalisation, exchange periods and home internationalisation. Email: tyy- 6

kv@utu.fi TYY International Wing The International Wing encourages internationalisation, internationalisation at home, cultural tolerance and multiculturalism on campus. The International Wing cooperates with TYY organisations and eventually with other international organisations. Wing members may participate in the meetings of TYY International Council. The Wing annually elects the receiver of the TYY International Award. TYY International Council A council that has meetings a few times per term and is led by TYY s International Sector. In meetings students can discus promotion of student interests and share information on current issues relating to international students. This gives an opportunity for students to be involved in planning of TYY projects and enhances the cooperation between different partners and organisations. The council is open to all for attendance and the participation of organisations international affairs board members and actives is highly recommended. Tutoring The university elects both tutors for international Master s degrees and tutors for exchange students. Application period for international tutors is in the beginning of the year and a training is organised together with TYY in late spring. It is possible to reach both Master s degree tutors and exchange student tutors through their own mailing list, Facebook groups and training events. If you want to inform tutors about your organisation s events, you can either join the tutor groups or send and e-mail to tyy-kvsihteeri@utu.fi. 7

TYY International s crew Specialist for International Affairs: permanent staff member, takes care of daily tasks at the office. Contact: tyy-kvsihteeri@utu.fi Member of the Executive Board for International Affairs: takes care of annual projects with the staff member. Contact: tyy-kv@utu.fi International Wing: Wing works closely with TYY s staff member and board member for international affairs. Wing organises events where international students and domestic students can meet. In addition TYY International has Starting package coordinator who takes care of Starting Package Storage. Translator who translates all important documents in English. Since 2016 TYY has had Internationalisation Instructions that has been used as a base when making this guide. 8

Communication TYY International has two mailing lists that function in English: tyy-exchangestudents list for exchange students tyy-degreestudents list for international degree students. Join the mailing list at www.tyy.fi/en/mailinglists We also encourage organisations to include English communication in their e-mails and social media. A little bit of English is better than no translations at all. TYY International Facebook site TYY has its own English-speaking Facebook site TYY International which publishes contents directed at international students. TYY International can publish or share your organisations news and events, please contact TYY Executive Board Member for International Affairs or send message directly to TYY International Facebook page. TYY International Infomarket In connection or close to the orientation of international students (in August and January), TYY organises an International Infomarkets where organisations may present their activities. Visibility at TYY website TYY is happy to assist organisations in communication. Your organisation may request access to the event calendar at TYY website. In communication issues, you can contact TYY Communications Officer directly: tyy-tiedottaja@utu.fi. English events added by the organisations on TYY website will be automatically added to TYY s international newsletter, which is sent every two weeks. 9

Visibility in TYY s international guides TYY Guide for International Tutors is directed both at the tutors of exchange students and at the tutors of degree students. TYY Guide for International Students is provided for all new international students. Organisations may have their presentation in the guides by sending an English description and logo to TYY Specialist for International Affairs at tyy-kvsihteeri@utu.fi. Organisations are informed on the issue every year in early spring before updating the guides. 10

TYY s event calendar brings together organisations events! TYY organisations can add their events on TYY s website event calendar. What s the benefit? Who will read the calendar? Events on TYY s website will find their audience. In addition to the website, the events will appear on TYY s newsletter with about 6,000 subscribers. Different sorts of events are also picked up by TYY s social media channels. Event calendar entries in the English website are added to English newsletter that reaches a large part of university s international students. Remember to add the translation separately. What kind of events are in the calendar? All events of TYY s organisations are welcome to the event calendar. You can add to the event calendar for example students parties, get-together evenings, markets, political or religious events, hobby events and trainings. What about Weekly Events? Do not mark events that occur every week. In repeated events (eg. the organisation s weekly gatherings) add only the significant meeting of the month. What should not be in the calendar? Do not add events where a private company is looking for students to be their new customers. These are deleted from the calendar. In special cases charity events, employment related events (eg. recruitment) as well as other third party events can be added on the calendar if they are significantly beneficial to the students. If you are unsure whether the event is suitable for TYY s event calendar, please always contact TYY s Communications Officer: tyy-tiedottaja@utu.fi. TYY has the right to edit the events on the calendar. 11

This is how you sign up on the TYY webpage: Go to www.tyy.fi and click on the lock image on top right. Log in with the organisation s user account. If you have lost the account, please contact TYY s Specialist for Student Organisations: tyy-jarjestosihteeri@utu.fi. The title is the most important Make a clear title using just a few words that states event s organiser and its name. Do not put the date in the title. Do not write the title using CAPITAL LETTERS. TYY edits title that is not in accordance with the instructions. Make the event s text is short and compact Answer in the text with questions: what, where, when, who organises, for whom and how much it costs Put out more information, such as a contact person or link to Facebook. Paint the words you want the link to, click the link icon (a chain icon in the editor), copy the link to Address and press ok. You can make a subtitle from Style or Paragraph on the menu (next to the link icon). MAKE EVENT IN A COUPLE OF MINUTES 1. Log on to www.tyy.fi 2. Select from the top Add content -> Tapahtuma-> Alayhdistys 3. Add the title on the field (Otsikko) 4. In the Image section, you can add a title image (not mandatory) 5. Add the organiser (Järjestäjä), time (Ajankohta) and place (Paikka)(Do not add finishing time unless it is essential for the event, leave out the ending time unless it is a party) 6. From the Language section, you can choose whether you want the event to view the tyy.fi page in Finnish or English side. (If you want an event on both sides, make each language version as separate events) 7. In the Content field (Sisältö), write the introductory text of the event. 8. Finally, at the bottom of the page, Save 12

Promotion of interest of international students All faculties have international Master s programmes. Responsibility for the promotion of interests is at the affiliated subject-specific organisations of the Master s programmes and at the student representatives of the programmes. Crucial issues in the promotion of interests include application criteria for Master s programmes, tuition fees, coverage of the grant system, course supply and student integration. List of the affiliated subject organisations for international Master s programmes: https://www.tyy.fi/en/students/masters-degree-programmes-and-their-ownorganisations Promotion of international exchange students interests Annually, exchange students arrive in each faculty. The promotion of interests should ensure that they have the possibility to complete studies during their exchange period. Promotion of Finnish exchange students interests For exchange studies to promote graduation, it is important to ensure that students may include courses flexibly in their studies. 13

How to make your organisation more international? Board member for international affairs An organisation that wants to focus also on international affairs should appoint one Board member as responsible for international affairs or exchange students. Responsibility of international affairs can also be a side task of a Board member. We recommend that the board member for international affairs joins TYY International Council Facebook group and attends its meetings. Website Organisations should have information about itself in English on its website and in social media. That is the easiest way for international students to receive information about it. It should also be informed whom to contact for further information. Weekly mails It is important to send English summaries of weekly mails or separate English weekly mails. For example, TYY sends a separate English newsletter every two weeks. If your organisation has no resources for its own infomail, you can send information in English to tyy-kvsihteeri@utu.fi and we can add it on our website and infomail. 14

Translations The responsibility for translating mails can be evenly divided so that the writer of the mail writes a short English summary. One person may also be specifically responsible for translation. Remember that most international students as well as domestic students are not English native speakers so you should not hesitate too much when communicating in English: it is better to include some English in communication than have no English at all. Mailing lists Organisations may have a separate mailing list for international students, when communication for Finnish- and English-speaking members is simpler. One may request the International Office of the university to forward mails to exchange students. Coordinators for International Master s Programmes can be requested forwarding mails to degree students. The Student Union can be requested to forward mails to the tutors of international degree students or exchange students. Social media It is preferable to summarise the essential in English after each social media update. This requires effort from all users of the social media account. Events International students specifically hope events where they can meet both Finnish and other international students. International students as organisation members and officials The eagerness of international students to work in organisations is directly correlated to how accessible the activities are language-wise. 15

TYY International Award Has your organisation worked hard to encourage international students to participate in your activities? Have you organised successful events that were suitable for both international and domestic students? Besides communicating in English and organising events, TYY International Award winner is an active organisation and eager to improve international students possibilities to participate. The following actions increase your organisation s possibility to win TYY International Award: Events suitability for students from diverse backgrounds Organisation s communication in English besides Finnish Taking international students into consideration in interest promotion Having international student actives If your organisation meets some or all of these criteria and has other good qualities, suggest it to TYY! The best applicant wins TYY International Award. You can also suggest any TYY s organisation that meets some or all the requirements. The competition is organised every year in autumn. Follow our website for more information. 16

Internationalisation at home Internationalisation does not require studies or internship abroad, but one may internationalise at home at the University of Turku by being active e.g. in international affairs in one s organisation and in the organisations for international students as well as by completing courses supporting internationalisation. 10 reasons why you should welcome international students in your organisations 1. Build your network, make international friends 2. Get to know new traditions and culture, maybe also student culture in other countries 3. Be international at home in a wide range of free time activities with very affordable prices 4. Support international students to get access to old exams and study material to support their studying 5. Take part in/ organise excursions and visits that interest international students 6. Have an opportunity to influence the internationalisation of the university: be link between international student and university staff 7. Support domestic students to internationalise at home 8. International experience is highly valued in Finland 9. Introduce international students overalls, patches and many more 10. Improve your organisation s possibility to win TYY International Award 17

Supports offered by TYY Financial support Internationalism of organisations is considered when granting activity support (see internationalism of organisation). The participation possibilities of international students are also considered when granting project and separate support. This is how TYY wants to encourage organisations to consider international students. Application times, deadlines and guidelines for supports are published on TYY s website and Facebook. All support decisions are made by the TYY Executive Board. The decisions are made based on the TYY regulation on sub-organisations and financial support that is updated regularly. Activity support Activity support is granted for the entire year. An organisation can then use it in any way it wishes. You can apply for the activity support during March of each year through a form on TYY s website. All TYY sub-organisations may apply for the activity support with the exception of new organisations that have been accepted for the year. The size of the organisation, extent of activity and the organisation s financial circumstances all play a part in determining the amount of the support. The annual report, financial statement and auditors statement of the previously ended financial year as well as the budget and plan of action of the passing financial year must be appended to the application. 18

Project support and separate support Project support is granted for one-time events, innovative events, projects, et cetera. Applications must be submitted before the start of the project. The Executive Board handles project support applications four times a year. Separate support is granted for repeated or highly significant projects that otherwise meet the criteria for project grants. Granted project and separate support can be redeemed after the project has been executed against receipts and explanations sent to TYY s Specialist for Student Organisations. A free-form summary should show the nature of the project, the number of participants and the place. The survey should not exceed one page (A4). Supports must be redeemed by the end of the calendar year following the support. The TYY Specialist for Student Organisations advises organisations in financial support matters: tyy-jarjestosihteeri@utu.fi. 19

Important links University s rankings: https://www.utu.fi/en/university/university-rankings/ Student statistics: https://www.utu.fi/en/university/key-figures/study-statistics/ International Office of the University of Turku: http://www.utu.fi/en/unit/ university-services/academic-and-student-affairs/international-office Partner universities of The University of Turku: https://apps.utu.fi/apply/partners/ International Network Cooperation: http://www.utu.fi/en/university/internationaluniversity/networks/ Mobility Programmes: http://www.utu.fi/en/university/international-university/ programmes/ Master Programmes: http://www.utu.fi/en/studying/masters-degree-programmes/ Portal for Master Programmes: http://masters.utu.fi/ UTUGS: http://www.utu.fi/en/research/utugs/ International staff and researchers: http://www.utu.fi/en/services/forinternational-staff-and-researchers/ Full list of TYY s organisations: http://www.tyy.fi/en/sub-organisations List of TYY s subject-specific organisations: http://www.tyy.fi/en/students/mastersdegree-programmes-and-their-own-organisations TYY Wings: http://www.tyy.fi/en/activities/tyy-wings/international-wing Starting Package Storage: www.tyy.fi/startingpackage TYY s documents in English: http://tyy.fi/en/student-union/documents Executive Board s decisions in English: http://tyy.fi/en/student-union/executiveboard/executive-board-ecisions Council s decisions in English: http://tyy.fi/en/student-union/student-unioncouncil/council-decisions Financial support for organisations: http://tyy.fi/en/sub-organisations/financialsupport CIMO - Centre for International Mobility: http://www.cimo.fi Migri: http://www.migri.fi City of Turku: http://www.turku.fi/en Visit Finland: http://www.visitfinland.fi/ Infopankki Finland in your language: https://www.infopankki.fi/ 20