2022: The Year of Many Achievements

At the beginning of year 2022 there was a slight glimmer of hope after the pandemic, until the world's events took a new and tragic course when Russia attacked Ukraine. The war in Ukraine and its effects on global economy have also been reflected in Jamk’s activities during the past year. Jamk has contributed to supporting Ukraine by offering free open university of applied sciences studies to those fleeing the Ukrainian war. Ukrainians who are in temporary protection in Finland and have received a place of study are also exempt from tuition fees.

The prolonged crisis has inevitably had an impact on the well-being of students and staff. Despite the harsh economic situation, I consider it extremely important that efforts are made for the well-being of the higher education community, because it is essential for the quality of education. I am still very impressed with all the expertise and feeling of community among our university staff: Positive feeling and enthusiasm has only grown since I met more different departments and their employees this year.

Now is the time to turn our community's attention to the future: Jamk has a lot of special expertise and must be even more proud of it. Much good has been done in our university in 2022 and the trend is positive!

Last year, Jamk has been admitted to the European network of nine higher education institutions (EUDRES). The network is a European University which develops the business, entrepreneurship, and competitiveness of its area of activity in line with sustainable development and thus the region as a whole. Thanks to the membership of EUDRES, Jamk is part of a total of over 340 European higher education institutions and thus an increasingly convincing international player. The success of the invitation process is an excellent indication of the excellent quality and reputation of our university education in the world.

Our international reputation is also likely to be reflected in the fact that the popularity of English degree programmes in Jamk has been growing significantly for the third year in a row. In the most popular sectors, the number of applicants is tens of times higher than in the starting positions. Every international student brings positive heart rate and knowledge to our region!

One of Jamk’s most significant merits of last year was that the Ministry of Education and Culture has assigned Jamk University of Applied Sciences and the University of Jyväskylä in charge of developing cybersecurity education in Finland. Jamk and the University of Jyväskylä have also agreed on establishing a cybersecurity competence centre in Jyväskylä. The centre’s vision is to develop into a world-class international cybersecurity research and training centre. For Central Finland, the centre is of great importance for the regions vitality, but it also supports the cybersecurity brand of Finland as a whole.

The fact that Tietoturva ry chose the cybersecurity training environment developed by Jamk as the information security service for the year 2022 also tells us about Jamk's competence in cybersecurity. Since 2013, the training environment has been used for national cybersecurity exercises.

Looking at the past year and the current year, I can proudly say that Jamk has much to offer to all Central Finland: the vitality of the economy and the inhabitants. Our activities have a direct impact on the jobs in our region and on the quality of everyday services and thus on the quality of people's everyday lives.

Bella Forsgrén, Chair of the Board