Excellent feedback from exchange students
The University of the Arts Helsinki (Uniarts Helsinki) has been nominated as a best practice university when it comes to mobility. There has been a significant increase in the number of exchange students applying to study music, in particular.
Uniarts Helsinki, along with Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, has been nominated as a “best practice” university in Erasmus+ mobility in the 2017–2018 academic year. The nomination was made by the national Erasmus+ Office in Finland. Being nominated as a best practice university requires that the higher education institution successfully adheres to the Erasmus practices for European mobility. The grounds for the nomination stated that Uniarts Helsinki has performed well in all the categories that were reviewed regarding mobility in Erasmus+ higher education. Both the quality and the quantity of exchange periods have been excellent. Uniarts Helsinki has also received highly positive reviews from outgoing and incoming students and from teachers. Furthermore, when Finnish universities were compared in how successfully students could transfer most of their credits into their home university’s system after an exchange period, Uniarts Helsinki was at the top of the list.
Increase in the number of exchange student applicants to the Sibelius Academy
The deadline for submitting exchange student applications to Uniarts Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy for the 2019–2020 academic year was 31 March. A total of 322 applications arrived by the end of the deadline, which is nearly a hundred more than the previous year. The biggest increase was seen in the Department of Jazz, the Department of Conducting and the Department of Wind Instruments, Percussion and Harp.
Kaarlo Hildén, Dean of the Sibelius Academy, lists several reasons for the increased interest in the academy.
“Our high-quality education, excellent facilities, large course selection, esteemed teachers, and opportunities to gain international experience and contacts are some of the aspects that have made our university increasingly attractive. We promote teachers’ international networking and carry out a range of international projects, which helps us in our goal of further improving the quality of our education and boosting our students’ career potential also on international platforms,” Hildén notes.