Heikki Isotalo
The Finnish Universities Act has three basic functions: to produce high-quality science, to educate students to become the experts of the future and to influence the surrounding society.
All three functions are intertwined: the students’ learning is based on the most recent results of science, and the greatest social impact is not achieved through the cooperation of the university’s stakeholders, but through the people who have studied at the university and are now changing the world.
In its strategy, the Aalto University promises to educate people who will change the rules of the game and build a sustainable society through art, science and entrepreneurship.
Aalto graduates have a unique opportunity to change the society. Otaniemi is already a breeding ground for startup businesses, a meeting point for different world views and a cradle for experimental culture. The campus could also act as an accelerator for social change.
The Aalto University Sustainability Hub is a great example of this. It is a multidisciplinary project that brings together sustainable development research and teaching, tackling a wide variety of problems from climate change to resource scarcity and economic inequality.
Perhaps in the future, the perspective of social influencing will be more visible in the curriculum work conducted in all higher education institutions.
In the same way that people start their careers already during their studies, social influencing does not require a completed university degree – quite the opposite. The millennials and post-millennials studying at the Aalto University today can provide a genuinely fresh perspective on social questions and structures.
What would political participation with good service design look like? What about the future of open source code in Europe? Can social marginalization be prevented through smartphone applications? It is not just the answers that need to be fresh, but also the questions.
The Aalto University Student Union wants to keep up with the times in its advocacy work. This year, AYY will update all its official policy papers.
What we have to decide is what the perfect Aalto University, the Helsinki capital region and the world would look like from AYY’s perspective. We will genuinely involve the volunteers and members of the Student Union in our policy paper work, because the best new ideas are born through crowdsourcing.
The policy paper update is much needed: there are three national elections coming up within the year.
The field is ready to play. Now is the time to write the rules.
Heikki Isotalo
Aalto University Student Union‘s Advocacy and Communications Manager