The previous and current boards of the Aalto University Student Union visited China and South Korea to get to know the local student community. In this blog post the Board members open their experiences on the trip.
AYY’s delegation in Beijing
The first week of AYY’s China visit was spent mostly in Shanghai (our Student center delegation spent this week in South Korea, read the blog post) and the second in Beijing, entertained as guests of the Tsinghua university.
The purpose of the trip was to expand views of the participants, and through that the Student Union’s, on the scope of universities and student unions beyond Finnish borders. China offered excellent opportunities for this, due to the differences in cultures.
One of the big lessons on the trip was that despite the differences China and Finland have, both struggle with the same kinds of problems regarding studies. Good examples include getting the international students integrated into the student community and keeping up good negotiating conditions to the universities.
The solutions, however, differ between the two countries. So, the goals of” sharing best practices” and” benchmarking” succeeded well. Expanding your point of view and getting to know various kinds of solutions will be sure to refresh AYY’s activities in the future.
Our delegation simultaneously improved their skills in working in a global atmosphere, meaning learning to account for cultural differences and using different languages in discussing both heavier and lighter topics.
Internationalizing is a key factor in the modern world. What we learned will help us better to act in our ever so increasingly international Student Union, and the message spreads to other actives in the Aalto community.
We had the pleasure of getting to know our hosts, the Tsinghua uni. staff and political figures during various events. We also got to know several corporate companies along with distinct culturally valuable landmarks and places.
Shanghai is an especially interesting center of commerce in China, where we had the opportunity to see the opportunities Finnish people can have in China, and in return bring a Finnish point of view to China and its environs.
Both our trip to China and the upcoming Chinese trip to Europe is being aimed to be funded mainly with outside grants, funds and corporate cooperation. The goals of the trip were tied in many ways on corporate life.
China is an interesting business venture for Finnish and other western companies, meaning it is a potential site for a future career to students of Aalto University. Thus, bringing AYY, the Aalto community and Aalto itself known in a positive way in China is important.
We hope that cooperation will be the edge we need in the future, giving us a better opportunity to succeed in one of the largest economies in the world.
Western interest in general towards China also opens new opportunities for the Student Union in corporate cooperation and enables several important and noteworthy meetings with decision-makers both in Finland, Europe and in China. The meetings will then create new opportunities for the advocacy work our Student Union does.
Finnish students caps on the Great Wall of China
Each trip is of course countered with a return trip, with us acting as hosts. We are anxiously anticipating our esteemed Chinese guests to Finland, so we can expand their knowledge of European university education and AYY’s activities!
Mikael Liimatainen
AYY board member (internationality)
Julius Luukkanen
AYY board member (artistic activities, brand, communications, archives and museum)