Opening remarks; Vice Rector, Professor Anna Mauranen, University of Helsinki

The Finnish education professionals from different universities gathered in the University of Helsinki on Monday (21.12.2015), before the Christmas holiday, to converse on the establishing of the national “Sino – Finnish Joint Learning Innovation Institute”. The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, the Embassy of Finland in Beijing and the Academy of Finland were also represented in the meeting.

The gathering was a part of the collaborative efforts between the Chinese and Finnish universities on the field of education. The main theme was related to the agreement signed in Beijing last month (16.11.2015) between the Beijing Normal University and the University of Helsinki about establishing a platform for the national level coordination of the collaboration; the Sino – Finnish Joint Learning Innovation Institute.

The dialogue between different universities was very productive and all of the participants agreed on the importance of the national level cooperation. Many of the Finnish universities have an ongoing collaboration with the Chinese universities and this was seen as an important resource for the future cooperation. The establishing of the Sino – Finnish Joint Learning Innovation Institute will be conversed more in the coming months after the holidays to outline the platform before March 2016.

Thank you for the productive meeting for all the participants (remote and present), for the IT- support on the remote connections and everyone involved in the arrangements!

Merry Christmas!