The Rector's Overview of 2024

A Year of Success and Growth

The past year 2024 was a successful year of growth for Vaasa University of Applied Sciences (VAMK)! In terms of degree accumulation, the Master’s degrees were attractive, and their degree accumulation exceeded our target by a wide margin. In terms of Bachelor level degrees, we fell slightly short of the target level. Research, development and innovation activities (RDI) integrated into teaching grew and developed significantly, at the same time strengthening the networks and stakeholders that are central to our institution.

Internationality and Student Wellbeing

The theme of 2024 was internationality, and our student population grew significantly, especially among international students. This development brought new energy and diversity to our campus, but at the same time required development activities to renew practices and ways of meeting and guiding our students.

We invested heavily in student well-being and individual support, and curatorial activities became an established part of student services. Student feedback collected and utilized through Spark feedback helped identify good practices and areas for development, which in turn improved the quality of teaching and increased student satisfaction with their studies.

Staff Wellbeing and Competence

The well-being and competence of our staff were key priorities. We organised inspiring training and joint development days that supported pedagogical competence, sharing good practices, supervisor work and the development of a common work community culture. The number of staff grew moderately overall, and the growth is expected to continue, especially with our growing project portfolio and RDI work.

Digital pedagogy competence was strengthened, and to support this, we introduced new digital services.

Strategy Update: Towards a Well-Being Economy

In 2024, we updated our strategy to extend to 2035. The guiding principle of our strategy, “Towards a Well-Being Economy”, is based on our values and emphasises sustainable development, social impact and people’s wellbeing. Our goal is to build a higher education institution that supports the wellbeing and success of students, staff and stakeholders, and promotes regional and international cooperation.

Contract negotiations with the Ministry of Education and Culture for the years 2025–2028 provided the rhythm for our year, and our updated strategy gives us an excellent starting point for the new contract period.

Working Life Cooperation and Media Visibility

During the year, we strengthened our working life cooperation by concluding a total of eleven new key partnership agreements. Our media visibility developed positively overall, and as a testament to our successful development work, we received, among other things, the status of ‘Top athlete-friendly university’. This year, VAMK also reached the highest level of open science and research, which places us at the top of the Finnish university of applied sciences field.

Acknowledgements and Future Outlook

The year 2024 was a year of growth and development for VAMK, and we will continue our determined work to increase the success, attractiveness and impact of our university. Thank you to the students, staff and partners who made 2024 a successful year. Together, towards new achievements and a well-being economy!

Hannu Vahtera
CEO, President