20 years of Finnish-American collaboration

The University of Oulu and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) are celebrating their 20-year long collaboration this week. The two universities have had a mutual exchange program since 1993, in which 170 students from both universities have taken part so far.

The University of Oulu was the first Finnish university to join the American International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) in 1984. The University's International Services unit was founded in 1991 in a time when the European Union began its Erasmus program and students were encouraged to go abroad. The internationalization of the University of Oulu continued with the 1992 ISEP meeting as part of the Study Abroad fair.

A collaboration agreement between the University of Oulu and and the UNCG was signed in January 1993 by Rector Juhani Oksman. The first exchange students from Oulu departed for North Carolina in the autumn of the same year, and the number grew steadily from then on. This may be regarded as the beginning of the development of teaching in the English language, and of student exchange in the University of Oulu.

The University's alumni activities and fundrasing took their model from America from early on. Nowadays collaboration has increased in research and Master's studies. Through an agreement with the Bryan School of Business in the UNCG, business students in Oulu may complete an American MBA degree as part of their exchange. This arrangement is unique in Finnish universities.

The representatives of the two universities are meeting in Oulu 1–3 October 2013. They will discuss past collaborations and plan future ones.