The Board has decided on amendments to the university regulations and a preliminary study on the shared facilities in Kontinkangas – language and communication studies to become a service unit

The preparation work for the regulations was initiated by the Board on February 23, 2023. The changes have involved extensive consultation with the university community, consideration of recommendations from the Chancellor of Justice, and a comparison with the regulations of other Finnish universities. The university community had the opportunity to provide feedback on proposed changes in accordance with the recommendations of the Chancellor of Justice using a form.

In terms of the University Collegium, the biggest change to the regulations is that in the future, the Collegium will elect two Vice Chairs from among its members, in addition to the Chair, so that each of the three groups – students, professors, and teaching, research, and other staff – will be represented. Previously, the Collegium had one Vice Chair and the regulations does not specify which groups the Chairs should represent.

There will be changes in the choice of Deans. On the proposal of the Rector, the Board will elect the Dean and Vice Deans from persons who have applied for the positions, following the Rector's consultation with the Faculty Board and the Management Group of the faculty. The number of Vice Deans can be one or two, depending on the needs of the faculty. One of the Vice Deans will always be the Education Dean. The Board, based on the rector's proposal, can release a Dean or Vice Dean from their duties if there is an acceptable and justified reason considering the nature of the task.

The convening of administrative bodies is facilitated. A governing body can be convened if one fourth of its members request the consideration of a submitted matter. Previously, it was required that a third request that the matter be dealt with.

In addition, the Board decided to explore how the participation of student representatives in university bodies can be considered an acceptable absence from their studies.

Decisions regarding section 8 (Faculty Board) and section 15 (Graduate School) of the regulations will be made by the Board only after further investigations. For these sections, the regulations will remain unchanged for the time being.

The Board decided to maintain the regulations in their current form concerning sections 10 and 11. Possible further consideration of these matters will be transferred to the Board composition starting on January 1, 2024.

The new regulations will become available to the community after transcription.

Furthermore, the board modified its working order in accordance with the recommendations of the Chancellor of Justice. The secretary of the board's rewards committee was previously the HR Director, but in the future, the board will choose the secretary after consulting the Rector. Going forward, the minutes of the board will include the results of any votes, supporters of original and opposing proposals, and dissenting opinions of presenters. The updated working order will come into effect on December 1, 2023.

In its meeting, the Board of the University of Oulu also decided to transform the university's language and communication education into a service unit. Until now, the education has been part of the Extension School (Topik), which will cease its operations at the turn of the year. The goal of the change is to improve the functional and financial efficiency of language and communication education and create synergies with the language teaching of the Faculty of Humanities. The reform will not affect the status or employment of personnel.

The Board approved the initiation of a preliminary study to explore the possibility of building shared or co-used facilities in Kontinkangas. The other parties involved in the project are the Wellbeing Services County of North Ostrobothnia, the City of Oulu, and Oulu University of Applied Sciences. The objective is to achieve functional and economic utilization of the facilities and synergies. The preliminary study is related to the OYS 2030 reform program, where the facilities of the Oulu University Hospital are being renovated to meet the needs of operational reform.

Additionally, the Board noted the handling processes and situations of bullying and harassment at the University of Oulu.