Our time in this eventful and at times even pleasant fever dream, more commonly called 2024, is coming to an end. The world must once again be complete by the holidays, so before laying back for christmas, it's time for the last educational policy news of the year. Due to the mysterious disappearance of the November propaganda letter, this digital soft package has been exceptionally packed with almost two (2) months of content instead of one! So have an enjoyable reading time and good luck with your almond hunt!
Meetings and the like
In these gloomy late months of the year, a southern holiday with sunshine and soft sandy beaches is inevitably on the mind. But the budget wouldn't bend, so we had to make do with the overly bright lighting of the campus conference rooms to combat the seasonal depression.
Computer science planning group 5.11.
If this meeting had been a bun, the raisins on top would have been the fee for applying for extra time, the new degree objectives and the news for the current academic year.
There will be a fee for applying for extra time from 1.1.2025, so if you need it, you should apply by 31.12.2024 in order to avoid any additional loss of funds.
There will be some changes to the timing and content of courses for the coming spring and next academic year based on overlaps identified during the autumn and feedback from the courses. As we can see, the common misconception that feedback goes straight to the professors spam folder may not be entirely true.
However, the biggest and juiciest raisin in this imaginary meeting bun was the new degree objectives for the period 2025-2028. The realism of these objectives and the process of preparing them generated much debate and opinion. You could say that these are one of the objectives of all time.
Mathematics and statistical data-analysis planning group 8.11.
The highlights of this meeting were definitely the unintentional situation comedy, graduation figures, next years course offerings and the RPL guidelines.
There were none suprised when it turned out yet again that maths and statistics students are much more likely to graduate on time compared to computer scientists.
In considering the course offerings for the next academic year, resource problems were quickly encountered, especially in courses for maths teachers. Preparations will continue after the turn of the year and the new course offerings will be approved in March.
RPL guidelines are being updated in the student's guide for maths and statistics as well, so it is worth a quick look!
ITC education steering group 14.11. and MTT-TIE coffee 25.11. and computer science planning group 3.12.
Yeah, these happened, and even though all we were left with was mainly the schedules of the spring meetings, there was still one golden nugget left in this exhausted-looking stream of content. Or, perhaps rather a gold brick, because Hannu-Matti Järvinen, the head of the Computer Science degree programme, is now deservedly a KNIGHT!
Mathematics and statistical data-analysis planning group 11.12.
As the advent calendar was already approaching the half-way point, it was time for one last meeting, where the main focus was on the course offerings for the coming academic year.
In the case of maths and statistics, the course offerings already seems to be on track and the feedback has clearly been carefully read. Especially the computer science students should rejoice, as the always equally painful introduction to university mathematics is about to get an implementation not only in the autumn but also in the 3rd period on the spring semester!
Extra-curricular activities
Although the main content of this rambling is again a collection of meeting notes of varying interest, we have done some other things too. These include the Kopoglögit held at the Pii-klubi in November and the TREY pre-christmas party for educational policy reps at the new TEK Lounge on the Hervanta campus. Of these, the noteworthy highlight is that DATA.DB.200 should be removed from the course selection, or at least that's an opinion we've heard.
Epilogue
Now that the last flap of the advent calendar is already calling through the dreams of the night before Christmas eve, it's time for the education policy team to settle down. We thank everyone for the past year and leave the poverbial stage, stumbling over an equally fictional mic wire. A very merry Christmas and a serene New Year to all!