Higher Education on the Move News: Collaboration Makes Wellbeing Easier

Pedaforum gave increased visibility to the practices of Universities on the Move

The Higher Education Pedagogy seminar (Pedaforum) was organised at the Messukeskus exhibition centre in Helsinki on the 24th–25th August 2022 by Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. The Finnish Student Sports Federation (OLL) visited the event to share the views of Universities on the Move as part of the “Hyvinvoiva ja osallistava! Kohti sosiaalisesti kestävää yliopisto-opetusta” symposium organised by the Union for University Teachers and Researchers in Finland (YLL).

At the symposium, OLL highlighted good and concrete practise for increasing physical activity in the higher education environment, such as the Wellbeing cards used within the project Aktiivinen ja hyvinvoiva korkeakoulu at the universities in Jyväskylä, and the Activity Alert which was brought to Finland by Centria University of Applied Sciences.

The Universities on the Move network kicked off its autumn season on the 15th of September

The first meeting of the season focused on exchanging news and discussing our takeaways from the Mieli liikkeelle webinar, which took place at the end of August.

Project manager Saara Koskinen and Essi Kähkönen, who works as sports coordinator at XAMK Sports at the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, told the network about the Mieli liikkeelle project. Find out more about the Mieli liikkeelle project here!

The new Senior Advisor for the Students on the Move programme Pekka Tiitinen also introduced himself during the network meeting. Pekka asked the network members to consider how the tools for promoting exercise and wellbeing can be used even better than they currently are. He particularly asked us to think about how Students on the Move could complement these tools in situations where the aim is to influence the university management. He hopes that network members would also contact Students on the Move advisors directly and get them “around the same table as university management” next time members need support with promoting wellbeing.

The Universities on the Move network will meet once or twice more this autumn.

Topics for the next meeting can be suggested here!

The implementation of the Universities on the Move scorecard continues this autumn

The first meeting of the season focused on exchanging news and discussing The implementation of the Universities on the Move Vision 2025 scorecard continues during the autumn. Around twenty universities have already implemented the scorecard.

The Universities on the Move scorecard is based on the national Recommendations for university sports (2018/2011).

The purpose of the scorecard is to:

1. Facilitate the dialogue between service providers (university sports services/universities) and service users (student unions/students) in order to identify strengths and areas of improvement in the sports conditions at the university.

2. Offer collegial support for improving the areas that have been identified (e.g. various parties share tips on their own good things with others).

3. Create an up to date, national overview of Finnish university sports, its strengths and areas of improvement.

If you have any questions relating to the Universities on the Move scorecard you can contact Jussi Ansala (jussi.ansala@oll.fi) or Jorma Alastalo (jorma.alastalo@oll.fi) at the Finnish Student Sports Federation office.

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