Business education unit prepares students for expert and management-level positions in business and administration. Specialisation options include marketing, sales, financial administration, financing, staff administration, logistics, business communications and international business.
A successful year in education development
2017 was a successful year for education. We exceeded our degree objective with a total of 710 Bachelor in Business Administration degrees and 64 Master’s degrees completed. We continued to invest heavily in the course offerings of the Open University of Applied Sciences and year-round studies. In 2017, Haaga-Helia offered more than 90 summer courses, of which 43 were courses in business. Students earned over 6,800 credits in business studies over the summer. Feedback from the students on the summer studies again exceeded the quality level we have set for ourselves.
Number of Business students 2017
In the commercial education services, we carried out sales coaching and implemented study modules targeted at professional ice hockey players and athletes. We also organised training for the financial management services of the City of Helsinki, for example. Towards the end of the year, we designed study modules for the finance and insurance sector. We cooperated with 22 customer companies within the framework of the students’ creative office Krea.
The year 2017, too, was characterised by strong educational development. During the year, we invested in a curriculum reform, in particular. Key elements of the reform included transitioning to competence-based curricula, enhanced cooperation with companies, and team-based teaching. In autumn 2017, we implemented a new curriculum for the degree programme in finance and economics and sales. The curricula of four degree programmes were reformed in our unit in 2016–2017. Concurrently, we reformed the structure of the Business Education unit by creating new competence-based business teams. With the support of the Helia foundation, we developed learning environments by creating a completely new space for project-based teaching that simulates working life. The space received excellent feedback from the students.
We organised a number of demonstration days, where students earned over 2,000 credits by demonstrating previously acquired skills. We trained 35 alumni to assess the demonstrations. Demonstration days gained a strong foothold among our students. We continued to develop various forms of on-the-job studies and launched the Work & Study concept in order to deploy work educationalisation models at all units of Haaga-Helia.
We selected our International Business degree programme for the quality audit performed by FINEEC (the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre) in 2017. The programme received excellent feedback in the auditing report.
In 2017, the Business Education unit organised the national entrance examination for business education. We actively engaged in the development of admission criteria together with other universities of applied sciences which offer business education.
New focus areas in RDI and industry cooperation projects
We secured funding for the extensive Erasmus+ project Internet of Things and Rapid Prototyping at the end of 2017. The two-year project led by the Business Education unit will be carried out in cooperation with international partners starting from January 2018. We continued the four-year Skills, Education and Future of Work project funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland, which aims to identify the demand for competence and skills in the future. The project is an extensive consortium in which Haaga-Helia is a partner.
Our major Tekes-funded projects, Leading Passion and DIVA, ended at the end of 2017. In the autumn, supported by the Chamber of Commerce, we improved the prerequisites for moving from upper secondary education to the tertiary level. The project is part of a larger programme, which emphasises promoting entrepreneurship. Our unit also has smaller RDI projects under way.
Extensive international cooperation
In autumn 2017, we launched our Bachelor’s level International Business degree programme in Mexico. In August, a group of approximately twenty Mexican students started their studies in Querétaro. We are providing the programme in cooperation with the Mondrago University. This is an important new initiative. According to our knowledge, this is the first time that a Finnish degree programme is exported outside the EU and EEA region. We also started investigating the opportunities to launch double degree programmes in business with HS Frankfurt, Augsburg UAS, and Diponegoro University (Indonesia); this also acts as benchmarking for the programmes. We participate actively in the international Consortium of Double Degrees (CIDD).
We conduct research cooperation with St Petersburg State University in comparing the marketing competence of Finnish and Russian companies. In addition, we work with Finnish online store companies as they are entering the Russian market. We designed a new study module related to sports and well-being business in cooperation with HDBW Munich. The module will be offered in Germany in January 2018.
Towards the end of 2017, we started preparing for the international EPAS accreditation. The unit seeking accreditation is our International Business programme. Our students were very active in participating in international student exchange opportunities.
As one of the first Finnish universities of applied sciences, Haaga-Helia launched the teaching of a full business degree programme in Mexico in August 2017. The four-year programme will be provided in cooperation with the Mondragó University in Querétaro. Fifteen students were admitted into the programme in the first selection round. Haaga-Helia teachers have been training their Mexican colleagues to ensure the high quality of teaching, and at the beginning of each semester, a group of teachers from Finland travels to Mexico to assist local teachers.
