Experience and Wellness Economy
Our unit continued solid operations on three campuses. We exceeded our objectives in all degrees and expanded the course offering in the Open UAS and in the summer
semester. We continue to offer education in both Finnish and English on all campuses. At the Haaga campus, we offered Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in restaurant and tourism management and culinary management. Porvoo campus graduates included Bachelors of Hospitality Management in Tourism and Bachelors of Business Administration. The Vierumäki campus offered Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes in sports.
Our unit’s focus areas of development were a competence-based approach, flexible study paths and educationalisation, as well as team teaching and campus cooperation. In the Experience Designer pilot programme, students from the three campuses come together to create business operations in the experience sector. We developed the team organisation to be better aligned with the work we perform in the focus areas. Our RDI competence was also strengthened with the hiring of the joint Head of R&D, who took the position at our unit at the beginning of August.
Our external RDI funding increased, and the turnover of the commercial services exceeded the targeted amount. The share of education export in our commercial services continued to grow. The first 12 students from China completed their Bachelor’s degree in sports at the Vierumäki campus as part of the cooperation launched with Guangzhou Sport Polytechnic in 2015. Five experts from Chongqing University of Science and Technology spent the autumn on the Porvoo campus to familiarise themselves with the Aviation Business programme. The Haaga campus continued to offer partnership programmes in Malta and with the Paul Bocuse Institute.
Other important higher education partners included Stenden University, NHTV Breda and IMC Krems. Our personnel participated actively in the planning of the new education unit in Tallinn, Estonia.Studies were closely integrated with the working life on all our campuses. We organised several seminars for students and business representatives. The national networking event for tourism education was held at the Haaga campus in November, bringing together education experts from around Finland.
A project to design a new kind of Experience Designer programme was kicked off at the beginning of the year. The programme focuses on developing the service business in the experience and well-being economy by providing different customer groups with inspiring and meaningful experiences. The 60-credit module being planned includes students from three fields of study: the Bachelor’s programmes of Business Administration, Hospitality Management, and Sports. Combining these fields in a joint study project of this magnitude (60 credits) is unprecedented.
Haaga-Helia and Guangzhou Polytechnic of Sports (GPS) signed a cooperation agreement on Sports Management education in China. The agreement is unique and follows the 2015 education agreement between the two higher education institutions. During the cooperation period, Haaga-Helia and GPS will jointly produce a three-year Sports Management programme, of which Haaga-Helia will cover half (90 cr.) The final year of the studies will be completed in Finland. The students who complete the programme may apply to the Bachelor’s programme in Haaga-Helia and earn their degree after additional studies of approximately six months.
In 2018, Haaga-Helia launched the development of LAB8, a laboratory for developing service experiences. The innovative LAB8 – Service experience laboratory combines creativity, service enterprises and learning by developing. It is a test laboratory in which a company, together with Haaga-Helia’s experts and students, can create and build their service ranging from the initial idea to the final touch. The purpose of LAB8 is to create solutions that provide experiences and are a fit for the companies’ operations. LAB8 brings together companies, Haaga-Helia’s students and teachers. Testing innovations in an agile manner is possible in the extensive network of students and partners: for example, fast prototyping is one of the eight service elements of the LAB8. Other services include service design, trend reports and augmented reality.
