Oulu’s alive with foreign exchange students – and year by year the numbers are increasing. The Oulu University of Applied Sciences (OUAS) claim that every year they host 240 students and send more than 380 students and 110 Erasmus teachers to academies abroad. Some come attracted by ‘different landscapes and climate than in their homeland,’ others because it is the only country their home University offers. Most, however, arrive for the technology and business courses. 65 Degree North’s Dario Crisci meets some foreign exchangers to discover how they’ve been getting on.

 

According to Heikki Timonen, a 48-year-old exchange student coordinator, and lecturer of video technique and expression at OUAS, “many foreign students come to study in medicine, business, and engineering, but most are attracted by our course Digital Media Multi-Broadcasting, on radio broadcasting, video, 3D animation, and computer science.” He added that teaching courses in English gives OUAS an advantage, allowing students to access subjects that don’t exist in some other European Universities.

Giulio Serratore, a 23-year-old Italian from Torino, has been studying Business Engineering for four years. He decided to come to Oulu last September. Living in an old building in Höyhtyä, he shares 40 meters square with 3 other students and pays 170  rent each month.

”The accommodation’s not very cosy but at least the University was able to find something for me, which is probably better than in most other countries, where students have to look for housing themselves and might even have to pay more rent,”  Giulio speculates. He believes this to be a real advantage to Oulu.  “Studying here has been very important to me,” he comments.  “I’ve a wide range of experiences and freedom within my curriculum.”

OUAS gives students like Giulio the chance to search and plan for studies. Nowadays, he says, it’s very important to speak English in marketing; in Italy there was no opportunity for this.

Guilo believes Oulu is for quiet citizens and students, whereas Torino has more entertainments - though he has continued a ‘passion’ for Latin dance. “Strange to come to Finland and dance Latin, but I’ve been doing it.” Dance has made him some new friends, though at first he considered Oulu’s citizens reserved.

20-year-old Justine Paulmier from Paris has made only a few Finnish friends, giving similar reasons. She came to Oulu in September 2006 to study cross-cultural awareness, Scandinavian culture, and Finnish language. “Oulu isn’t expensive, it offers many facilities and discounts for students,” she says. Justine pays 170.00  rent and manages to spend no more than 100 on each month’s groceries. Like Giulio she’s living in Höyhtyä, a location which she says provides good opportunity to make new friends. She likes it here, particularly as Oulu has many opportunities for her favourite activity biking, whereas Paris comes with a lot of noise and traffic jams.

For 32-year-old Bastian Fähnrich from Eichstätt, Germany,  Erasmus and Oulu have become a lasting experience. In May 1997, after a holiday in Norway where he discovered ‘a passion for Nordic,’ he left Eichstätt University to be a one-year exchanger at Oulu. Ten years later he’s still here, having graduated in Educational science studies. Currently the secretary of international and cultural affairs at the OSAKO organisation in the OUAS, Bastian organises meetings, city tours, and trips. He sees Oulu as adaptable, suitable, and offering job opportunities for many foreigners.

Greta Savolainen, a 24-year-old Finnish OUAS student, commented on Finnish students’ ideas of foreigners, claiming “Finns are curious to know if exchange students are coming to Oulu and why but most of them are very shy; for this reason they don’t show interest.”  

Greta, who lived in France for one year in 2005, said she noticed a 'more directly curious behaviour’ in the French.

After returning from France, she has been working in OUAS as an international tutor, helping incoming exchange students and organising meetings and parties for them to share moments and acquaintances with Finnish students and citizens. Though Oulu is not as well known by foreign students as other Finnish cities like Helsinki, Tampere or Turku, she claims, foreign students here are given excellent opportunities.