Finnish Christmas Traditions

Santa Claus aka Joulupukki

»tis the season to be jolly, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la«

Since Christmas is just around the corner we will present some Christmas (winter) traditions that are typical in Finland around Christmastime.

First Sunday in December
The first Sunday – the First Advent – starts the Finnish Christmas season and the first candle is being lit. Many children use advent calendars to count down the remaining days to Christmas Eve. Calendars come in many forms, from paper calendars to painted wooden boxes where you can store small gifts for each day leading to Christmas.

Independence Day celebrations

Finnish Independence day
After the first weekend of Advent, Finns celebrate their Independence day, which coincides with the feast day of Saint Nicholas on December 6th. For Finnish people, this is a very patriotic day and they light up special white-and-blue candles for the celebration. This tradition dates back to the 19th century as then two candles were the mark of Finnish nationalism. The highlight of this national holiday is staying at home and watching Presidential Independence Day Reception – so basically Finns celebrate their independence by watching other people party. Pretty weird right?

Pikkujoulut – little pre-christmas parties
All through December there are many “pikkujulout” or pre-Christmas parties held to anticipate Christmas. Usually, co-workers, sports clubs, organizations or just groups of friends come up with fun activities to celebrate before Christmas. Pikkujoulu is non-formal and highly festive party and if you move to Finland, you will have at least one (if not many) of them.

The Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is brought to the Finnish home latest by 24th of December. One interesting fact is that since 1954, Helsinki has donated a Christmas tree to Brussels.

Biggest celebration on the Christmas Eve
In the Nordic countries, the most important Christmas celebration takes place on the Christmas Eve. Everyone tries to be home for Christmas, including fishermen who try to get their boats into harbour by December 21st. Christmas Eve traditions include Christmas sauna and preparation of the dinner which is served between 5 and 7 pm. Some families also visit cemeteries to remember the loved ones. The highlight of the evening comes when Santa knocks on the door and give children the presents. Santa Claus (or Father Christmas - Joulupukki), according to Finns, lives in north part of Finland called Korvatunturi.

never without sauna

Christmas food
Some people say that when it comes to Finnish Christmas food, there are two key things: quality and quantity. Some typical dishes are:
* Salmon (the queen of Finnish Christmas food) and herring
* Beetroot salad
* Christmas ham
* Rice pudding – it is almost always served on the last day of school before the Christmas holiday starts and many families also eat it as lunch on Christmas Eve. On this occasion, Finns usually hide an almond in the porridge and person who finds it gets a wish.
* Christmas treats: gingerbread, Joulutorttu (star-shaped plum pastries, plum quark)

Joulutorttu

Rice pudding

Christmas day
Christmas day is time for rest and relaxation and Finns usually spend it with their families. The next day, on Boxing day (26th December) people visit their friends and relatives and go out for skiing. Christmas in Finland does not officially end until 13 days after Christmas Day, which makes the holiday truly a season, as opposed to a single-day celebration. After Christmas holidays it is time to get prepared to welcome the New Year. Christmas ends with Epiphany, January 6th.


And if you fancy learning some Finnish for the end here are some unique Christmas greetings:
* Hyvää joulua – Merry Christmas
* Rauhallista joulua – Peaceful Christmas
* Hauskaa joulua – Fun Christmas
* Valoisaa joulua – Bright Christmas
* Ihanaa joulua – Lovely Christmas

So until now you have probably realized “joulu” means Christmas. For the end of this article, we wish to all of you Hyvää Joulua and hope that you spend it with your family and loved ones.

Tjaša Ocvirk

Student benefits - Living cheap in an expensive country

How expensive is living in Finland? Yes, it is true that Finland belongs to one of the more expensive countries in Europe. But we can tell you there is hope. Because Finland is taking good care of their citizens and specially of their students. There are a lot of discounts and benefits available for students - and these apply for every student - also exchange and international degree students.

In fact there are actually so many different benefits, that you can sometimes get lost in them and forget to use them. That’s why we decided to write you a blog post about some of the benefits (there are literally so many, that we are not able to list them all).


Student Union & Student Card
Becoming a student union member is the most important step you do to become eligible to many of the student benefits. It is optional for exchange, visiting and PhD students but obligatory for Bachelor's and Master's level degree students and everyone living in Kortepohja student village to join the Student Union. But we would highly recommend it. If you join the Student Union you can get a student card or a digital version (Frank App) which both work to proof your student status and your student union membership.

As a member of the Student Union you are eligible to
* health care at the Finnish Student Health Service
* student-priced meals in student cafeterias (in general a student priced meal cost 2,60€). There are plenty of student restaurants all over Jyväskylä. Check them out here.
* 30-50% off the price in trains and long-distance buses (see below)

Read more about the Student Union membership benefits and the student cards here.

Also JYU has created a webpage which list many of the student benefits. Check it out here.

Frank App
After registering for the Student Union you get credentials for the Frank App, when you login to the Frank App you see a list of literally hundreds of discounts for restaurants, travel, shops and more. It is definitely worth checking out - because we can guarantee that you to find a useful discount for you there. Go to check out your Frank App discounts here (only possible if you are already registered in the Student Union)

Kortepohja @Nordic Art Network

Housing
We already had a full blogpost on this topic (check the blog post here). But if you apply on time you can get an studio or a room in an apartment of one of the student housing (KOAS and Kortepohja) which offers cheap living for students.


Public transport
As mentioned above when you become a student union member you are eligible to the student discounts on public transport like Linkki (the local bus service), VR (trains in Finland) and long distance buses like Onnibus and Savonlinja. If you want to book a bus trip the easiest way to find the best option for you is to search on Matkahuolto, because on that page all buses and prices are listed which makes it easier to compare them all.
One important fact to know, for the trains and the long distance buses often also (online) discounts exist and sometimes the online discount is even cheaper than the student price. So it makes sense to compare the discount price and the student price! :)

Food
K market
As a student you can get a free K-Plussa-card from Kmarket (which is one of the biggest supermarket chains in Jyväskylä). With the student K-Plussa card you get a 5% discount on your shopping if the overall amount exceeds 75€ per month. Check out more here or ask for more information in the next K-market.

Restaurants & Bars
Next to the big variety of student restaurants, there are plenty of restaurants in town which give a student discount on their foods and drinks when you show your student card. Examples for that are Revolution, Venn, and Maria Pizzeria.

Subject associations
For every faculty a subject association exists. We are going to write a complete blog post about that soon. But just keep in mind usually you can become a member of your faculties subject association for a small, one-time payment. After joining you are eligible to all the benefits they offer to their members. Subject associations offer variety of events (cultural and/or educational). Additionally, they often also have specific discounts for restaurants, bar or shops, which are only available for there members.


Okay, that's it for now! Thanks for reading! Have a great day and check out your discounts :)

Master Application: Facebook Live Q&A Seminar on 11th of December

The next application round for our international, two-year, English-taught Master's programmes is open 8-22 January 2020.

Do you have questions about the application process, which documents are required and how they should be sent? If so, join us for our Facebook Live session on Wednesday, 11.12 at 16:00.

Check out our Facebook event !

Our student ambassadors and staff from the admission services are there to answer your questions.
We hope to see you there!

On-campus recruitment fairs: DuunIT & Nanoscience Business Days

DuunIT 2019
Agora 5.11-6.11

DuunIT is an on-campus recruitment fair, held every autumn, specifically targeted at the students of the IT faculty. For students, it’s their great opportunity to find an internship or junior position in the field of their interest.

This year, the number of participating companies grew from 35 to 40, from various areas, including IT services, civil engineering, business consultant, banking, accounting, government administration, etc. This year students could also win a lottery (free lunch for 30 days!) if they visited 2 companies in both days.

picture by Duunit-messut

picture by Duunit-messut

At DuunIT you can talk to their HR or even CTO about your career plan, and may end up with a job interview! Although this is organized by IT faculty, Cogito Association, Dumppi Association and Linkki Jyväskylä Association, it welcomes job hunters from other fields too.

photo by Yindong

Nanoscience Business Days 2019
NSC 22.11

A regular event recruitment fair for science students was held at the end of November. The data coincide with Slush event, however none of the participants has rejected their invitations.

The following companies were present during the event

The format of the event included 10 minutes pitch talk from each of the companies, exhibition in the main hall of the Nanoscience building, group laboratory tours and, of course, a sauna event that concluded the day.
The guest companies have told about their businesses and recruitment possibilities for Nanoscience students. During the exhibition students could personally talk to human resource managers from visiting companies get more specific information and establish the connection. The most notable guests this year were Bluefors and IQM, companies that specialize in the production of components for quantum processors such as, for instance, dilution refrigerators. Needless to say, these companies are booming at the moment, for instance, Bluefors has reported to employ 27 new people in the past month and that is a lot.
Overall it was a very cozy event, with a friendly atmosphere. No rush and no stress, students could take their time to really dig into the companys’ businesses and possibly find themselves an internship, master thesis topic or even a full-time position.

 Photo by Heikkinen Tanja

   

Student Stories - Max and Toni, two true nature lovers

Toni

Hi Toni and Max, how is life going?

Toni: Pretty well considering we are baking cookies at the moment
Max: It is getting dark and depressing though. But we are trying to keep busy…

So tell me again what you study and how you ended up in Finland?

Max: We study biology of physical activity at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences.
Toni: Yes, we major in biomechanics. But hmm how I ended up in Finland, I would say it is a mixture between my love for nature and my bachelor’s thesis supervisor. He knew
about the programme and recommended it to me.

So I feel like it must be quite nice to study in Jyväskylä where you have nature everywhere you go?

Toni: Um yes absolutely, although I haven't been able to explore it that much yet. After all this is my first year in the north and I have been quite busy with the studies. If I had more time I would for sure spend it outside, but I think being busy studying was actually a good thing. Just what I was looking for – another academic challenge.

What was your first impression of the city?

Max

Max: I came to Jyväskylä the first time in my bachelors for a study abroad class during May and I thought it was a beautiful and really cute city when I first got here. The people were quite friendly and helpful to tourists and international students and I remember going for a run around the lake and knew I would be happy coming back and studying here. Also I saw Laajis and the terrain park when I was first here and that was a pretty sweet bonus as well as a freestyle skier
Toni: It was the end of August when I arrived so the days were pretty much already normal. There were many trees and lakes wherever I looked. But in general, I think Finland is not the country that you fall in love in the first moment when you come here. In my case is, the more I get to know it, the more sides I see.

You feel like now that you have stayed here for a longer time you have grown to like it?

Toni: Yea, I think so. But then again I was also pretty nervous before coming here, so that blurred my picture a little bit. I am really excited about the winter and that made autumn not as bad as people told me it was going to be.

So November wasn’t that depressing?

Toni: Actually not, the excitement for winter wonderland always overruled it. I really want to go ice skating on the lake and I would love to do actual longer hike with skis for a week – just going around and sleeping in the huts. I have not planned any trips yet but we will see what the cold weather brings. Also husky safari is on my bucket list…

Max in baking action

Max: I’ve been trying to spend time hanging out with friends like doing movie nights and stuff. Also been trying to call friends and family back home to try to get through the depressing days. Also staying active and getting outside I think is really important to feel accomplished on a day to day basis. Even if the weather is really shitty and depressing you feel good if you went to the gym that day and had a good workout…

Yes, I think that keeping yourself busy is one of the best ways to forget about the darker days and rainy weather. Toni, you have travelled a lot and been in other countries. How do you feel like Finland is different from other countries?

Toni: Many things seem to take part inside here and it takes some time to get to know everyone and find your way. It is quite different to other countries. Actually, a lot of times I feel like Finland is so much more down to earth than other places. Sometimes when you travel, people are overly friendly and then it turns out to be superficial. But here in Finland, you don’t get that - actually it can feel weird in the first moment when you get here (if you have travelled a lot). It is funny, in my travel book the quote they chose for Finland said: if you smile at someone and they don't smile back, smile even more because the person who isn't able to return a smile is in most desperate need of one – and I think it is a little bit like that. This is one of the biggest differences comparing to other countries. That people kind of mind their own business and they might not be overly friendly at the start, but once you get to know them they show you their true self – in most cases that is not superficial and they usually really care.

What about you Max?

Max: Well I haven't lived in any other countries than USA and comparing to that is quite different. It is pretty interesting to live in a place where people don’t speak your language. It’s pretty cool, I feel like it is very exotic.

Do you have favourite places here?

Toni: I do really like Laajavuori. It was especially nice during the autumn with leaves of different colours. One time, I went running with my friend and it was so pretty. You are basically living in the city but after running for 5 minutes you are already in the forest. Oh yes, and I also tried typical finnish “Frisbee-golfing”.

How was that?

Toni: I think the word trying describes it really well. Max, you also like Laajavuori right?
Max: Yea, I am basically sure that Laajavuori will become my favourite place because of skiing. I haven’t spent that much time here and explored all the places. I like it around the lakes a lot, especially Jyväsjärvi. In the summer it was nice because it was green and bright but also during the autumn it was amazing because trees exchanged colours.

So besides going around the lake and playing frisbee golf, what else do you do in your free time? 

Toni doing some cookie design

Toni: Movie nights – a lot of them. Also running and visiting my friendship family. If you are a person who is quite close to your family then I think this Friendship Family programme that is offered by University is really nice thing. I miss the concept of family a lot and whenever we meet with my finnish family, I feel so relaxed because I don’t have to worry about my studies and I can distance myself from the student life. Getting out of your student bubble and being surrounded by normal family problems actually feels pretty nice.

Max, do you have a friendship family here?

Max: No I don't have friendship family here, but speaking of, my family is visiting me in Finland for Christmas. We will visit Lapland and stay in an ice hotel there. Hopefully we will be lucky with the weather and can catch some northern lights. We are also visiting The Santa Clause village and plan to do a husky safari.

That sounds like a perfect winter holiday. But when you come back from Christmas, you have more classes right? Do you like University of Jyväskylä in general?

Toni: I feel like the university cares so much for their students. Student union is amazing and how much they care about students works really well. I haven't had that in my previous university in Germany. They put so much emphasis on student well-being here . Overall I am happy with my choice.
Max: Yes and the benefits of being a student are amazing here in Finland. University restaurants for example, they provide cheap and diverse meals for students everyday. Also going to the gym for free and living in the student accommodation are a big advantages.

How do you think your experience here has changed you so far?

cookies :)

Toni: I feel like it actually has changed me a little. It made me more motivated again. I feel like I am getting more connected to my field of studying. It is nice because I can focus on the things I find most interesting and explore that topic. I feel like I lost that at some point during my bachelor studies. Here you have so many opportunities where you can choose whatever you want to focus on. I feel like our programme encourages you to focus on your own development and not that much on the grades. That makes it even more motivated and I always feel good because in the end I do it for myself and not just to get the degree certificate.
Max: I am just riding this train and see where it goes. If I compare living in Finland and studying here, compared to my previous studies, it is that it has help me build my independence. I think the university system puts a lot of responsibility to you. Sometimes, this can be hard because you have to push yourself really hard, but it also helps you to recognize what you are actually interested in. And it feels pretty amazing when you enjoy what you are exploring.

Thank you for your time both, and now let's bake some cookies!

Tjaša Ocvirk

Finnish language in everyday life

Nina Huisman

Okay, so you are queuing to pay for your groceries at a supermarket (most likely it is a K-market, they are everywhere around town). You’ve taken your Survival Finnish course and you are confident that you can go by with the simplest sentences. The cashier addresses you with the classic yet useful “Moi”, you reply with a “Moi” of your own trying to hide your accent, pronunciation is perfect so far. He  ?bips ? your bananas, then the way too many long drinks that you have bought for a party happening soon…”bip”, “bip” they go. And at the end, smiling with that treacherous smile he says  ?Kuittia?¨. OH YOU ARE READY FOR THIS! You go to your basic conversation skills and remember that this strange word means “Receipt ? and confidently you reply “Ei kiitos”.

“Done!” you say to yourself “They must think I’m from Kuopio at this point” you think, smiling while you start stacking your stuff into your backpack. And then, a strange series of sounds come out of the cashier ?s mouth while he shows you a strange looking piece of paper. A million thoughts go through your brain; “Have I stolen something accidentally?”, “Are you telling me I should stop taking so many long drinks?”, “ I thought you said receipt earlier!”. A tear is about to roll down your face, you are desperate, you stare at this eyes, looking for a complicit look because you know the end is here….

And then, out of nowhere, in english, with an accent so perfect that could rival that of the members of the british parliament themselves he says “ Hey! You won a coupon of 5 euros for your next purchase! Congratulations”. You are going to hold on to that coupon for the rest of your life…

Maybe I dramatized a bit here! ;) But it is true! Perhaps not with the prettiest accent but almost everyone in Finland speaks conversational english. If you are worried about the need to learn the language you can already forget about it! On top of that, finns are extremely nice to foreigners and they ?ll help out with any language related problems you face.

However, as part of your curriculum, many MSc programmes require you to take a couple of finnish credits which allow you to learn just enough to understand basic greetings, directions and ask for help in case you needed. We really encourage you to take such courses, on top of learning survival stuff, you can also learn a couple of jokes and insults in finnish which may pay off when you are trying to have fun with the locals.

Scholarships & Tuition fees at JYU

Starting from fall 2017, University of Jyväskylä started to have tuition fees for students outside EU/EEA countries and Switzerland. The tuition fees range from EUR 8,000-12,000 per academic year according to different programs. You can check the detailed tuition fee from the application site of each program.

Although there are tuition fees now, JYU still provides scholarship program and other supports for students liable to pay tuition fees, and they are easy to apply for. The scholarship program covers tuition fee costs and it is awarded for two academic years. You are eligible for applying if you are
* Eligible to apply to study in an international master’s degree program offered by JYU, and
* Liable to pay tuition fees
Starting from 2020, in each program there will be maximum 6 scholarships available. There will be 2 scholarships, which cover 100% of the tuition fee for two years, and 4 scholarships, which cover 50% of the tuition fee for two years. So, if you are applying for a comparatively small program, you will have a good chance to get the scholarship with your nice application.

How to apply?
You don’t have to submit a separate application for the scholarship program. When you apply for an IMDP program offered by JYU, there will be a choice in the same online form for you whether you want to apply for the scholarship. If you get admitted to one of the programs, you will be informed in the same email on admission and on whether you have been awarded a scholarship.

It is possible to be admitted to more than one program at JYU, but the scholarship may be awarded only to one program per person, according to your preference on the application form.

A student must accept the scholarship by accepting the study place and returning a signed scholarship acceptance form within the given deadline.

Selection criteria
Scholarships are granted based on the admissions criteria of the program in question.
Receiving the scholarship for the second academic year depends on your study progress during the first academic year. A minimum of 55 ECTS credits during the first academic year is required in order to receive the scholarship for the second year. (You need to be a hard-working student!)

JYU does not offer other university level scholarships. However, faculties may offer specific field-based additional scholarships for their students.

Scholarship for living expenses in the Faculty of Mathematics and Science
Non-Finnish students in IMDPs of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science, who are NOT eligible for Kela’s student financial aid and starting their studies in 2020, can apply for a scholarship for living expenses. The scholarship for living expenses is 500 EUR/month and granted for two academic years. Check here for more information. If you fit the criteria, don’t miss this opportunity!

We wish all our scholarship applicants good luck!

Haoyi Rong

Student story - Marco, the man of thousand nationalities

Marco, the man of the thousand nationalities. Born in Argentina, raised in southern Chile with a Slovenian passport, lived in New Zealand and Australia and now in Finland. Marco is one of the international students at the Faculty of Mathematics and Science and he is studying on the Biological and Environmental Sciences Department.

Marco! Good to see you! How is life going?

Dude, we live together, you basically know everything at this point!

{ Guille, the interviewer facepalms}

Of course! But can you tell us a little bit more about yourself , for example, how did you end up in Finland and studying here at the Uni of JKL?

Well, a friend of mine from Chile (Felipe a.k.a Boby) got an internship at JYU and when I started to consider options to study an MSc. in Europe he couldn't stop insisting about Jyväskylä and the amazing time he had had here. In the end, he convinced me and I ended up here.

And besides that, did you have other motivations to choose Finland?

Sure! I had always wanted to study on a Nordic country and Finland was, by far, the one with the best reputation concerning its education and the one that had the least expensive cost of living. On top of that, I was interested in studying Aquatic Sciences, especially water treatment and water quality, and Finland is known worldwide as one of the countries with the highest quality standards for drinkable water. That sounded really cool!

Cool! That is good to know for the next time I'm drinking from the sink! And when you came here, How was the transition? What were the first impressions you had as a student of JYU?

I'm going to give you the most obvious answer to that: The weather, it is horrible, there is no way to deny that.

I agree...

But I have to say that, although cold, winters are truly beautiful here. And returning to the point I believe the transition was really smooth, all the student services and benefits made things really easy. In fact, I think that Jyväskylä might be one of the best student cities I've ever been to...

And what are you up to these days? How are your studies going?

Well, as you know, I'm taking part in the Master's Program of Biological and Environmental Sciences in which I am majoring in Aquatic Sciences. At the moment I am working on the experiments related to my MSc. thesis about biochemical profiles of microalgae in aquaculture waste water.

Marco, we agreed that the interview would be English...

It's that complicated! My goal is to see if it is feasible to cultivate microalgae with the waste water coming fish farms basically and what is the value of that microalgae as an end product. The project I'm working on is actually trying to use these microalgae as a food source for other organisms and by doing that minimizing waste, which is something really important considering the state of our planet.

Well, enough of study stuff, What about your free time? How do you spend it?

In Freetime

{ Freetime is a club in the city center }

That was too easy of a joke..

I know, I know...

{ Laughing }

Now seriously, what do you do around JKL?

Well I was a volleyball player so I've always loved to play sports ...

{ Marco is humble about it but he was on the Argentinian national team when he was younger }

...and I was glad to find out when I came here that the university organizes sports activities from students almost daily. For example, if I want to, I can play volleyball twice a week, play basketball and go to the gym as much as I want to for free.

Gym for free?

Yes, I live on the Kortepohja student village and by living there I can access a gym, 1 minute away from my room. Living here is actually amazing since we also have access to a study space and a cantina that is open every day ( even the weekends).

What about the student events?

They are great! Once or twice a month there is always a student event, normally at a bar or club in the city center. In these occasions you have a lot of fun and, on top of that, you can meet new people from all over the world.

And what about sauna? Have you also fallen into the finish stereotype?

I have...I go to the sauna at least twice a week, religiously...

And finally, how do you think your experience here has changed you?

Well, work-wise, at JYU I've had the opportunity to try new things and broaden my CV. Since the university system in Finland gives a lot of freedom to the student I was able to choose subject which in other places I would not have been able to choose. One of the things I've gotten into is marketing and entrepreneurship and I can tell you that it has definitely broaden knowledge and woken up new interests for my career.

And what about at a personal level?

Well, before coming to Finland, I had travelled to many countries and I lived in New Zealand and Australia for a while so, perhaps I didn't have that "Living for the first time on a foreign country" experience that most people would normally have. However, Finland has certainly had an impact on me since, although still a western country, it has a distinct national identity which you can experience every day. In my opinion, the more different cultures you experience the more you grow as a person.

Well Marco! That was great thanks for your time!

My pleasure!

Student Housing in Jyväskylä

Hey everyone!

The application period is approaching and it is time to address some practical issues. “Where am I going to live there?” “Do I have to make a bonfire to stay warm in the winter?”  In this post I will discuss housing in Jyväskylä from the student’s perspective.

Kortepohja. Photo by @NordicArtNetwork

Student housing in Jyväskylä and in Finland in general is extremely well developed. Typically the student is able to rent a shared or private student apartment from the selection of houses across the city. There are at least three primary housing options in Jyväskylä, 2 of which are student-dedicated housing -  Kortepohja (check it here) and KOAS (website), and the third is renting from private individuals. Private options are listed at Vuokraovi aggregator (here). Private renting may be difficult to do  from outside of Finland, so consider this as  “plan B”  in case you didn't get the flat from the first two places.

A typical student dormitory in Finland is an apartment building with shared or single flats. Shared accommodation has a common kitchen and bathroom and own rooms. Apartments are rented unfurnished, except for kitchen and bathroom appliances. If you are an exchange student, there will be furnished  accomodations available. laundry sauna and common lounge area usually available as well as the possibility to rent miscellaneous home stuff. Wifi, electricity, water, etc. are included into the fixed rent. And yes, central heating works well, so keep the wood for barbecue.

The application process is simple, you need to fill in the form about yourself and your preferences and include the letter of acceptance from the university. You will be offered with an option which can be confirmed by paying a rent and maybe a deposit or fee. Declining the option will put you back to the waiting line so fill the application wisely. The months are indivisible, meaning that you have to pay the full monthly rent even if you arrive on, say, 25th.

About companies - one housing provider, Kortepohja,  provides housing in the apartment buildings allocated together in a student village, situated just about 3 km north-west from city center and University main campus area. Kortepohja is a favorite place for students to stay mainly because of the community feel of it. Living in Kortepohja, you will always be close to your fellow students and whatever happens - you will not miss it. The apartments are neat and there is a spacious gym and the student restaurant which serves 7 day/week. Plus, there are spaces for group work and nice yard with grill place. Overall Kortepohja is definitely a great place for outgoing students for whom social interactions are an essential part of studentship.

Pros
* Well renovated apartments
* Spacious gym and student restaurant on site
* Community!!
Cons
* Rent is above average
* Location
* Can be noisy

Student restaurant Rentukka, Kortepohja. Photo by @NordicArtNetwork

KOAS is another provider of student housing. The main advantage of KOAS housing is location diversity. Student houses are scattered all around Jyväskylä in the vicinity of the university. Houses are grouped together into small neighborhoods, each having small local gyms, saunas and laundry. House conditions vary, but generally everything is pretty neat.
Pros
* Many different locations across the city
* Rent is lower
Cons
* Less students around

KOAS Ainola. Photo by Polina Feshchenko (@alienhustle)

The third option is private renting which can be done at Vuokraovi aggregator. It may be tricky to rent a flat from abroad as your presence may be required in the process. However upon arrival this option can be considered, so I had to mention it. 

That is pretty much all you need to know regarding the housing. There is no stress in getting the accommodation as student, the apartments are spacious and cozy and the experience is mostly positive.

Got burning questions - don’t hesitate to ask the ambassadors!

Have a great time!
Alex

University sports activities

Did you know that …

> City of Jyväskylä has approximately 360 sports venues
> Jyväskylä has over 2000 students studying sport-related degree
> There are around 220 local sports clubs
> Every August Neste Oil Rally is organized
> Jyväskylä has the only University for sports in Finland
> There is Research Institute for Olympic sports?

Jyväskylä is a sporting paradise for everyone interested in physical well being and there are many sports halls, stadiums, open fields, nature path around the city. Likewise, the University encourages students to adopt an active lifestyle. University of Jyväskylä offers sport and wellbeing services to student and staff. There are plenty of opportunities for students to engage in sports for affordable price. For example, you can do leisure physical activity or even become an active member of sport club.

Group fitness classes

University Umove offers a large variety of sports you can choose from without regular commitment. Daily there are over 10 group exercise you can attend, such as: Jazz vibes, Foam rolling, Fitness boxing, Zumba, Yoga, Handstand etc. The options are endless and you can surely find something that fits you. You don’t need your own equipment for the class, you can borrow it in the storage room before each class (mats, plates, kettlebells…). Classes are usually held in Finnish, but instructors also give English tips. It is also a good way to improve your Finnish skills while doing exercise, so you can kill two birds with one stone. Nevertheless, this semester is the first time there is also one class held completely in English (Abs & booty in English) which is perfect for international people. There is no pre-enrollment necessary.

Team sport activities

If you are not that much into group-fitness you can also attend team sports activities. You can play ball games such as floorball, futsal, volleyball but you can also do ice hockey, ultimate and American football without additional fee. In academic sports there is no instructor in the session except the Start session where you get feedback from the teacher. If you are advanced player you can join intermediate level team sport session (for example, advanced volleyball).

All you need to attend group fitness classes and ball games is valid student card with sports sticker. It costs only 60 € for academic year, 40 € for one semester (if you are exchange student) or 20€ for summer semester.

Free sessions at the gym and swimming

If you have sports sticker, then you can use 3 gyms unlimited amount of time. There is one gym at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, gym in Monitoimitalo near university and another one in student village Kortepohja. You can also go for a swim in the pool near University for reduced price.

Sport courses

If you prefer to do sport courses for credits you can choose between:

> Sport courses with credits for all students

For example, you can go canoeing, do kick boxing, learn Finnish baseball.

> Sport courses with fee for students (you don’t need sports sticker for that)

You can learn for example, apparatus gymnastics, aqua aerobics, breast stroke and free style and so much more…

As evident, there are many options one can choose from. Apart from participating, every student has the opportunity to suggest their own physical activity to university sports. More often, if the activity appears to be interesting to many people, it can be added to the schedule. In Jyväskylä there are plenty of options to be active and that is why it is often called to be the city of sports in Finland.

Tjaša Ocvirk

Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences

Master Application: Facebook Live Q&A Seminar on 11th of November

The next application round for our international, two-year, English-taught Master's Programmes is open 8-22 January 2020. Do you have questions about the application process or about the programs offered at the University of Jyväskylä? If so, join us for our Facebook Live session on Monday 11 November! Our student ambassadors and staff from the admission services are there to answer your questions. We hope to see you there!

Check out our English-taught Master's Programmes here.

Check out the Facebook event here.

See you next Monday!

Student Story - How to Combine Biomechanics and Machine Learning

#GetToKnowJYU with Neil J. Cronin, an associate professor of Biomechanics at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences and Master's student in Cognitive Computing and Collective Intelligence.

Neil moved from England to Finland for the first time in 2005 and then lived in other countries for a few years. But he moved back to Finland in 2011, and has been here for almost 10 years! As an associate professor of Biomechanics, Neil teaches and studies how our muscles and tendons work in different situations. Traditionally, researchers in the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences do not need machine learning technologies. But in every exciting project, there is always some boring repetitive work. Therefore, Neil started to learn machine learning and applied it on his projects for improving the research process. Let’s see how he combines these two interesting fields!

One of Neil’s favourite work so far is monitoring muscles movement by ultrasound devices. They observe how muscles and tendons from different parts of the human body change in real-time, such as length and thickness. In the picture above, Neil is showing how to observe the end of a muscle with an ultrasound device. Neil said this is a simple imaging method, and sometimes not as good as MRI. But this is real-time and an MRI machine might cost 1 million euros.

For research purposes, each muscle and tendon has to be marked and measured as shown in the picture above. Imagining how difficult and annoying it is! To solve this problem, Neil started to try utilizing artificial intelligence method for analysing ultrasound images since 2011. However, AI is not magic, the results were not that satisfying at the beginning. But as you can see, after all these years, they have managed to make fully automated ultrasound analysis! You can learn more about this from here: Neil Cronin Fully automated ultrasound analysis

Besides ultrasound imaging, they also analyse human body movements with RGB videos, as shown in the picture above. In the past, they needed specialized camera system for marking. But now, with neural network, they can do motion analysis without markers or special cameras. This kind of approach is widely used in the sports field to understand how our joints are configured, which is particularly useful for rehabing.

There are also other interesting equipment in their lab. For example, this machine can help they experiment how our stretching, age and other factors influence our reflexis function. They have a 4-people technic team for making and maintaining all these devices. The machine shown in the above picture is one of their great works! If you want to learn about Neil’s projects, you can visit his homepage: Neil J. Cronin - Home. Or follow him on Twitter:  Neil Cronin @NeilJCronin84

Now, have you found interdisciplinarity charming? To explore deeper in artificial intelligence, Neil started studying at COIN (Cognitive Computing and Collective Intelligence) programme at JYU from 2018. If you are also interested in our International Master's Degree Programmes, stay tuned with us!

Nanoscience Days

Hey there, science people!

Just recently, University of Jyväskylä held Nanoscience Days event, , an annual conference that brings together “nano-researchers” from all over the world. Two-day forum included eight major speeches, three short-sessions and poster session where researchers could share and discuss their recent projects.

Photo by Ariane Vartanian | Instagram: @arianevartanian

What makes Nanoscience days event unique is its multidisciplinary nature of the conference. Invited speakers come from fields of chemical, biological and physical research but since they deal with objects at nanoscale they are warmly welcomed. This year's speeches were addressing protein engineering, DNA-based complexes,  quantum computing and some more topics which you can check here.

The most notable speakers of this year’s gathering were Wiliam Shih from Harvard University, Johnathan Clayden, University of Bristol, the author of the beloved “Organic Chemistry” textbook and Ariane Vartnian, chief editor of Nature Communications journal. 

Professor Shih is a leading researcher in the field of self assembling DNA-based structures, or simply DNA origami. He presented a creative concept of detecting an enormously small concentration of any compound (in far perspective) using DNA origami that can assemble itself into much larger structures on signal. Prof. Shih mentioned the concept is based on “Jack and the beanstalk” fairytale and playing around with Legos. They key issues of this project is to find a proper signal to start the assembly. More about prof. Shih research can be found here

Photo by Tanja Heikkinen

Professor Clayden had given enlightening presentation on how the information can be transferred across the large protein complexes. The mechanism can simply be visualized by rotating a rainbow sling toy  (what else can be discovered in a kid’s store?!) along the axis . Helical protein structures transfer signal in the same way, by rotation,that changes chemistry on the other end. This clever way to transmit a signal at molecular scale may be used for communication between different parts of protein and open new possibilities in protein engineering. You can check more here.

Professor Göran Johansson, Chalmers University, introduced the audience into a current state of quantum computing and speculated about applications which it can support and the upcoming milestone projects. Be sure to check the discussion on recent announcement of Google’s quantum supremacy here. And, by the way, new research group is starting a project to work silicon based hybrid quantum technologies, and recruiting new team. More on that -> here.

Nature’s Chief Editor, Ariana Vartanian, in an entertaining manner has discussed key aspects of how to make your paper be accepted, preferably, in a single go. Good question that everyone in academic field should have asked at least once! Ariane’s brief answer is “be honest and rigorous with your reporting and try to sell it to the editor but do not oversell”. That is definitely something to consider.

After the talks, it was a time for a leg-stretch while checking poster presentations in the main hall. Lively science chats were heard from every corner  - such a great opportunity to get to know people and their work.

Photo by Alexander Plyushch

The poster presentations smoothly transitioned into the dinner where everyone could relax and casually chat with other “nano-people” while raising glasses for the future of science. At the end of the evening, a resident rock band of JYU professors, called  “Tiny nano-band” played contemporary rock and pop hits. Time to practice my air-guitar skills! At the end, everybody was invited to relax in the nano-sauna (Yes, there is a sauna in the research center, and no, it is not that small),  where the bravest could jump into a lake. 

It was a great event! Huge thanks to speakers and organization team! We’ll see you next year!

Alexander Plyushch