An integrated international Team Novia on campus in Turku

Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, China, South Korea and Germany...

There are nearly 50 exchange students from the above mentioned countries at Team Novia this spring. The students come from different partner institutions, both European and Asian universities. Team Novia co-operates for the first time with Mondragon University in Spain and thanks to this, the campus has 29 team entrepreneurs and two team coaches working on campus.

However, the mere presence of international students on a campus does not lead to the global skills many jobs require in today's world. Team Novia aims at cultural integration by facilitating ‘friendship-making’ and the development of communication skills that will truly serve students in their future workplaces. The international students and the Spanish team coaches are integrated with the Finnish students and are working together in projects of different kinds. On Restaurant Day on February 21, there will be pop-up restaurants in Turku, serving passers-by culinary experiences from different cultures. During the Challenge Week, some international students were introduced to the concept of ice-swimming and other international students organized an Asian night, a French night and a Spanish Fiesta on campus.

An important initial bond in the friendship-making are the international tutors since they introduce the exchange students to Finnish student life as well as Finnish traditions. The international tutors serve as ice-breakers and they organize dinner parties as well as go sledging and ice-skating with the new comers on campus. An active tutor can in the end have extensive contacts of former exchange students that form the basis of their international network in their professional careers.

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More information, please contact:

Senior Lecturer Maria Engberg, Novia University of Applied Sciences Phone +358 (0)44 762 3392