University of Turku

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For The university founded in 1640, see The Royal Academy of Turku.

University of Turku Turun yliopisto


Motto	Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle (Finnish: A free people's gift to free science)
Established	1920
Type	Public University
Rector	Prof. Keijo Virtanen
Staff	2,500
Students	18,000
Doctoral students	5,000
Location	Turku, Finland
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	Coimbra Group
Website	www.utu.fi

The University of Turku (Finnish Turun yliopisto, Swedish Åbo universitet), located in Turku in southwestern Finland, is the second largest university in the country as measured by student enrolment. It was established in 1920. The university is a member of the Coimbra Group. The university also has faculties at Rauma, Pori and Salo.

1 History
2 Enrolment
3 Organisation
4 Campus area
5 Research
6 Famous Alumni
7 External links

[edit] History

The first university to be established in Turku was Academy of Åbo, in 1640, which was transferred to the new Capital, Helsinki, after the Great Fire of Turku in 1827. Three famous Finns began their studies in Turku in 1822. These were Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Elias Lönnrot, and Johan Ludvig Runeberg who have a statue on the University hill.

The modern University of Turku was founded in 1920. The Finnish intelligentsia wanted a purely Finnish university, the first of its kind in Finland. 22 040 people contributed to the fund-raising campaign. Newly gained independence and the campaign are reflected in the motto of the University “A gift from a free people to free science." To honour the memory of these donors, the University has named its specially created liqueur "22 040". Developed by the University's own food chemists, the liqueur does homage to some of the distinctive fruits of the Finnish landscape: the cloudberry, the rowan and the sea buckthorn.

The first premises of the University of Turku were in the centre of the city, by the market square. In the 1950s a new campus was built on Ryssänmäki (Russian Hill – now known as the University Hill). In the 1960s the University started to expand rapidly, a process that still continues. The University was made a public institution in 1974.

[edit] Enrolment

The University has approximately 18 000 students, of which 5000 are Ph.D. students. The largest faculties are the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

[edit] Organisation

Main Building

The university is divided into six faculties. Some of the departments are listed under the faculty header.

Faculty of Humanities
- School of History
- School of Cultural Research
- School of Art, Literature and Music
- School of Finnish and General Linguistics
- School of English
- School of Classical and Romance Languages
- School of Swedish, German and Russian
- Centre for Translation Studies
- School of Cultural Production and Landscape Studies
- Baltic Sea Region Studies
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
- Department of Biochemistry and Food Chemistry
- Department of Biology
- Department of Chemistry
- Department of Geography
- Department of Geology
- Department of Information Technology
- Department of Mathematics
- Department of Physics
Faculty of Medicine
- Institute of Biomedicine
- Institute of Microbiology and Pathology
- Institute of Clinical Medicine
- Institute of Dentistry
- Department of Nursing Science
- BioCity
- Turku Biomaterials Centre
- Centre for Biotechnology
- The Research Centre for Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine (CAPC)
- Terbio - Health Biosciences
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Social Sciences
- Philosophy
- Research Unit for the Sociology of Education
- Contemporary History
- Psychology
- Social Policy
- Sociology
- Economics
- Statistics
- Political Science
- Institutions and Social Mechanisms (IASM)
- Centre for East Asian Studies
Faculty of Education
- Department of Education
- Department of Teacher Education Turku
- Department of Teacher Education Rauma
- Teacher training school in Turku
- Teacher training school in Rauma
- Educational Technology Unit

The university also has number of special units not affiliated with faculties:

The Main Library
Language Centre
Centre for Environmental Research
Centre for Extension Studies
Centre for Maritime Studies
Functional Foods Forum
Tuorla Observatory
Turku Centre for Biotechnology
Turku PET Centre
Turku Centre for Computer Science

[edit] Campus area

The University of Turku shares a campus with Åbo Akademi University, Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, and elements of Turku Science Park. The area also encompasses the Turku University Hospital and the Student Village. The Administration Building and the surrounding complex was built in the fifties on what became to be known as the University Hill. The campus is constantly expanding. The university has also acquired some former military barracks built in the 19th century. The latest additions include Educarium, which houses the Faculty of Education, Publicum, which houses the Faculty of Social Sciences and the newly completed ICT-building which houses the Computer Science Faculties.