The New Brahea Centre Is Significant for the Competitiveness of the University

​The University Board decided on October 30 to merge the Brahea Centre for Training and Development, Business and Innovation Development (BID) Special Unit and the Centre of Maritime Studies into one independent unit. In the meeting on December 11, the Board decided on the operations of the new unit and named it the Brahea Centre of the University of Turku.

–The new centre will be important for the competitiveness of the whole university. It will improve the societal effect of research results, the realisation of the principle of lifelong learning and the university’s interaction with its operational environment, says Rector Kalervo Väänänen.

Rector Väänänen has named Kari Seppälä as the director of the new unit. He has been the Director of the Brahea Centre for Training and Development since 2003.

The Multidisciplinary Brahea Centre Will Specialise in Research-based Development and Learning Environments

The universities are expected to play a more active role in the development of operational environments. With the structural change of the independent units, the University of Turku can more effectively offer its expertise to specialist in different areas, to the public and to the society as a whole.

The new centre will continue the multidisciplinary work of the current units. When establishing the new unit, the key operational areas are food industry, innovation and business, maritime cluster, and communication and information technology. In addition to education in these subjects, the unit will profile as a developer of interactive learning environments.

– At one time, curricula were drawn up for the classroom, but nowadays, it is thought that learning happens in training, at workplace and everywhere within the reach of the wireless network. The merger of the units opens up a new opportunity to develop insightful solutions to learning that are both technical and pedagogical, states Director Kari Seppälä.

Part of the operations of the centre are regional development and national and international projects.

– Our strengths are our joint staff’s high-level of expertise and the close networking with the scientific community and the external interest groups, says Seppälä.

The Brahea Centre of the University of Turku employs approximately 185 people. In addition, the Open University, which used to be part of the Brahea Centre for Training and Development, will also be part of the new unit.

Since June, briefings and discussion panels have been organised for the staff and they have been kept informed by email. A joint meeting in accordance with the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings was organised to the staff of all the units on October 24, 2013. In the meeting of the university’s co-operation committee on October 28, the parties decided unanimously that the duty to negotiate on the plans relative to the merger had been fulfilled.

The Operations of the Independent Units Built on a Lasting Foundation

The merger of the three independent units is part of the review on the organisation of the independent units at the University of Turku, which has been ongoing for the past year. The aim of the review is to build a lasting foundation for the operations of the units by utilising the benefits of the synergy, not to lay-off personnel.

As a result of the review, the Futures Research Centre moved to the Turku School of Economics at the beginning of August. Functional Foods Forum will transfer to the Faculty of Medicine on January 1, 2014, and the Centre for Environmental Research at the University of Turku will transfer to the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the beginning of next year.

Text: Tuomas Koivula
Translation: Mari Ratia