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By decision of the president of the university, the Aalto University Foundation will resign from the inter-university agreement on flexible study rights (JOO agreement). The agreement, signed by the founding universities of Aalto University on 11 June 2003, entered into force on 1 August 2004, with Aalto University joining after its establishment. Aalto’s resignation will be effective from 1 January 2026, which means that no new recommendations and approvals for JOO studies will be given after 31 July 2025. The JOO study rights granted prior to this date will remain valid as granted.

The background for the resignation is the change in the operating environment: on the one hand, the JOOPAS service that supported the use of the JOO agreement has been discontinued, and on the other hand, the national Cross-Institutional Study Information Service RIPA is now in use at universities. In connection with preparation of the RIPA service, Finnish universities have signed a framework agreement on educational cooperation. The cross-institutional RIPA cooperation is implemented as network agreements under the framework agreement, which do not directly replace the JOO agreement but are based on predetermined target groups and offerings. A national so-called joint offering agreement between universities is being prepared, but it is likely to be also based on predetermined offerings.

Cross-institutional studies refer to cases where a student of one Finnish higher education institution may complete studies at another Finnish higher education institution, because the institutions have agreed on collaboration concerning certain studies and student groups. Aalto University has signed several agreements on cross-institutional studies, and as a rule, students apply for such studies following network-specific procedures.  The Cross-Institutional Study Information Service RIPA has been implemented in Sisu in the autumn term of 2023 in the form of three cross-institutional study networks with the University of Helsinki. We intend to expand the collaboration to further networks in the future to make the cross-institutional course offerings and the related Sisu functionalities more accessible to students.

Further information:  

Cross-Institutional Study Information Service for Higher Education:  

Agreements related to educational collaboration (including a model template for network agreements) in Finnish only:  

Cross-institutional studies (RIPA) for students: Cross-institutional studies (RIPA) | Aalto University 

Cross-institutional studies contact person for Aalto University, Specialist Anja Hänninen (anja.hanninen@aalto.fi)  

Process manager for domestic student mobility at Aalto University, Manager of Academic Affairs Mirka Jalonen (mirka.jalonen@aalto.fi).