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The Aalto University Board held discussions with the Aalto community on 24 November at a community event held as an interactive and live webcast with nearly 450 participants from the community. Topics of the discussion included questions concerning the university's strategy, long-term development, and the global development of the operating environment.

At the beginning of his speech, Chairman of the Board Mikko Kosonen thanked the community on behalf of the entire Board for its excellent work, emphasising the importance of a living strategy in these exceptional times.

‘You have coped surprisingly well in the pandemic situation, while learning many new things, such as how to work effectively in remote mode. The coronavirus crisis has also indicated how important it was to introduce the living strategy – and it happened just at the right time.

With the new strategy, dialogue between the Board and the university community will be held regularly as part of the strategic management of the university. Consequently, the discussion event between the Board and the community will be a fixed part of our annual clock from now on.

‘The community's direct discussion with the Board is unique also compared with other peer universities, and it is an indication of the straightforward culture of our university’, noted the host of the event, Professor Rebecca Piekkari.

Plenty of material from the discussion for the University Preview – you can still make an impact

As part of our living strategy we will extensively examine changes in our operating environment at the end of the year. The joint event that was held between the Board and the community is part of this University Preview in which changes that have been observed together and perceived as important will be taken into account in our planning for the following year.

In the webcast, members of the Board answered questions put forward both at the event, and submitted in advance through the aalto.fi- conversation platform about the university’s long-term development. Topics from the questions raised in advance concerned number of students and the quality of teaching, the management of a community of experts emphasising radical creativity and entrepreneurial thinking, the relationship between the administration and academic work, commitment to sustainable development, future prospects for open science and publication, university funding in a post-corona pandemic world, and measuring results.

All feedback from the community – including questions put forward in advance on aalto.fi and questions that could not be handled at the event because of a lack of time – will be considered as part of the preview toward the end of the year.