External Relations for Higher Education – Miras spring conference 21th-22nd of April 2010!

The invitation and program will be sent out closer to the conference but mark the date in your calendar so you won’t miss it.

We are looking farward to see you all at Miras!

Örebro University has nominated Maliun Ali Hussein to the alumni of the year 2010!

Maliun Ali Hussein is an inspiration for young students. She has shown, by her choice of education and her dedication, that studies are worthwhile. Maliun Ali Hussain is the first alumni from Örebro University to achieve the award.

The purpose of the award is to spread successful stories about former students and their career after graduation. The award is also supposed to encourage increased collaboration between the university, present students and society.

For further information visite Örebro University's webbpage, http://www.oru.se/ or read the articles about Maliun in Ny Teknik and Byggvärlden . There will also be an interview with Maliun Ali Hussein the 5th of february on national Swedish radio.

Mira wishes congrats to Maliun Ali Hussein for the award!

University of Oulu has launched the Facebook module

This Monday the University of Oulu launched their Facebook module. Alumni co-ordinator Karoliina has done a great job promoting the module and its use to her network members. Both Karoliina and Mira will follow the development with excitement and the numbers for the first 24 hours was great news. The statistic showed that 148 network members log on to the alumni network, of these 59 connected their alumni profile with their Facebook profile and 44 updated their information in their alumni profile. Good news is also that the Oulu alumnus on Facebook has used the module to promote and recruit new members to the alumni network and after the first 24 hours Oulu alumni got 23 new network members.

Finnish alumni conference on January 20

On January 20, the Finnish alumni conference took place at the Lappeenranta University of Technology (- 26 degrees Celsius in the morning, brr...).

I was invited as a speaker. The title of my presentation was "Alumni relations as part of External relations of Higher Education". I gave some examples of how alumni relates to fundraising, career services, student recruitment, etc. Anni Siitonen from University of Helsinki and Susanna Ritala from Aalto University assisted me by providing good examples from their own universities.

There were around 25 participants from all over Finland, both from universities and from universities of applied sciences.

Thank you for a very well organized event!

Åbo Akademi University receives its biggest gift so far

Åbo Akademi University has received its biggest gift so far in their ongoing fundraising campaign according to a recent press release.

It's the family owned company Rettig Capital Oy Ab that donates 250,000 EUR. Since the Finnish state has a gift matching program of 1 + 2.5, the total value for the university is 875,000 EUR. To date, Åbo Akademi University has raised 1.8 MEUR in their campaign.