TAMK annual review 2024: President's overview

The year 2024 at TAMK was both a period of change and a period of stabilising operations. Typical to today, few isolated incidents gained major media visibility at the expense of our successful day-to-day work, even though excellent everyday performance often has a much wider and more far-reaching impact. As the year drew to a close, the overall outlook at TAMK grew increasingly stable, positive and hopeful.

Positive changes and increased cooperation

The number of graduates increased 3% from the previous year TAMK's appeal in student recruitment and student satisfaction remained at a high level. While the need for special support continues to be on the rise, much like in society at large, the number of dropouts decreased by over 12%, showing a downturn for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic years. The number of non-Finnish degree students at TAMK has increased every year, now standing at 10% of the total student populace of 11,500. Tuition fees collected from students outside the EU and EEA have been on the rise, becoming an economically significant source of revenue for TAMK.

Research, development and innovation continued steadily despite the recession in Finnish economy. The decision to pursue international financing yielded results as TAMK, as part of the Uninovis Alliance, received around €1 million in funding for the development of education focused on data and its utilisation. Along with TAMK, the Uninovis Alliance consists of six other European higher education institutions. The number of credits accumulated in continuous learning increased again, even with the difficult economic situation in Finland taking its toll on fee-paying continuing education.

After the change of president, we got to discuss what it means to make every day a good day at TAMK and what is expected of management, as we talked about TAMK's good governance and ethical principles in our autumn's personnel discussions. The process continued in the autumn with discussions on our operational values and how they are realised in our everyday work. The results of our autumn personnel survey told a positive story about our improved personnel well-being and workplace atmosphere.

Financially, the year exceeded all expectations. Our revenue exceeded the budgeted amount by 3.5%, mainly due to tuition fees far exceeding expectations. In terms of our expenses, we came under budget by the same amount, mainly due to expenses other than staff expenses. Our improved cash position enables us to finance the ongoing campus development project for the large part without a bank loan.

The campus development project saw the lower levels of B and H buildings completed in the main campus, enabling us to let go of some of our rented facilities. The board made an investment decision to build a new D building for music education in particular, further reducing the need for rented facilities.

We entered into an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Culture on our 2025–2028 goals for core operations, strategic development and related financing. D.Sc. (Tech.) Mika Hannula, elected by the board as the new president and CEO in the autumn, started his tenure on January 1, 2025.

TAMK's mission is to produce new competences in working life. Together, we yet again succeeded in our mission.

We would not have been able to reach this goal without the shared efforts of our students, Tamko Students' Union, organisations in the business environment and our customers, partners, teachers and expert personnel.

Having served as the president for most of 2024, I want to extend my gratitude to everyone involved!