Unni Leino, Liisa Mustanoja and Simo Ali-Löytty assume new roles as senior university lecturers
In 2024, Tampere University introduced a new academic promotion policy specifically for teaching-focused staff. The first round of this policy resulted in the promotion of seven individuals to senior university lecturer positions across the University. A similar career progression model for teaching staff was first introduced in Finland by Aalto University in 2010.
At Tampere University, deans can nominate candidates for promotion to the position of senior university lecturer in recognition of their exceptional expertise and commitment. To be eligible, candidates must hold a doctoral degree, demonstrate a proven track record in pedagogical development and thesis supervision, and possess strong teaching skills. Nominations are reviewed by a university-level committee every 1-2 years. After the committee’s initial review, the final promotion decisions are made by the President of Tampere University.
Unni Leino: A linguist and an interdisciplinary advocate
For teachers, the greatest motivation comes from witnessing students’ excitement and growth.
Unni Leino
Unni Leino is the head of specialisation in the Finnish language at the Languages Unit. She is not only a senior university lecturer at Tampere University but also a docent in the Finnish language and applied computer science at the University of Helsinki. Leino’s primary research interests include onomastics, construction grammar, cognitive linguistics, dialects and computational linguistics. She also studies heraldics and gender studies.
Leino is motivated by curiosity and a desire to understand the intricacies of language. Numerous areas that pique her curiosity are found at the intersections of language studies, teaching and technology. These include the computational analysis of dialects and the exploration of user experiences with information systems from the perspective of language planning. Academic language research and teaching, especially of a national language, play an important role in building society.
“Every autumn, we welcome a group of dazed new students straight out of upper secondary school. Our mission is to transform them into fully-fledged colleagues of their teachers within five years. We manage to do this quite well.”
Unni Leino leads a research project examining sentence-level changes in the Finnish language over the last decade. Amidst the growing trend of multidisciplinarity, Leino emphasises the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue:
“It is important to engage in discussions across disciplinary boundaries while maintaining one’s own expertise to ensure meaningful contributions to collaboration.”
Liisa Mustanoja: An explorer of change and a champion for building the university community
Liisa Mustanoja is the head of the Languages Unit within the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences (ITC) at Tampere University and a senior university lecturer in the Finnish language. She also holds a docentship in Finnish, specialising in sociolinguistics, at the University of Oulu.
As a sociolinguist, Mustanoja is broadly interested in the relationship between language and society as well as all types of linguistic and societal changes, transformations and movements.
The student union TREY presented Liisa Mustanoja with the Good Teacher Award in 2021. She has also developed a Moodle-based course to educate all members of the Tampere Universities community about data protection and privacy regulations. She believes that delivering high-quality education to new generations of students is one of her most important academic tasks.
“A university is a place where teaching and research are inherently intertwined. There is enormous potential found in our students – the wonderful young people we have in our community. Given the chance, they can act as equal members of the scientific community.”
Liisa Mustanoja leads Tampere in Emotions research project, where Finnish-language researchers investigate linguistic affect, bias-free language and access to participation in research. As a dissertation supervisor, she participates in the multidisciplinary CONVERGENCE of Humans and Machines research project. In addition, Mustanoja collaborates with students to conduct linguistic research on wartime correspondence, focusing on emotions and the history of experiences (see Linguistic Research on Finnish Wartime Letters).
Simo Ali-Löytty: An expert in applied mathematics and the development of teaching
Simo Ali-Löytty is the head of the Finnish-language Bachelor’s Programme in Mathematics and Statistical Data Analysis and an adjunct professor (docent) of industrial mathematics. His teaching primarily focuses on industrial mathematics and its practical applications, demonstrating how mathematical formulas can be utilised to solve real-world problems.
In his research, Ali-Löytty is especially interested combining mathematical modelling with technology-assisted teaching.
“As a researcher, I am motivated by our ability to tackle industry challenges through mathematics as well as by witnessing the growth of students working on their thesis.”
While Ali-Löytty envisions new opportunities emerging from the combination of artificial intelligence and mathematics teaching, he highlights the human aspect of education: growth, interaction and the joy of discovery. Ali-Löytty is a member of the Inverse Problems research group and the Technology-Assisted Teaching in Mathematics group.
The videos include subtitles in both Finnish and English.
Author: Riitta Yrjönen
