Dear students,

I wish you a warm welcome to Aalto University campus to begin the 2024–2025 academic year. It's a pleasure and an inspiration to start the new year together! 

For some of you, the campus is an entirely new place, and even last years’ students will see parts of campus as though for the first time, where new renovations have taken place. The Kide and Marsio buildings in the centre of campus will draw us together and help form a closer community – crystalising it (as the name Kide implies) as well as opening windows outward to the different areas of Aalto’s special strengths. Of course, buildings are really about people, so let's use them for study and research, but also for getting to know one another! If you are new on campus, you will find that different programmes have their own meeting places (guild rooms and other community rooms, for example). Across campus, many spaces can be booked and used for individual studying, group work, following online courses together or just for finding a quiet place to relax. The Aalto Space application helps you explore the options. The campus with its open, public spaces is a shared environment for all of us in the Aalto community. At the same time, please do your part to ensure the security of building spaces; for example, remember not to give access to building spaces to trespassers or others outside the community if they lack the required keycards or authorisation. 

While Aalto's building facilities provide the exterior environment for learning, the actual strength is in the learning content itself. Be inquisitive and explore Aalto’s range of educational offerings! There are many opportunities to take advantage of in addition to your own programme's required studies: I encourage everyone to challenge themselves – give other options a try and get to know something new and different!

The university is a community of people with a thirst for knowledge. At our best, we receive support for our own learning, and we offer support to our fellow learners, too. Studying at university is a new kind of experience, and so it pays to stop and think over your own strategies for studying. Aalto offers a full and streamlined range of services to develop study skills. You can try these out on your own or together with your study mates. If you are looking for a good listener or someone to bounce your thoughts and ideas off, our services are very approachable. One such is the Starting Point of Wellbeing, located in Room Y199c of the Undergraduate Centre (Otakaari 1). In addition, there are the people in your own school and programme. For practical administrative matters, you can get help from the Starting Point general student-services desk in Room Y199a.

Large communities have a need for a common organisational culture with shared principles and procedures. Aalto University has a set of values designed to lay good foundations for our community. These include:

• Courage: Openness, willingness to try out new things and novel combinations, boldness in thinking and in speaking out
• Collaboration: Because no one makes great advancements alone and in isolation.
• Responsibility: Where there is power and ability, there must also be the wisdom to use it for good ends.

The rules for fair play in our community are contained in the Aalto Code of Conduct. The code has ethical principles to help us to make the right choices. It clarifies what acting in line with our values looks like in practice.

An online course (30 minutes in length) is available that uses practical examples to introduce students to Aalto’s operating principles. Please do take the course, if you haven’t done so already. 

• The course in Finnish: https://mycourses.aalto.fi/enrol/index.php?id=41628&lang=fi
• In Swedish: https://mycourses.aalto.fi/enrol/index.php?id=41628&lang=sv_fi
• In English: https://mycourses.aalto.fi/enrol/index.php?id=41628&lang=en

Aalto is a learning organisation, and we are aware of how important feedback is. Feedback helps one to learn, gain insights and develop. We try to ensure that, in giving feedback, you also receive feedback. Particular feedback surveys we would highlight include the survey of recent bachelor's graduates, the AllWell? survey on study abilities, and feedback on courses. Giving feedback is hugely important, so I trust you will take the opportunity to respond to survey requests and have your say in the university's development.

Our campus hosts a number of annual events that are popular among staff and students. These include the opening ceremony of the academic year, the Aalto Walk & Run (held in conjunction with the Espoo Rantamaraton) and our May Day celebrations. These are events that help to build Aalto’s community spirit and make our community even stronger. Autumn is thus getting underway once again for all Aaltonians, commencing with an all-campus event – the opening ceremony of the new academic year – followed by the Aalto Party. Do come and join us all on Tuesday, September 3rd. 

I wish you a very rewarding year of studies!

Petri