Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital

Rector Lauri Lajunen of the University of Oulu said, “The ultimate goals of the university reform are to train talented students to work in industry and strengthen the quality of research.

The University of Oulu has a long history in collaborating with Nokia, the largest company in Finland. Nokia began its operations in the City of Oulu and many graduates from the University of Oulu have been working for Nokia, a Scandinavian company which has grown into a global giant. Fruitful results from joint research activities between the university and industry are often passed on to Nokia

During his 18 years as Rector of the university, he has strived to reform the university and contributed to the formation of the ‘Oulu Technopolis.’ The technopolis is an industrial complex which includes information technology firms such as Nokia and Ericsson.

Rector Lajunen explained, “We suggested new ideas to enterprises and developed cooperative relations with them in robotics, wireless technology and medical information and communications. As many as 400 companies were newly established in the technopolis and most employees are graduates from our university.”

He added, “Many firms moved closer to the university to ask for our help. When global steel companies such as Rautaruukki and Outokumpu came into the technopolis, we created a new course on metalworking technology and cultivated talented personnel for those firms.”

As a result, the university keeps its employment rate at 75%. Finnish companies also prefer natural sciences or engineering graduates to humanities graduates. About 70 to 80 percent of employees in the Oulu Technopolis graduated from the University of Oulu.

Rector Lajunen visited Korea on October 6, 2011 to attend the 2nd Hallym-Oulu International Symposium. He said, “The University of Oulu and Hallym University will further strengthen the cooperative relationship in the field of medicine and science. We will also promote exchange programs for our professors and students.”

Translated by Jong Hun Im, Int’l Operations Team, HUMC (imjonghun@hallym.or.kr)