We traveled as a two-person team, aiming to find a partner in Scotland for future teacher and student exchanges, as well as potential new EU projects. The Music Production specialization within the Media & Arts degree program has built international relationships over the years. Our traditional partners include Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden and PXL University in Hasselt near Brussels. We’ve also developed collaborations with Viljandi, Riga, Liepaja, and Stuttgart. A good partner from England or Ireland is the missing link in the complete offering we want to provide our students.
UWS turned out to be a perfect match, where we could strengthen the expertise of both institutions for the benefit of students. At TAMK, our strength lies in offering complete minor studies. In particular, our minors in sound design, live technology, and immersive sound could be of interest to Scottish students.
Our students would benefit from the third-year semester content in Scotland, especially in music entrepreneurship, which hasn’t been as comprehensively available in Tampere. Student exchanges could be arranged for 2–3 students per semester. Partnership can be easily expanded since both Media&Arts departments have studies in Fine Arts, especially in digital arts and Film and Tv production. All of this requires various arrangements due to Brexit, which our Scottish colleagues seemed genuinely regretful about.
Our trip included two busy days on the university campus, filled with meetings, discussions, presentations, networking, and planning. Since we had prior experience with these kinds of situations, the warm reception and friendly attitude were a pleasant surprise. At times, it felt like the process couldn’t possibly go this smoothly. The hospitality was overwhelmingly positive, and Finnish sauna and Scottish malt whisky often came up in conversations. We kept our enthusiasm politely restrained—whisky should be offered for enjoyment, not for drinking. We’ll see how the sauna experience goes when the Scots visit Tampere.
Ayr isn’t a very large place, but as a university, it’s excellent, and we want to recommend it to our students who see entrepreneurship as a path forward in developing their future professional skills. Glasgow is an hour away from the campus, and most local students live there. Glasgow is one of the three major hubs of the music industry in the UK. One warning might be worth mentioning: the familiar “Mind the Gap” warning from the London Underground has evolved in Glasgow into “Mind your head!” The clearance height of the underground trains is about 184 cm, and there’s rarely room to sit.
Written by:
Janne Tauriainen, Senior Lecturer / International Coordinator, Degree Program in Media and Arts.
