I am busy as always, but some brief comments to the discussion:
 
There is a feedback mechanism built in WebOodi, is there? (I have heard, but not used). Is it possible to use that or another electronic feedback system such that the students will not get the credits from a course to his/her WebOodi accout before the feedback is supplied (but so that the feedback itself remains anonymous)? Miki, A-P,... can you comment?
 
It seems to me that when the new cellular biochemistry professor and the new cell biology senior assistant (following Sakari?) are in the office we should/could take cell biology teaching to in-house (and I know we have other people in-house who could contribute to cell biology teaching as well).
 
Now that the international MSc gets really going with lots more students from abroad, we should realize the new Histoni premises (that Lloyd told about on Friday) and have a joint meeting/coffee place for Finnish and foreign students - this would help the English of our students as well as will help integrating foreign students into the community. Our students would learn from the beginning that there will always be foreingners as job mates in science (and this is nowadays true also in other working places), and this is a good thing, and remember that Finns work abroad as well.
 
Losing students to Med school I agree we cannot do much. There was some suggestion earlier to put Med school and our entrance exams on the same day to prevent applying to both. This would not help us - we would lose applicants, and also technically this would be hard since our entrance exam is connected to Chemistry exam, which is national and so connected to other universities.
 
I will go to give talks in schools in Oulu next winter, I promise. I wanted to do this already the past winter but had eventually no time due to all the other work. But now I´m more prepared...
 
Lloyd already commented about BSc thesis posters - the third year students really showed that it is no problem to find out difficult things from English literature and present it in good Finnish to the public. I have talked sometimes about good Finnish - mainly prompted by some pro gradu assessments by staff members stating "perfect Finnish" where in fact the text has been loaded with comma errors, compound errors etc. (also the assessment itself...). We should not assess something we do not master well ourselves..eh? (I hope no-one gets offended, but I think I know some rules of basic Finnish). The third year students patiently agreed with me that it is good that I make remarks about their errors in Finnish and accepted that good language is one part of the plausibility of the text as a whole.
 
I also think we do not need a Finnish course in the curriculum - it would not motivate any of us. We simply should take a responsible attitude towards our own language - it is not difficult! I recommend everyone to have a look (Lloyd, you do not have to...) at the following web site next time you write a text or assess a pro gradu. There you can find in an easy format the basic rules how to write Finnish words right. Please make this a bookmark in your browser and you can always quickly check words and rules.
http://webcgi.oulu.fi/oykk/abc/
 
Being scientist is fun, I agree. Currently I only wish I would have time to do experiments myself. One can also have "normal life" - I know by experience. I go to hobbies of my own and with my children, but I also do work at home in the evenings and week-end - not all the time and every day, but regularly as it is needed. It is fine with me to mix working time and "free" time to some extent to get things done. It is all a matter of if you like what you are doing, if you want to improve and survive, if you want to at least try to do your best, and that if you can just organize the daily life. And this is the same in many, many other jobs "out there" - it is wishful thinking that in another high-education job there would be "more free time".
 
Tuomo

===========================================================================

Tuomo Glumoff, FT, Dos., Lehtori        Tuomo Glumoff, Ph.D., Lecturer

Oulun yliopisto                         University of Oulu

Biokemian laitos                        Department of Biochemistry

PL 3000                                 Box 3000

90014 OULUN YLIOPISTO                   FIN-90014 UNIVERSITY OF OULU

                                        Finland

 

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