Dear students,

as you are probably all aware, the teaching for starting MSc programme students will be entirely online next fall to enable also all of those IMP students that are likely NOT to receive their visa on time to be here for the start of the semester. I am afraid that, while such an arrangement may work well enough on a purely academic level (teaching/learning), we will lose important social aspects of the studying experience. Could we, together, come up with a way of having social interactions outside the virtual classrooms in an actual physical space? All of you who have been working through our BSc programme have a bit of an advantage, because you know each other and most of the faculty teachers and staff at least to some extent. But I still believe that a completely contact-less semester may have some detrimental effects on how your studies and your academic life in general will feel. This will be even more problematic for new students, i.e. the double degree students from Ulm and IMP students (I don't know yet of any new MSc students from Finland joining; I think also these applications have been delayed). These students will know nobody here; they will be sitting in their barely furnished student rooms and following lectures from a screen. The though depresses me a bit.

Therefore: let's meet; maybe with Histoni representative at least once before Juhannus, and then in August to plan some activities that will bring everybody closer together (within the limits of what will be allowed of course) - meetings of students as well as students + faculty. As it may be that the IMP students all get here at different times, these event should be so that even latecomers are not left out.

Many thanks and best wishes!

Alex

Alexander Kastaniotis, Ph.D., Docent University Researcher, Group Leader MSc Programme Director Faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine P.O.Box 5400 FIN-90014 University of Oulu Finland Phone: +358-294481196 FAX: +358-85315037