University of Joensuu

University of Eastern Finland

Itä-Suomen yliopisto
Type	Public
Established	2010
Rector	Jukka Mönkkönen
Administrative staff	2,800
Students	15,000
Location	Joensuu, Kuopio and Savonlinna, Eastern Finland, Finland
Campus	Main campuses in Joensuu and Kuopio small campus in Savonlinna
Nickname	UEF
Website	www.uef.fi

The University of Eastern Finland (Finnish: Itä-Suomen yliopisto) is a university in Finland with three campuses in Joensuu, Kuopio, and Savonlinna. It was formed in 2010 by a merger of two previously independent universities.

The University of Eastern Finland was formed through a merger of two formerly independent universities, the University of Joensuu and the University of Kuopio. These ceased to exist when the University of Eastern Finland began to operate in January 2010. The merger was affected by the university sector reform carried out in Finland in 2009–2010, which occurred when the previous Universities Act of 1997 was replaced by a newly enacted Universities Act of 2009 (558/2009). The new Universities Act further extended the autonomy of Finnish universities by giving each university an independent legal personality, either as a public corporation or as foundation. At the same time, the universities’ management and decision-making system were reformed. The Finnish Parliament passed the Universities Act on 16 June 2009.

Although the University of Eastern Finland launched operations in 2010, cooperation between the University of Joensuu and the University of Kuopio was tight already before the actual merger.

2009 The first joint student admissions to the University of Eastern Finland were carried out in Economics and Business Administration and in Social Sciences in 2009. Further more, the University of Eastern Finland was in 2009 granted permission to organise dentistry education, which began in 2010. On May 18, 2009 The Sino-Finnish Environmental Research Centre (SFERC) located in Nanjing, China was opened. It is a joint effort by University of Joensuu, University of Kuopio and University of Nanjing. SFERC is focused on higher education and research addressing forestry, energy and environmental issues. It is the first unit established by Finnish universities in China. It will operate at the University of Nanjing campus as a permanent satellite campus for the University of Eastern Finland.