International week
South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Xamk, cordially invites staff, teachers and other specialists from our partner institutions to join our traditional International Week 18-22. November 2024.
The enrolment is open until 30th September 2024. Please fill in the enrolment form here.
The theme is Visual Voyages: Bridging Cultures Through Stories. We will update our programme to this website in the autumn, but there is a lot of important information available below.
The international week will be organised on Xamk’s Kouvola campus on 18-22 November 2024 by the Departments of Business and Culture, and International Services Unit.
Read more about Xamk Kouvola Campus.
Under the main theme, we will focus on
- building international competence for different stakeholders
- lectures and workshops
- networking opportunities
- fostering the international community at campus
- introducing opportunities for internationalisation for students
- enhancing international competences of university staff
- introducing Indian culture
- international food tasting event
- and
- enjoying traditional Finnish winter activities
The International Week begins on Monday evening with a welcome dinner. The official programme starts on Tuesday morning and lasts until Friday afternoon.
Enrolment
Guests are invited to give lectures on their own area of expertise or research. We would wish the lectures to be connected to the main theme or the subthemes of the International Days and hope (but not limit) the teaching to be more practical, i.e. that it would be arranged in a form of a workshop, group work or other methods.
If you wish to have lectures during the week, please, describe the way of your teaching (lecture, workshop, group work, etc.), wishes for room conditions, materials you would need as well as the preferred group size in your abstract. Our normal group size is between 20-40 students. In addition, please, describe how you wish to divide your teaching hours (e.g. 2 hours of lectures and 4 hours in a form of a workshop, group work, etc. = a total of 8 hours, which is the minimum amount in Erasmus+ teacher exchanges STA). Our lessons consist of 45-minute sessions, i.e., for instance, 1.5 hours is calculated as two full teaching hours.
You may also participate in the international week programme without giving any lectures, for instance, through Erasmus+ staff exchange STT. In this case, you could also give lectures but there is no minimum amount of teaching hours. Along with teaching, the international week is a great opportunity for networking with new international partners and discussing future cooperation possibilities (research and development, projects, exchanges, development of pedagogical methods, online courses, etc.). You are also welcome to bring students with you to participate in the week. Also students need to enrol for the international week. The deadline for enrolments is 30.9.2024.
Please fill in the enrollment form here.
Please do not make any travel arrangements before you have received confirmation information from the contact person of the international week.
Accommodation
There are a few good options for accommodation in Kouvola. Hotels are listed below.
- Original Sokos Hotel Vaakuna Kouvola (1,4 km from the campus, 1,5 km from the railway station)
- Scandic Kouvola (2,4 km from the campus, 0,2 km from the railway station)
- Turistihovi (2,7 km from the campus, 0,6 km from the railway station)
You can also book the accommodation via Airbnb or other service providers.
Travelling
Kouvola is situated some 140 km from Helsinki. The easiest way to travel from Helsinki to Kouvola is by train.
If you fly to Finland, the next step after arriving at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport (HEL) is to go to the train station. Helsinki Airport’s train station is located under the terminal.
There is a direct elevator and escalator connection from the departures and arrivals hall to the train station. From there, you will go to the P train to Tikkurila train station and change to the long-distance train to Kouvola.
You can buy your train ticket from the vending machine at the train station or online at VR railway company. It is also quite convenient to download the VR mobile app and buy the ticket in advance from there. You will receive a ticket with 2 QR codes, one for the P train and the other for the long-distance train.
Note that you can go with an earlier P train to Tikkurila if you have a bit of extra time. The train ride to Kouvola takes (depending on the train type) about 1,5-2 hours altogether.
Weather
The weather in November in Finland is generally around +/-0°C. It can be freezing, windy, snowy, icy and very slippery. Good shoes & warm clothing is recommended.
Participants have a chance to experience Finnish nature on Thursday afternoon/evening including sauna & cold-water swimming possibility.
Therefore we would kindly recommend you to check the weather forecast approximately one week before arrival to Finland. On the website of Finnish Meteorological Institute you can find information about the Finnish climate and check the current forecasts.