Next week at Hanken is exams week and, needless to say, Hanken has been very lively throughout the whole past week. You could see students trying to memorise those last pieces of information at literally every corner of Hanken. Even on Friday’s evening!
I am from Hanken’s Department of Economics myself and I believe that we, economists at Hanken, live on a somewhat different schedule than our counterparts from other departments. We might have more ‘exam weeks’ (but not necessarily more exams than others, do not be scared!) throughout the year as teaching for Hanken’s economists is under cooperation with Aalto University and University of Helsinki. So besides Hanken, we also have lectures at the premises of Aalto School of Business, University of Helsinki and Helsinki Center of Economic Research or simply HECER. Needless to say, all three universities keep us engaged throughout the whole year but we cannot complain as we receive the best knowledge in the field of Economics as each university has its key strengths. This is what me and my fellow students really appreciate at our department.
Apart from studying in the library, this week hankeits had a possibility to attend couple interesting guest lectures. Esa Jokivuolle, Research Advisor at the Bank of Finland, gave a lecture on changes in assessment of credit risk of a loan portfolio and bank capital requirements after the recent financial crisis for the course of Banking and Finance. Those interested in entrepreneurship could attend ‘Entrepreneurial afternoon’ with four entrepreneurship experts sharing their best tips on becoming an entrepreneur. Guest lectures is something I personally love since I believe that practicalities are as important as theory and Hanken does a great job providing us with both.
No one can ever deny that studying is extremelly fun. However, I would like to shift your attention to student life in Finland and something entertaining that happened this week. Let me ask you what is the craziest way you have ever went downhill during winter? I remember me and my five friends tried to do that on a sledge built for two and back then I thought it was pretty funny. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that whatever your answer is, you will find students in Finland taking this activity to another level. On Shrove Tuesday, one of the biggest student events called ‘Laskiaisrieha’ takes place at Helsinki’s Kaivopuisto park. Basically, it is a huge sledging competition of students but sledges they use are not the ones you can buy at the local department store. Students construct crazy sledges looking like sport cars or dragons and usually engineering students unleash the true potential of their creativity here. I have heard that one year there was a sauna going down hill, can you imagine that? The event is followed by tasting Finnish treat – cream-filled bun – called ‘laskiaispulla’. And in the evening, there is a big after-party, so you definitely do not want to miss out all the fun. More information and videos about the event can be found here.
This was all that I wanted to share with you for now! By the way, this was my first blog entry ever, so please bear with the rookie!
Also, I would like to wish everyone a successful exams week and fun time afterwards.
Yours,
Vytas.