”The new will soon be outdated” – The new university to be named “Tampere University” after all

VÄINÖ VASARA, text

TEPPO NIEMINEN / Aviisi archives, image

EMMA LAAKKONEN, translation

The prolonged spectacle of naming the upcoming university in Tampere has recently taken a new turn. In April, the name suggested was “Tampere New University” (“Tampereen uusi yliopisto” in Finnish), a proposal which was widely criticised at the time.

A week ago the Board of the Tampere University Foundation proposed that the university should be named “Tampereen yliopisto” in Finnish and “Tampere University” in English.

ACCORDING TO Marja Makarow, the Chair of the Board of the Tampere3 Foundation, the university community was uncertain about the usage of the word ”new”, and for this reason, suggested that the name should be changed. Eventually, the boards of the University Foundation, TUT, TAMK, and UTA reached a consensus on the change of name. The Board of the Foundation submitted the proposal for consideration by the Parliament’s Education and Culture Committee, which will ultimately decide on the matter.

”The new will soon be outdated,” Makarow commented on the reasons behind the change of name.

”I imagined that the Tampere University of Technology would not agree with this change right away, but they contacted us saying that they approve of it.”

When the Board determined the English name for the university, they took inspiration from the Stockholm and Lund Universities, which have the name of the city first. The new suggestion is also different from the current name of the University of Tampere.

”If it had been called ’Tampereen yliopisto’ and ’the University of Tampere’, it would have been completely identical with the current name of the University.”

The new Tampere University should be operational on 1 January 2019.