The Vice Rector of Karelia UAS is changing

The Vice Rector of Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences is chang­ing, as the current Vice Rector, Pekka Auvinen, will retire start­ing from August 1, 2024. In Febru­ary 2024, the Board of Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences Ltd. selected Dr. Marjo Nenonen as the new Vice Rector. Marjo Nenonen will start her duties as Vice Rector on August 1, 2024.

Marjo Nenonen currently serves as the Head of Educa­tion Devel­op­ment at Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences, but she has over 25 years of expe­ri­ence in higher educa­tion, includ­ing roles such as Head of Student Affairs, Head of Language Services, and as an English and Swedish teacher at Karelia UAS and other insti­tu­tions. Her exten­sive career in various roles within higher educa­tion has provided her with a deep under­stand­ing of the univer­sity as a whole.

“I know the staff of Karelia well. I have collab­o­rated closely with the Karelia Student Union for a long time. Karelia’s educa­tional outcomes are excel­lent. Last year, we achieved the second-best result in the history of bachelor’s degrees, and the best result ever in master’s degrees. Student satis­fac­tion has also been consis­tently high in recent years. It’s great to join a commu­nity whose strengths—and areas for improvement—I am already famil­iar with,” says Marjo Nenonen.

One of Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences’ strengths has always been its strong sense of commu­nity. In a small univer­sity, barri­ers are low, and collab­o­ra­tion has been easy to establish.

“In the recent audit report by the National Educa­tion Eval­u­a­tion Centre, FINEEC (Karvi), Karelia spirit was high­lighted as one of Karelia’s strengths. It’s great to start working in such a univer­sity commu­nity and with my own contri­bu­tion, strive to ensure posi­tive devel­op­ment in the future as well,” Marjo Nenonen adds.

Marjo Nenonen is an active partic­i­pant in both national and inter­na­tional networks. Espe­cially in these times, higher educa­tion, and educa­tion in general, have a signif­i­cant impact on indi­vid­u­als, the vital­ity of North Karelia, and Finland as a whole.

“It’s impor­tant that we in this region work closely with both the working life and other educa­tional insti­tu­tions. The impor­tance of inter­na­tional educa­tion is also increas­ing steadily.”