Hanken Newsletter 2-2012

Hanken has defined internationalisation as one of its focus areas. For a business school in a small, open economy, this is a natural choice. Recently, many steps towards greater international involvement have been taken, and the results are emerging. The number of international refereed publications per faculty has been steadily increasing, making Hanken the best producing business school in Finland in 2010. For 2011, this ratio has further improved. Our international recruitment activities and our actions to get the AACSB accreditation are expected to further speed up this process. Incentives have also been initiated to motivate papers in top publications. Finally, Hanken researchers have received important international acknowledgements, such as Professor Christian Grönroos’ recent appointment as a Legend of Marketing. Regarding student enrolment, we can note the increase in applications to our international Master’s programmes. And now, as the Bachelor programme students move out for their term abroad, we can also foresee a significant increase in the number of exchange students at the Helsinki and Vaasa campuses, further internationalizing our activities on home ground. Areas of improvement do, admittedly, remain. Our low international research funding is an Achilles’ heel for Hanken, and given its high impact on our state funding, it is imperative for our faculty to figure out how to improve our international applications. International recruitment also remains a challenge. But on a general level, we are well on our way, and more than ready to compete in an international environment