Aalto University's strategy specifies the most important targets and joint plans for the future

Aalto University's strategy specifies the most important targets and joint plans for the future. School of Arts, Design and Architecture emphasizes the significant impact in renewing societal and institutional practices through sustainable, creative, radical, and ethical design and arts-based innovations. 

ARTS’s solutions for sustainability are 1) encouraging engagement in societal discussions and even policy making, 2) showing the power of creative practices in leading and supporting sustainable transformations and future orientation and 3) initiating new collaborations with different external stakeholders. 

To achieve these targets it’s essential to develop mechanisms for understanding the needs of the society and interact with stakeholders. Only then we can construct new ways and develop our offering to strengthen impact through collaboration between education and research.

The central challenge and goal of higher education is to strengthen internationality in teaching and research. Statistics show that international mobility has come to a standstill and the numbers have even started to diminish. 

Aalto University's new strategy aims to increase the internationality: “Jointly with our partners, we build our innovation, creative and entrepreneurial ecosystem as  aprominent node in global networks.” The goal is to develop university's international competence and create Aalto University a tempting place to study and work.

ARTS implements university's strategic objectives by active collaboration with international partners in the field of teaching, research and artistic activities. 

ARTS Summer School is organized to encourage the exchange of teaching and learning experience and development of strategies for co-operation in the creative fields. With the wide use of active methods and creative techniques, including group projects, excursions, discussions, interactive lectures and case studies it is possible to achieve new ways of learning and knowing in the urgent situation that touches the entire globe. The adoption of principles of sustainability globally are more important than ever. Summer school wanted to invite students and professors from a geographically wide area. Since the threat our planet is facing is global, the solutions to slow down climate warming must be found in an international co-operation.

ARTS summer school was granted 945 000 € from Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation for the years of 2022-2024. Foundation supports high-level, international scientific research as well as arts and culture.

The cooperation between partner universities is planned to lead to a creative fields’ summer school model and an open access online material. Summer school courses consist of important and topical subject, and the tools and means for working on them need to be distributed as widely as possible.

In addition to societal impact and international, multi-disciplinary co-operation, the cultural learning is one of the desired goals. Consumer's behavior is driven through cultural ideologies and consumer is often influenced by their culture, social class and peer groups. Inviting students and teachers from geographically wide area, a valuable information about different cultures is obtained.

An open access online material packages are built from the material produced during the courses.