Aalto ARTS initiates a new Summer School with support from Jane and Aatos Erkkos Foundation

One of the tasks of higher education is to strengthen international relations in its education and research. This is important in developing a truly multicultural and open society with a rich worldview. Internationalization is also a means of enhancing creativity and obtaining new skills and competencies.  

Higher education students have typically obtained their international experiences through exchange programmes. Statistics show, however, that international mobility has come to a standstill and the numbers have even started to diminish. A study period abroad is not an integral part of everyone’s degree. Instead, mobility motivation is affected by many factors linked to background, economic factors and life situations. 

We need a new mindset to internationalization in order to encourage our students to obtain competencies needed in an international context. One of these new initiatives is Aalto ARTS Summer School which is supported by Jane and Aatos Erkkos Foundation. The financial support consists of 950,000 euro for the years 2020-2023.

Aalto ARTS Summer School

Aalto ARTS Summer School will be carried out in partnership with several other top schools, by intense teaching and research projects. The first stage will be put into practice with Parsons School of Design. The summer school comprises of short courses within the fields of media, design, art and architecture. These courses are designed for University students but also for young professionals. As such the courses support the principles of lifelong learning.

The collaboration with Parsons is a pilot project, and negotiations for similar cooperation are in process with Politecnico di Milano, University of the Arts London, TU Delft and ETH Zürich.  

As part of Aalto ARTS Summer School, a Research Summit will be organised every other year. This event will showcase state-of-the-art projects and serve as potential content for future summer school courses. Research Summit will bring together 80-100 researchers from the most prominent international schools.

On top of these actions, a Round Table event will be attached to the project. The Deans of 5-10 top schools will gather each year to discuss field-specific issues and the future of art and design schools.

Aalto ARTS Summer School kicks off in the summer of 2021 and will later be merged into Aalto Summer School. The School of Arts, Design and Architecture is dedicated to developing new forms of internationalization and our students’ skill-set in an international network. We believe that international mobility and relations are important even in a post-corona world.

For more information:

Tuomas Auvinen, Dean
[email protected]
+358 50 648 48

Iina Ekholm, manager of international affairs
[email protected]