The year 2016 was a very busy and important one in the history of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences Ltd. In addition to carrying out our mission, last year we implemented many important things on which we can build our future.
The laying of the Myllypuro campus's foundation stone last autumn was both physical and psychological proof of the implementation of a forward-looking strategy that will generate a lot of good for us all in the future. Operations in Myllypuro will be launched in 2018.
Another very important and promising project we launched last autumn was the founding of an alliance with Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences and Laurea University of Applied Sciences. This cooperation will provide both students and the labour market with a more flexible educational offering than before and numerous other benefits, as three of our country's leading UASs intensify their cooperation to serve everyone's interests. We will begin to reap the rewards of this project as early as this year.
The quality of our operations and its improvement are one of our key focuses here at Metropolia. To ensure we remain competitive, we participated in an audit of our quality system conducted by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre last November. As a result of the audit, we received a quality label of which we are justifiably proud and that gives us faith that we are on the right track.
The Finnish UAS system and its development are facing great challenges as government funding is being cut. In accordance with our strategy, Metropolia successfully managed to adapt to the present conditions in good cooperation with its staff, and to achieve a positive result. A healthy financial standing will enable us to continue to succeed and develop our operations in the future.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I wish to extend my warmest gratitude to the students, staff, shareholders and all partners for 2016 – it was a good year for us.
