The year 2018 will go down as an important milestone in the annals of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences Ltd. Universities of applied sciences perform very important and intensive work in our society as their basic mission. Competition for government funding, a stronger market position and new students is extremely intense, not to mention the pressures to generate more sales and work from international projects and RDI projects. In this sector, you have to run just to keep up.
While performing all the basic duties mentioned above, last year we finally got to the implementation stage of our property strategy, which we have been proceeding with for several years, when we concentrated our operations at four campuses and closed eight campuses. Seeing these measures through was a great effort for the whole organisation.
To be able to operate effectively, a university of applied sciences must generate a good operating result and have a solid balance sheet. This has always been a matter of pride for us at Metropolia, and I am particularly pleased that we managed to improve our result significantly last year. A company needs stable finances in order to successfully tackle the challenges of the future.
Success in all these matters, however, would never have been possible without deep and smooth cooperation. With this in mind, I would like to extend the warmest gratitude, on my own and on the Board’s behalf, to the staff and students of our company and all of our partners for the excellent cooperation and the great year of 2018 we had together. And last but not least, I would like to thank all those who participated in our fundraising efforts – you trusted and believed in our long-term work. We hope we can live up to your trust!