The past year, 2019, was an extremely important one for Metropolia in more ways than one. Our long-term strategy has been to concentrate our operations from the more than 20 campuses we had previously to four campuses. The purpose of this is to achieve significant cost savings and, concurrently, create an environment that is unique in Finland for developing our operations as an innovative and active university of applied sciences that plays a key role in building the Finnish society of the future.
Now this strategy is in the execution phase. The Myllypuro campus was completed in October, and the infrastructure and facilities at the Arabia, Karamalmi and Myyrmäki campuses similarly enable us to conduct high-quality teaching activities. With our operating environment in great shape, we have a real opportunity to focus on the future and on development work. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I wish to state that I am very pleased that we have managed to successfully complete our major investment and development projects according to plan – including from a financial perspective – without having to take on debt. Similarly, our result for 2019 was clearly better than our target.
With all the aforementioned in mind, I would like to extend my gratitude to all of our stakeholders for a great 2019 – for your cooperation and your trust and faith in Metropolia. I would also like to thank our staff, in particular, for your excellent and committed work in a hectic year.
At the same time as I state that 2019 ended on a very positive note for Metropolia, I must conclude that, on the eve of the summer of 2020, we find ourselves in a very different situation indeed. The global coronavirus pandemic has led to completely exceptional circumstances in Finnish society, as elsewhere, and in every sector. For Metropolia, the concrete consequences are that our campuses are closed, we have moved to distance teaching and we are deeply worried about the future.
However, we firmly believe in a positive future. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, I am unable to say when and how the current challenges will be resolved in a concrete way, but I can confidently assert that they will be resolved and we will come out of the current circumstances full of vigour!
