Blog: How to make a difference in Haaga-Helia?

Influencing is important. It improves the quality of our education, offers solutions for old ways of action and improves student’s position in school, place of residence and nationwide. But how can you make an influence as a student?

Course feedback

Course feedback is anonymous and it is processed by the degree program management. The feedback is also read by each course’s responsible teacher and the quality manager of Haaga-Helia. You should also give feedback about positive things in your class because it strengthens successful and effective teaching methods.

You might be asked to give feedback already during the course. You can also give feedback without asking. For example, you should ask immediately if an assignment is unclear and ask for clarification. You should always check the course evaluation criteria and let your teacher know if you don’t understand them or if they are not in line with the course's learning objectives. It is also smart to start these conversations on a platform where all the other class members can participate in it. They might be thinking the same things as you. Giving feedback gives a chance to start a dialog which can clarify ambiguities.

What’s wrong?

Sometimes your grade may be late or there might be other challenges with your course. In these situations you can ask help from Helga’s advocacy specialist. You can contact our specialist anonymously via our What’s Wrong -form. All the contacts are confidential and we’ll be handled by Helga.

You don’t need to leave your contact info, but it is advised to do so because sometimes solving the situation requires more information from you. If you leave your email, it will be seen only by our advocacy specialist and it won’t be forwarded for any other third party.

Student associations

Another way of influencing is to contact your student association. They also take care of advocacy situations in your campus or degree program.

You can also apply for the board of your student association. The application period is usually in the autumn and the choices are made in the statutory autumn meeting. You can also participate in your association’s general meetings in the autumn and spring. The association's board produces events, advocacy and member benefits for students and are in constant contact with the management of your degree programme.

The round tables, YTY/YTE meetings and other development groups

Our degree programs also have joint meetings with students and teachers where you can give development ideas freely. These are commonly known as round table meetings or YTY/YTE meetings. The Business Service Solutions and Languages degree program has a quality group that meets 2-3 times per semester to evaluate the programme.

Haaga-Helia and Helga’s surveys

Influencing does not always have to involve specific problems in your degree program. You can affect our UAS’ way of actions by answering different kinds of surveys from Helga and Haaga-Helia. Recently Helga published the equality and non-discrimination survey. The answers will be used as a tool when Haaga-Helia is renewing its equality and non-discrimination plan for the year 2021.

Haaga-Helia also sends surveys for students in the first and fourth semester of their studies. All students get a link on their email and the link is always personalized. The findings will be reported for Haaga-Helia’s management, supervisors, degree programme and the Work Group for Student Wellbeing. A summary of numerical and open-ended responses are published on the quality portal.

There is also a survey called AVOP. It is a graduation stage survey, in which students evaluate and provide feedback on the completed education. The purpose of this survey is to develop the UAS and guide the degree program nationwide. It is also used as a tool in decision making of the funding.

Pilot courses and workshops

You can affect Haaga-Helia’s ongoing degree program renewal by participating in different pilot courses and workshops. In these Haaga-Helia is trying to find the best ways of action in the educational reform.

Tutoring

As a tutor you can offer your help for the new students and affect the orientation week. Tutors are the strongest link between Helga and students. For example, students can ask about Helga’s actions from their tutors.

The board of Student union Helga and Representative council

Student union Helga works daily for the benefit of all students in Haaga-Helia. Helga is looking for new board members every year. New board members are selected by the Representative council, which holds the ultimate authority in the student union. Any member of Helga can apply for the Representative council or the board of Helga.

The board of Helga plans and holds different kinds of events, makes guiding documents like political programs, produces services and works with advocacy. The Representative Council ratifies these documents and decides what are the big lines in the work of Helga and how does the work of Helga look like in the upcoming years.

The student representatives

You can make a difference as a student representative in the Haaga-Helia administration and other organs of Haaga-Helia. These representatives are also known as ”hallopedit”. The student representatives are working in Haaga-Helia’s board, collegiate body, restaurant committee, examination Committee, Scholarship Committee and HOAS delegation.

Election Committee

Election committee is the organ of the Student Union. The Committee oversees the election procedures of the Student Union. It also accepts the candidates and validates the result of the representative council election.

Representative Council Election

The Representative Council election period is on and any Helga member can make a difference by voting. Your vote is important and affects who are the people working for the benefit of all students of Haaga-Helia and what kind of decisions Helga is making in the future.

Your vote decides who are the people behind our political programs, rules, representatives and the budget.

Let’s do this, what’s next?

• The application period for new tutors is always in the spring semester and Helga shares information about the application process before it starts. The head tutors will interview the applicants and select the new peer tutors.

• The application period for the board of Helga starts on 5th November. You can apply until the inaugural meeting, which is on 25th of November. You can also apply during the inaugural meeting.

• You can apply for the student representative positions until the 24th of November before 15.59. You can fill the electrional application here: https://sites.google.com/helga.fi/helgaen/front-page/helga-is-looking-for-student-representatives

• You can also apply in the statutory autumn meeting which is 24th of November.

• The election announcement for the representative council election is always published during the beginning of the autumn period.

• If you’re willing to apply as a board member of your student association, you can find more about the application period from the communication channels of your student association.

• You can always give feedback at the end of your course. More info about the internal development meetings of your degree program can be found from your student association. What’s wrong? form is open around the year and you can also contact the board of Helga or Representative Council. You can find the contact information here:

• We also share information about different ways to affect as a student in our Facebook and Instagram.