The universities of Lapland and Oulu stepped up their collaboration with their northwest Russian partners in 2006 when university rectors met in Rovaniemi to discuss educational and research development. At the meeting, the universities founded the Barents Cross Border University (BCBU) network, through which the universities have organized collaborative activities, including common English-language master’s programs.

In recent years, BCBU’s rectors have met at an annual meeting to discuss the how northern Finnish and northwest Russian universities can develop teaching and research cooperation and increase their involvement in the development of the whole Barents region. In addition, the meetings have discussed how this university cooperation should be extended to cover the entire Barents region.

On the agenda of this rectors’ meeting in Rovaniemi was network’s self-evaluation and feedback from students and the renewal of the cooperation agreement.

Rectors Lauri Lajunen and Mauri Ylä-Kotola state that, “During the meeting, it was noted that the expiring network agreement has created the basis for the current framework to create joint degree programs. The new agreement aims to incorporate other possible forms of cooperation, while the master’s programs remain the heart of the network.”

According to Rector Lajunen and Rector Ylä-Kotola, more focus will be given in the future to quality assurance, and collaboration in research and doctoral training.

”Common research themes can be found for example on the environmental questions of the exploitation of natural resources in Northern Eurasia.”


The rectors gathered in group photo.

BCBU + develops best practices
As a new form of collaboration, the BCBU network started last year a BCBU+ project coordinated by the University of Lapland and funded by the European Union Kolarctic ENPI CBC program. The project aims to develop new structures and good practices in master’s programs and in the network cooperation. The spearhead of the project is the development of a joint virtual campus, which seeks to overcome geographical, temporal, and financial barriers in collaboration.

Project Manager Sari Martikainen notes that “By modernizing the information technology equipment and online learning environments, the forms of cross-border collaboration in education and research can be diversified, as well as their quality can be improved and costs reduced”.

In addition, the joint master’s programs will be developed by paying more attention to teachers’ professional and international skills.

“We arrange teachers intensive courses in web pedagogy, languages and in forms of cooperation with working live. These courses, organized both in Finland and Russia, are planned to meet the needs of the master’s programs.”

Comparative social work
One of the joint master’s programs within the BCBU network is in comparative social work. The program has a strong basis in cooperation between the universities of Oulu and Lapland. Professor Tarja Orjasniemi states that “The benefits of cooperation are not limited to the Barents region. For example, social work master’s program graduates have the ability to work in international social sector jobs, and the Russian experience is a value in any given field. The international dimension gives more than it costs.”

Facts: The Barents Cross Border University (BCBU)
The BCBU network consists of two Finnish and seven Russian universities: the University of Lapland, University of Oulu, Northern (Arctic) Federal University (Arkhangelsk), Northern State Medical University (Arkhangelsk), Murmansk State Humanities University, Murmansk State Technical University, Murmansk Humanities Institute, Petrozavodsk State University and the Karelian State Pedagogical University. Within the master’s programs, the network has four other partners: Luleå University of Technology (Sweden), University of Manitoba (Canada), Narvik University College (Norway,) and Syddansk Universitet (Denmark).

BCBU university collaboration implements a network of four international English-language master’s programs: Comparative Social Work; Barents Master’s Program on Environmental Engineering; Health and Wellbeing in Circumpolar Areas; and Software, Systems and Services Development in the Global Environment. Comparative Social Work is coordinated by the University of Lapland and the others by the University of Oulu. The programs have started teaching in 2009 and 2010.

For more information:
University of Lapland, Rector Mauri Ylä-Kotola, tel. +358 400 276 288
Rector of the University of Oulu, Lauri Lajunen, tel. +358 400 581 472