Haaga-Helia renewed education contract with Guangzhou Polytechnic of Sports

For the third time, Haaga-Helia renewed its sports education contract with the Guangzhou Polytechnic of Sports in China. The agreement is valid until 2027.

Guangzhoun liikuntakorkeakoulun valmistuneita
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Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences has renewed its sports education deal with Guangzhou Polytechnic of Sports in China. The new contract period will last until 2027.

The 90-credit Sports management module implemented with the Guangzhou Polytechnic of Sports includes teaching e.g. marketing, sports management, and entrepreneurship.

First, two years of the studies will be implemented in China, and the third one in Finland. After the module, students have the opportunity to apply for an English degree program, which takes into account studies completed in both China and Finland.

Up to this day, as many as 53 Chinese students have completed the Degree Program in Sports Coaching and Management at Haaga-Helia.

The result of hard work

The collaboration between Haaga-Helia and Guangzhou is based on the persistent work of senior lecturer Kari Puronaho and Dr. Junjie Feng. According to Puronaho, the idea was born already over a decade ago.

- My former student Dr. Junjie Feng moved back to China and invited me to Guangzhou as a guest lecturer. Already by then, he had in mind a possible educational collaboration with Haaga-Helia, he says.

The collaboration has deepened gradually. In addition to education, Haaga-Helia and Guangzhou Polytechnic of Sports have co-organized, for example, international seminars. In the future, both parties would also like to deepen collaboration on the research, development, and innovation side.

According to Puronaho, the Chinese found it fascinating how Haaga-Helia combines practical work and study. Also, the material produced by the experts in Haaga-Helia is highly valued in China, as they combine the newest research with genuine work-life examples.

- Good reputation of the Finnish education system, the safety of our country as well as the professionality of our teachers have contributed greatly to the success of this collaboration and to the renewing of the contract, he says.

Back on track

Puronaho, who's been working on the collaboration for a long time, has promised to work as a teacher for the Sports management module until the end of 2022. During that period, the coordination of the program will be given to Heidi Freundlich, a lecturer from the Vierumäki campus.

Freundlich, who will take over the collaboration, has been working in the program since 2016, so the transfer of coordination is unlikely to cause any problems or delays.

According to Freundlich, she hopes to be able to teach in China as soon as possible. In early 2020, the module moved to online teaching and tutoring instead of intensive teaching weeks in China.

For reasons related to health safety, students have also not had the opportunity to come to Finland to study.

- For this reason, students have been a little distant, which makes it more difficult to teach online in a foreign language. However, I believe we are already heading in a better direction, she says.

China is one of the key markets for Finnish education exports. In 2020, the combined turnover of the member companies and organizations of the Education Finland training export program managed by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture reached a total value of EUR 498 million.

Haaga-Helia promotes international education exports through the education export company EduExcellence Oy, which in addition to Haaga-Helia includes Metropolia and Laurea Universities of Applied Sciences. EduExcellence is a global provider of Finnish educational solutions for modern working life needs everywhere in the world.