Donations and matched funding gave the University of Oulu more than EUR 10 million for research and education

The income of the University of Oulu's fundraising campaign will rise to more than 10 million, when the Government made a decision on the matched funding to be paid based on donations last week.

"Donations and the state matched funding for them are a significant additional resource for the University of Oulu, which enables investment in new strategic research openings and key recruitments, as well as teaching development. The University of Oulu has already decided to allocate donation funds, for example, to establish new professorships in the field of water engineering and business ethics, and to strengthen Swedish language skills. Many thanks to all our donors", says Marja Jokinen, director responsible for fundraising at the University of Oulu.

The matched funding will strengthen the university's operations through the distribution of the return on capital. The investment capital created through the university's fundraising is already almost EUR 90 million.

During the latest campaign, university received donations from a wide range of sources. The foundations and associations, and co-operation companies of the University of Oulu have played a key role.

More than a half of the donations were allocated in the field of technology. The largest donations were made by Maa- ja vesitekniikan tuki association (EUR 1 million) and the Technology Industries of Finland (EUR 600.000).

Donations can be made at any time

Fundraising activities at the University of Oulu are continuous, independent of matched funding periods. Donations play a significant role in strengthening research and teaching and in the university's autonomy. Fundraising campaigns, endowment professorships, support for research projects, teaching development or student welfare are examples of donation targets in recent years. The University of Oulu wants to build long-term cooperation with donors and conducts a close dialogue to achieve shared goals.

In total, the universities collected more than EUR 70 million in private donations entitling them to state matched funding over the course of two years. The State Council confirmed the amount of donations entitling to matched funding and allocated the matched funds to the universities on November 3. The universities' matched funding, a total of EUR 67 million, was distributed to the universities according to the same ratio they collected donations. Matched funding allocated by the state to universities is to be recorded in the basic capital of the universities. Universities can only use the return of these capitals for their activities.

With the capitalization, the Ministry of Education and Culture wants to strengthen the universities' finances and independent operational possibilities, as well as support strategic management.

Additional information:

Ministry of Education and Culture´s press release regarding the matched funding (in Finnish)

University of Oulu campaign result

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