Turku is one of the most popular cities for students in Finland and it is a home for thousands of new students every year. We wanted to help the newcomers and exchange students to get to know their new hometown. We organised Student Weeks that made it easy toget tips from fellow students and to get to know Turku a student city. We even organised a happening called Neighborhood Hunt - Student Edition. Read further to get the best tips for Turku.
What is it about Turku that attracts students?
Every now and then, the street scene of Turku fills with thousands of students wearing colorful overalls. And no wonder – Turku has roughly 40 000 students of which 4000 are international students. Almost like a population of a small town!
As a student city, Turku attracts about 5,000 new students every year. The number of alternatives in the fields of education is one reason for Turku's popularity, but it doesn't explain the whole truth. There is something mysterious about the Turku region, as so many students are willing to stay in the area even after finishing their studies.
During my first years of study I discovered the Turku for students pretty well. Although, I have to admit that I was pretty lost at first. Exploring a new city always takes time. I wish someone had told me before I moved here things like which areas students usually live in Turku so I wouldn’t accidentally end up many miles away from my friends to come. It would've also been useful to know what on earth does Föri and Föli mean.
What does a student want to know about Turku?
A way before arriving in Turku, a new student must make a decision about the location of their student flat. To support this mission, we collected tips from current students on what was most important to them when they were looking for a neighborhood. We also wrote about the most popular student housing options from TYS and other neighborhoods favored by students. Have you already found the right place for you and are you happy about the choice you made? :)
We also presented a broader view of Turku as a city. In a new city you got to get familiar with its public transportation options, where to go to do sports as well as best public workspaces where you can for example do your studies. And by the way, do you already know how to spend your free time in Turku?
The students got to know their new city in a Neighborhood Hunt
Neighborhood Hunt is a refreshing and fun way to explore the unique places of a new city or to discover your hometown from new perspective. We organised Neighborhood Hunt for students together with the University of Turku. The idea of the Hunt is to look for checkpoints around the neighborhoods and answer interesting questions that will help you get to know this particular place better.
The Neighborhood Hunt about Turku for students led the enthusiastic orienteers from the corners of the Student Village to the surroundings of Retrodorm in Luolavuori, favored by exchange students, and all the way to the suburb of multicultural Varissuo.
The Neighborhood Hunt introduced students among many other things to a weird creature called Posankka, which is Turku's official city animal close to the Student village. Students had to also find out if there are real caves in Luolavuori (in Finnish this means "Cave mountain").
We asked some regionally interesting information that was easy to find as well as facts about student life that students might need such as "what is ESN?". In addition, students were able to share their preferences about food found in Finnish forests as well as which sports they like most at the CampusSport organisation. It seems, our hunters were happy about their experiences:
"Yes I had fun. Especially I liked Luolavuori, have to go find the actual caves." - Sarah, neighborhood hunter 13.9.2020
"It was a nice long Sunday walk to go to all of the checkpoints." - Henri, neighborhood hunter 13.9.2020
Already excited about the next Neighborhood hunt? ;)
Even if the Student Weeks have finished by now, fun activities does not have to end! The new Neighborhood Hunt is coming, yet we won't tell the location or the theme just yet. Follow the Know Your Hoods blog, Facebook and Instagram pages so you stay 'on the map'.
-Ninna
P.S. You can get familiar with the neighborhoods of the Turku region with the help of our free search engine!
