About Us

ESN UNI HELSINKI

We are a local section of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) at the University of Helsinki.

The purpose of ESN Uni Helsinki is to improve the status of international students at the University of Helsinki, to assist the social and practical adaptation of exchange students to the Finnish society, to strengthen the bonds between exchange students and to assist the students of the University of Helsinki with "internationalisation at home". We are a non-profit student organisation that organises free-time activities for all internationally-minded students and interns in Helsinki!

Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is a non-profit international student organisation.
Our mission is to represent international students, thus provide opportunities for cultural understanding and self-development under the principle of Students Helping Students.

Our Values

Our core values are those of unity in diversity, openness, tolerance, and respect.

We are dedicated to eliminate discrimination and encourage diversity among our members and volunteers. We have zero-tolerance policy towards any kind of discrimination or threatening behaviour. We commit to an organisational culture that embraces equality and values diversity and help us to ensure that everyone feels involved and included in our plans and activities.

History

1993

Finland became part of the Erasmus Student Network with the foundation of ESN HYY. Already before that, some attempts were made to establish the first ESN section in Finland. For example, at the beginning of the 1990s National Union of Finnish Students organised a seminar where also Swedish advocate of ESN was invited. She did her best to make the student unions join ESN at once. But at that time the general feeling towards the international organisations that were popping up in Europe was a bit sceptical.

The way we eventually got involved with ESN is pretty interesting:

The international secretary of the University of Helsinki's Student Union, Teppo Heiskanen, got a phone call asking him to come to Maastricht for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ESN in 1993. The Board of the Student Union were convinced that this was truly a serious attempt to tackle the problems of growing student exchange numbers. Consequently, ESN HYY became the first ESN section in Finland as a committee of the Student Union of University of Helsinki. Teppo Heiskanen became the first National Representative of Finland and organised the 1994 AGM in Helsinki.

2013

ESN HYY celebrated it's 20th anniversary.

2014

On April 30, ESN Uni Helsinki was registered to the Finnish Patent and Registration Office as Erasmus Student Network - University of Helsinki ry, and gained a legal status as a registered association in Finland.

2023

ESN Uni Helsinki celebrated its 30th anniversary!