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.

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 will celebrate it's 30th anniversary!

2022-2023 Team

Board

ESN Team Members