Director Juha Kettunen to retire
D.Sc. (Econ.), Ph.D, D.Sc. (Tech.), Adjunct Professor Juha Kettunen is retiring. Kettunen acted as the Rector of Turku University of Applied Sciences in 2000–2014. In 2014, he was offered a position as a Director. He will continue the cooperation with TUAS as an emeritus.
Led by Juha Kettunen, Turku University of Applied Sciences was raised from the level of an ordinary educational institution to an expert organization providing research, development and innovation services with fundamental significance for the industrial policy of the province. While Kettunen acted as the Rector, Turku University of Applied Sciences has been one of the leading and largest universities of applied sciences in Finland and led the way for other actors in the middle of the intense change taking place in the Finnish university of applied sciences system.
In 2002, producing Master’s level university of applied sciences degrees was successfully begun at TUAS. Under Juha Kettunen, Turku University of Applied Sciences has been a trailblazer in gathering a scattered network of units into a strong, effective centre of competence as well as in creating an operations management and quality system for the organization.
Kettunen describes: "We did plenty of innovation work and developed a new innovation pedagogue training. We also built a European network of six higher education institutions called Consortium of Applied Research and Professional Education (CARPE). International projects are important in research, development and innovation work."
As the most interesting thing about working in the field of universities of applied sciences, Kettunen points out the management of change and achieving structural changes. He will also follow the progress of the Kupittaa campus project with warmth and interest. The planning of the campus started already in 2007, and the project is currently in implementation stage.
While his years as a Director, Juha Kettunen published 260 publications. As the motivation behind his three doctoral theses, Kettunen lists expressing his own ideas and views as well as the willingness to document the development of universities of applied sciences.
Turku University of Applied Sciences has invited Juha Kettunen to participate in TUAS Emeritus Programme. A person acting as TUAS emeritus may continue their activities at TUAS after retirement in a separately specified role.
In the photo: TUAS Rector and President Vesa Taatila (left), Director Juha Kettunen and Vice Rector Juhani Soini