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The University of Turku (Finnish Turun yliopisto, Swedish Åbo universitet), located in Turku in southwestern Finland, is the second largest university in the country as measured by student enrolment. It was established in 1920. The university is a member of the Coimbra Group. The university also has faculties at Rauma, Pori and Salo.
History The first university to be established in Turku was Academy of Åbo, in 1640, which was transferred to the new Capital, Helsinki, after the Great Fire of Turku in 1827. Three famous Finns began their studies in Turku in 1822. These were Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Elias Lönnrot, and Johan Ludvig Runeberg who have a statue on the University hill. The modern University of Turku was founded in 1920. The Finnish intelligentsia wanted a purely Finnish university, the first of its kind in Finland. 22 040 people contributed to the fund-raising campaign. Newly gained independence and the campaign are reflected in the motto of the University “A gift from a free people to free science." To honour the memory of these donors, the University has named its specially created liqueur "22 040". Developed by the University's own food chemists, the liqueur does homage to some of the distinctive fruits of the Finnish landscape: the cloudberry, the rowan and the sea buckthorn. The first premises of the University of Turku were in the centre of the city, by the market square. In the 1950s a new campus was built on Ryssänmäki (Russian Hill – now known as the University Hill). In the 1960s the University started to expand rapidly, a process that still continues. The University was made a public institution in 1974. Enrolment The University has approximately 18 000 students, of which 5000 are Ph.D. students. The largest faculties are the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Organisation There are six faculties: The university also has number of special units not affiliated with faculties: Campus area The University of Turku shares a campus with Åbo Akademi University, Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, and elements of Turku Science Park. The area also encompasses the Turku University Hospital and the Student Village. The Administration Building and the surrounding complex was built in the fifties on what became to be known as the University Hill. The campus is constantly expanding. The university has also acquired some former military barracks built in the 19th century. The latest additions include Educarium, which houses the Faculty of Education, Publicum, which houses the Faculty of Social Sciences and the newly completed ICT-building which houses the Computer Science Faculties. Famous Alumni | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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