Tampere University has embarked on a campus development plan to massively reduce university spaces. The plan calls for a 25% reduction in space by 2030. The reduction is mostly motivated by cost savings. The more specific plan about the spaces to be reduced was presented in the document addressed to the University Board meeting 12 November (document on Tampere3 wiki requires password, automatically downloads the PDF). The list of spaces to be given up partly or entirely includes buildings from the city centre, Hervanta and Kauppi campuses: The plan proposes giving up Pinni A in the city centre campus in its entirety by 2025. The university would then give up Linna and Virta at the city centre campus and Festia in Hervanta in their entirety by 2030. Additionally, the university would partially give up the Arvo building on Kauppi campus (Arvo 1) and Konetalo on Hervanta campus.
Tampere University has collected statements on the campus development plan from the representatives of the university community, such as the faculty councils, the co-operation council and the student union. TATTE considers it a very good thing that the representatives of the community have had an opportunity to bring forth their views and concerns related to the plan together with justifications. TATTE hopes that these statements of the community will be genuinely and comprehensively taken into consideration when making decisions about the new campus space reorganization proposal.
TATTE shares the previous concerns presented, for example, by the staff representatives in the co-operation council about the plans that were available for comments having been very generalized and without any comparable data on the use of space. Furthermore, the plan to be presented to the board does not include concrete presentations about how the basic functions of the university would be carried out after the planned space reductions. Without concrete presentations it is not possible to properly evaluate the effects of the plan.
TATTE rejects the campus space reorganization proposal in its current form as excessive and overly optimistic in regards to practical implementation. The plan provides no plausible or illustrative examples of how the plan could be implemented without severely and negatively impacting working and studying conditions. Already the scope of spaces to be reduced according to the plan in its current form is excessive to the point of certainly having a negative impact on the university’s basic functions. The plan is based on strong assumptions of how teaching and research are realized in the future. These assumptions should be reflected upon carefully, listening to the community and with an understanding of research-based evidence. In our previous statement we expressed our concerns related to the effects that the space reductions will have on research, teaching and work well-being.