An overview of year 2005

Staff and funding
Professor Esko Ukkonen was elected to continue as Research Director for the Basic Research Unit of HIIT for the next three-year period. University Lecturer Juho Rousu took over the office of Professor in bioinformatics and computational biology after Samuel Kaski had transferred to a professor's chair at Helsinki University of Technology.

The number of employees at the department stopped growing. In 2005, 165 person years were completed, i.e. nine less than the previous year. The decrease targeted both teaching, research and administration and service staff evenly. The total funding of the department also decreased from the record years 2003 and 2004 with EUR 500,000, resulting in MEUR 10.8.  However, the basic and additional external funding provided for the department increased somewhat, and the decrease was caused by the decrease in funds carried over from previous years.

Results in teaching and research

Measured in basic degrees, last year set a record; the department beat its official goal of 80 Master's degrees. While the previous record was set in 2002 with 72 degrees, in 2005 the proud new record of 82 degrees was registered. Since 112 Bachelor's degrees were recorded in the statistics at the same time, the future of the department looks promising when it comes to quantities. On the other hand, the amount of completed credits decreased due to a smaller intake of new undergraduates.

As for post-graduate degrees, we saw an unfortunate setback. A new record had been set in 2004 with 9 PhD degrees, but in 2005 the number sank to the level of previous years, only 3 new PhD degrees. This sets the future challenge of increasing the amounts of both basic and post-graduate degrees to a good level at the same time.

The long-term work on improving the teaching at the department bore fruit again. For the second year in a row, the department was ranked excellent by the University of Helsinki quality evaluation, and it was elected one of the eight units that the university presented to The Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council as quality units of university education. The ambitious goal that the department had recorded into its strategy for 2004-2006 of succeeding in the national election of quality units was later fulfilled, as in January 2006 The Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council presented the department to the Ministry of Education as one of the twenty quality university education units for the years 2007-2009.

At the end of the year, the department gave awards for good teaching and good research, as is its tradition. The award for senior researcher went to Taneli Mielikäinen and for junior researcher to Mika Raento. Raul Hakli (established teacher) and Joni Salmi (junior teacher) were given the awards for good teaching.

Department structure

In 2005, the department's operations were based on an established organisation with separate sectors in research, teaching and administration, each led by its own manager.

The steering committee of the department had the following members in 2005:

• Professor Jukka Paakki, chair
• Professor Hannu Toivonen, assistant chair (deputy: Professor Seppo Sippu)
• Professor Jyrki Kivinen (Professor Matti Nykänen)
• Professor Lea Kutvonen (Professor Kimmo Raatikainen)
• Assistant Jan Lindström (Researcher Juha Gustafsson)
• University Lecturer Pirjo Moen (Lecturer Markku Kojo)
• Scientific Assistant and Secretary Inka Kujala (Research Secretary Tiina Väisänen)
• Student member Otso Kivekäs (student Eeva Nevalainen)
• Student member Panu Mäntylahti (student Misa Munde)
• Student member Timo Oksala (student Sampo Lehtinen)

Department Secretary Sirkka Palander acted as secretary for the steering committee. Professor Timo Alanko, Lecturer Hannu Erkiö and Office Manager Päivi Karimäki-Suvanto acted as reporting members of the steering committee.