Interview: Professor Vaara, Hanken School of Economics

TNE: The Hanken School of Economics is one of the Nordic region’s most established and respected institutions. What’s the strategy behind its growing success?
EV: We focus on the quality of research and teaching. Hanken has been around for a long time, and we have created excellent connections to the corporate world and have a wonderful alumni network. We have developed a balanced portfolio of BSc, MSc, PhD, MBA & Executive Education that draws from our competences. I wish to emphasise that all this is based on excellence in research that we have heavily invested in during the past years. And I am happy to say that we are now really a world-class institute in several areas. This is the key in making sure that we provide up-to-date, practically relevant knowledge as well as being able to challenge conventional wisdoms.

What sets the school apart from the competition, and what type of students does it target?
We are a leading internationally accredited business school that is proud of its heritage but at the same time continuously developing. We have a highly international profile in our programmes. For example, we have a mandatory exchange/internship abroad for students beginning at bachelor level and studying modules with foreign universities. Accordingly, we target ambitious, internationally oriented students interested in business and management in our BSc and MSc programmes. In our PhD program, we are interested in talent that can contribute to the international academic community. In MBA and Executive Education, we want to help managers to develop their competences and to succeed in the future. In all these programmes, we use innovative learning methods to make sure that people learn to think ahead.

The school has a decidedly international feel to it, attracting students from all over the world. What’s behind the international niche of the school, and how are you looking to increase its presence on the global arena?
I am proud to say that Hanken’s proportion of international students is high already. We have a large number of international partner universities that we work with and we have for instance a period of exchange or interning abroad which is integrated into the study program. Our faculty is increasingly international, and many of us have played central roles in international research programmes and associations. I have just completed my three-year Presidency at EGOS (European Group of Organisational Studies), and we are going to host the next EGOS conference at Hanken. However, we are not going to stand still, and there are several projects under way to go further in international collaboration with other leading business schools and universities.

Hanken seems to be constantly evolving. How do you go about implementing new strategies?
Being an independent business school provides us with the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances and continuously develop our operations and offerings. A key issue is to invest in and develop the faculty. We already have world-class scholars at Hanken, and we will continue to recruit talent from all over the world. This is crucial to sharpening our competitive edge. Some of these changes challenge previous ways of thinking about research and teaching – which requires hard work and dedication from all.

There are some organisational changes afoot. Please explain what these developments entail and what the outcome will be.  
We really have to pursue our strategy that focuses on internationalisation and world-class research. This means above all development of the faculty, recruitment and compensation systems. It is the faculty that is the engine of knowledge production – on the basis of which our teaching and other activities are built. We want to be at the forefront of this and provide all our students and other stakeholders with knowledge and information that is not only up-to-date but also helps to succeed in the future. In the long run, all this means that Hanken will be increasingly active and well-known also outside the Nordic region.

Information
Hanken School of Economics, known as Hanken, is a leading internationally accredited business school located in Finland. Hanken was founded in 1909, making it one of the oldest business schools in the Nordic region. These days Hanken is a business school with clearly defined strengths in the following areas: Finance and Statistics, Management and Organisation, Intellectual Property Law, and Service and Relationship Marketing.

Hanken is also a research-intensive business school and all study programmes provided on all academic levels are research-based. The School’s professors and a large number of lecturers who are active researchers guarantee that the latest research findings are continually integrated into the teaching. The research usually takes place in large international researcher groups in collaboration with the business world. The School endeavours to create new knowledge for a global audience.