Collaborative membership of the Finnish Student Sports Federation helps promote physical activity at Häme University of Applied Sciences

HAMK is the seventh collaborative member of OLL. Currently, these partners enjoy the benefits of collaborative membership primarily through networking between academic sports services.

"We warmly welcome Häme University of Applied Sciences to our collaborative member network! It’s great that both the student union and the higher education institution have joined the umbrella organisation of Finnish university sports," says OLL president Mio Kortelainen.

"We’re delighted to join the Finnish Student Sports Federation as a collaborative member. Our collaboration with OLL has always been very good, and membership is a way to strengthen it even further. We are looking forward to developing the Finnish higher education institutions’ sports scene to better meet the many challenges of the changing operating environment and society at large," says HAMK’s sports planner Jari Virtanen.

The Häme University of Applied Sciences Student Union (HAMKO) is a full member of OLL. This arrangement allows providers and users of sports services and facilities to jointly promote students’ physical activity as part of a national movement.

Changes to OLL’s membership model

Most of OLL’s members are student unions in higher education institutions, but the federation wants to further strengthen partnership between users and providers of sports services. In spring 2024, OLL changed its rules to allow higher education institutions to become full members. Membership applications will be processed once the autumn General Assembly confirms the membership fee.

"For over two decades, collaborative membership has served as a good way to develop partnership between student unions and the sports services in higher education institutions. However, promoting physical activity is increasingly something that the whole higher education institution community must handle. So we want to extend membership to the whole community – not only the statutory student organisations, but also the teaching staff, the facilities services and the management, for example," Kortelainen says.

OLL is also currently working on a service design project to develop its membership so that the roles and services of all current and future members effectively contribute to the common goal of promoting the ability to study and the wellbeing of higher education institutions’ students through sport.

Additional information

Mio Kortelainen
president
+358 44 780 0211 / mio.kortelainen@oll.fi