About BUP and how to join
The Baltic University Programme is a member organisation for universities in the Baltic Sea region.
The goal for the network is to lead to more visibility and cooperation among researchers, teachers and students in the region. The aim is also to foster a greater awareness of sustainability and democracy issues as well as facilitate exchange and mobility.
How to join
Becoming a member entitles the participating university to send students and teachers to BUP courses and conferences. More information about becoming a BUP participating university.
The BUP organisation
The network is coordinated by the Baltic University Programme Coordinating Secretariat at Uppsala University, Sweden.
BUP Finland, both National Centre and Associate Secretariat, is located at Åbo Akademi University in Turku. The German Associate Secretariat is located at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, and the Polish Associate Secretariat at Lodz University of Technology.
The BUP Finland is one of three Associate Secretariats within the Baltic University Programme. All Associated Secretariats have specialised tasks. Where the Finnish Secretariat’s task is education, the German Associate Secretariat deals with research development, and the Polish Associate Secretariat deals with the organisation of network wide courses and conferences.
The BUP Finland is also a National Centre, that coordinates the Finnish universities’ and polytechnics’ activities in the BUP network, such as students and teachers conferences.
Past activities
BUP Finland’s activities are presented in annual reports (pdf):
- BUP Finland annual report 2021.
- BUP Finland annual report 2022.
- BUP Finland annual report 2023.
- BUP Finland annual report 2024.
Take part of information and evaluations about past BUP events on BUP’s web pages.
How it all started
The Baltic Sea region is understood as the drainage basin of the Baltic Sea. There are 14 countries completely or partially within the basin, including the Nordic and Baltic states, Russia, Poland, and Germany, as well as the major inland states of Belarus, Ukraine, and the Czech and Slovak republics. The region has 85 million inhabitants and constitutes 15% of the population of Europe.
The Baltic University Programme was initiated by Uppsala University in 1991. It has its roots in the major changes in the Baltic Sea region at the end of the Cold War. Only then was it possible, after more than 50 years of isolation, for the universities in the region to actively communicate with each other. The global efforts to promote sustainable development started in the same period, with the World Summit for Environment and Development in Rio in 1992. Sustainable development, that addresses environmental, economic, and social issues, became a widespread goal during the changes in the Baltic Sea region.
Universities, where the new generation receive their education, and with a long tradition in internationalism, have a major role in the changes towards a democratic, peaceful, and sustainable development in the region. The main goal of the Baltic University Programme is to support this development.
In 2021, The Baltic University Programme celebrated its 30-year anniversary. Over time the Programme has developed to become one of the largest university cooperations in the world!