At the end of the year, we conducted a METKA2025 survey to find out your views on METKA’s activities. The responses will be used to develop METKA’s activities in 2025. We received 28 responses in total, thank you to everyone who responded! Gift card draw winners have been notified personally.
General information
The respondents study fields divided as follows:
- Social and health field 14,3 %
- Technology 64,3 %
- Business 7,1 %
- Culture 14,3 %
The respondents main campus:
- Myllypuro 32,1 %
- Myyrmäki 32,1 %
- Arabia 14,3 %
- Karamalmi 21,4 %
The respondents membership status:
- Yes 85,7 %
- No 14,3 %
Respondents were asked to rate the sectors on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 = very dissatisfied and 5 = very satisfied.
- Communications 3,75
- Advocacy 3,82
- Tutoring 3,71
According to the answers the most popular events in 2024 were:
- Freshers’ Party, Autumn 2024
- Week of Wappu
- MetroSport
- PoroParty
- Kontula Appro
Respondents were asked to choose between 1 and 3 of the 11 sectors they considered most important.
- Advocacy: 26,4 %
- Tutoring: 20,8 %
- Events: 16,7 %
- Zone: 9,7 %
- Member services: 8,3 %
- Communications: 5,6 %
- Projects: 4,2 %
- Clubs: 2,8%
- Business cooperation: 2,8 %
- Stakeholder cooperation: 2,8 %
- METKA’s Speksi: 0 %
Open feedback
What else did the METKA2025 survey reveal? In this section we respond to some of the comments received through open feedback.
1. More value for the membership fee
METKA is currently looking for new partners and membership opportunities for its members. However the discounts offered by Slice and Zone Sports Services offer easy value for money for the price of membership.
And if you like events or patches, membership pays for itself pretty quickly in discounts.
2. More low-threshold events
METKA is not an event organisation, although it may look like one to its members. Our main role is to look after students’ rights, to look after students’ interests and to advocate for students. However, we do try to listen to requests and organise a few events a year.
Metropolia’s student associations organise a number of low-threshold events. For more information on events organised by the student associations (opy), see for example Kide.app.
3. Advocacy should be made more visible
Advocacy tends to be pretty invisible if you don’t need it yourself. But behind the scenes, METKA’s advocacy team is dealing with student contacts AKA cases throughout the year. The handling of cases is based on trust and therefore it is not possible to communicate them externally.
Other advocacy work includes municipal and county elections work. METKA has e.g. organised election panels in cooperation with Laureamko and compiled information on elections. Advance voting has also just begun and METKA is organising joint trips from each campus to vote.
METKA has also made one statement and opinion this year (an amendment to the Aliens Act, which would put UAS students in an unequal position). Last year we made statements and opinions.
A big part of advocacy is also the appointment and training of student representatives. Student representatives are ordinary students who represent the students of their degree on advisory councils or, more broadly, the student perspective, on the Legal Protection Committee, the Board of Examiners or the Board of Metropolia UAS Ltd.
For more information on advocacy, please visit our website.
4. Tutors longer with freshers at the beginning of the academic year
In future tutor trainings we aim to provide even more concrete possibilities and support for tutors to be available and present for the freshers and to spend more time with them.
However, it is good to remember that tutors are students themselves. Sometimes their studies can take more time too. However, you can contact tutors at any stage of your studies. However, we also encourage freshers to actively communicate with their tutors and fellow students. If needed, METKA also helps with the twists and turns of studies.
METKA’s finances and membership fee
Back in the days, about half of the Metropolia students were members of METKA. As a result, operations were broader and, in a sense, more established. student card and benefits were only available by purchasing the student union membership.
In 2015, the Ministry of Education and Culture decided to create a data register that will collect information on all Finnish students’ studies and where students can check their student status themselves. Since the student ID can be presented in the Virta service, the METKA representative council made a considered decision in 2018 to make the student ID available to all students. This led to a decrease in membership and a corresponding increase in membership fees.
Membership fee
The amount of the membership fee is not made up. it is based on calculations and predictions of how much euros METKA needs to function well. This is what the membership fee (44 €) currently consists of:
- Operations maintenance 21,80 €
- Self-financing of Projects 4,00 €
- Zone Sports Services 6,00 €
- National Union of Students in Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences – SAMOK 5,50 €
- OPKU+ 6,00 €
- Finnish Student Sports Federation OLL 0,60 €
- World Student Capital WSC 0,10 €
Income and expenses
Income
- Funding and cooperation agreements 58 %
- Project funding 2 %
- Events 19 %
- Membership fees 17 %
- Other 4 %
*) Figures are rounded and will change slightly during the year due to changes in a number of members, as projects come to an end and as event income is confirmed.
Most of the money comes from the funding and cooperation agreement. This means funding from Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. In addition, METKA receives money from event revenue. METKA does not currently receive project grants as there are no projects in progress at the moment.
Membership fees account for about 10-15% of METKA’s annual income, depending on the year, but on the other hand, membership fees are key to the scope of activities METKA is able to organise: do we only do the statutory tasks, or more?
Expenses
- Staff Expenses 55 %
- Administration 15 %
- Operations 12 %
- Events 11 %
- Board Member Rewards 7 %
*) Figures are rounded and will change slightly during the year due to staff changes and other factors.
Most money is spent on hiring employees. METKA and Zone currently has six (6) persons who receive monthly salary. The Board and the chairpersons of the Representative Council receive a reward for their trustee position, but the amount is not comparable to the salary. The trustees study more or less normally, and possibly also go to work.
In addition, money is spent on running all activities, such as banking services and telephones. METKA is also a member of SAMOK and the Finnish Student Sports Federation. These organizations are paid an annual fee based on the number of METKA members.
Thanks for reading this far! Feedback and ideas can be given all year round, for example by e-mail metka@metkaweb.fi or with Metku Mail form.
This post is also available in Suomi.