The Ģֱ’s Annual Report 2023
In research and education, the year 2023 was successful
The Ģֱ started strategy work in January 2023. The JYU strategy “Wisdom and wellbeing for us all” sets our vision up to the 2030s. Our strategy work has helped to identify possible future scenarios and renew the University’s strategic focus areas and goals.
There were changes in JYU’s leadership during the year. Keijo Hämäläinen, who had served as the Rector of the University since August 2017, resigned and Vice Rector Marja-Leena Laakso assumed the Rector’s duties from 21 April. Jari Ojala was selected as the Rector of the Ģֱ and started in the position on 14 August 2023.
The number of peer-reviewed publications remained at a good level, whereas the number of non-peer reviewed publications declined slightly.
JYU succeeded excellently in competitive research funding applications in 2023. The Research Council of Finland granted the Ģֱ 4.1 million euros for the development of key research fields in 2023–2028. All funded profiling activities are characterised by a multidisciplinary approach and increasing wellbeing and competence in accordance with the University’s strategy.
The number of degrees at the Ģֱ increased clearly from the previous year in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. The total number of degrees was 3,054, and the number of master’s degrees increased in all disciplines. The University succeeded especially in doctoral degrees with 151 doctorates awarded, whereas in the previous year the number was 116.
JYU retained its position as the leading provider of open university education in Finland. The threshold of 10,000 ECTS credits was exceeded again even though the total was slightly smaller than in the previous year.
Our development of education was active in 2023. The University launched a large-scale development project in continuous learning, participated in the national Digivision project and was selected as an Opin.fi 3.0 pilot institution, which enables nationwide expansion of JYU’s study offering.
The Champion of Open Science Award was handed to Muuttolintujen kevät (Spring of Migratory Birds), a mobile application and research project that was developed jointly by the Ģֱ, Yle and CSC. The application combines artificial intelligence and citizen science, and it received significant publicity.
During the year, the HR Excellence in Research quality label was confirmed again for JYU for the next three years, an external assessment of research was completed, and the University was the first university to participate in the audit process of top athlete-friendly higher education institutions.
The Ģֱ continued international cooperation in the FORTHEM Alliance, which was led by the Rector of the Ģֱ in 2023. Regional cooperation also remained active. Cooperation in research and education related to wellbeing was concretized in the collaborative area for healthcare and social welfare, which started its operation at the beginning of 2023. The collaborative area is formed from the wellbeing services counties of Central Finland, South Savo, North Karelia and North Savo.
In the EduFutura cooperation, the Ģֱ, JAMK University of Applied Sciences and the Jyväskylä Educational Consortium Gradia created strategic outlines to strengthen their impact by the start of the 2030s.
The objective of the Ģֱ is to be a carbon-negative and nature-positive organisation by 2030. This means that measurable climate and biodiversity impacts should be reduced at least 60% from the level of 2019. The University took a step closer to the carbon-negative goal by reducing its total carbon footprint. The University has, for example, participated in energy saving by reducing temperatures and optimising air conditioning. Procurement was the only category in which both the carbon and biodiversity footprint increased. The growth is explained by the shift to a hybrid era, which has made it necessary to invest in IT equipment and services.
The carbon footprint of the University’s investments shrank and, on top of existing responsibility goals, qualitative biodiversity criteria were set for the investments.
Non-discrimination, equality and accessibility are important cornerstones in teaching and research at JYU. In addition to the University’s equality plan, the Rector decided on the introduction of the new accessibility plan on 19 January 2023.
The University’s turnover in the financial year 2023 was €232.9 million and the operating costs €243.7 million. The operating result was €10.9 million in deficit. In 2022, the deficit was €13.3 million. Government funding for the University increased 5% and supplementary funding grew 5% from the previous year.
The realised result of investment activities was €6.7 million (€5.8 million in 2022) but the unrealised value depreciation of investment assets at the end of the financial year was €4.4 million (25.4 million in 2022). The investment and financial yields were €2.2 million in total.
After the value change of investments, the result of the financial year was a deficit of €8.5 million (–€31.9 million in 2022). The result without the value change was a deficit of €4.0 million. However, this result is €1.7 million better than what was budgeted and €2.9 million better than what was predicted in the revised budget in spring 2023. Actions to balance the finances were started in autumn 2023, and had a positive impact, so that the result was better than budgeted.
The University’s personnel costs increased €5.3 million, an increase of 3% in comparison to the previous year. Of all expenses, staff costs comprised 68.5%. Facility rents constituted 12% of total costs. This means that only one fifth of costs were other than staff costs or facility rents. Annual costs of travelling increased but are still about 10% lower than they were before 2020. The amount of procured services increased from the previous year.
In cases when the University lacks sufficient cash reserves to cover the operating costs, funds are taken from the investment assets. In the financial period 2023, €12 million of investment assets were realised to maintain liquidity (€14 million in the financial period 2022).
The share of supplementary funding in the turnover was 35%, which is on the same level as earlier. The total sum of supplementary funding increased almost to €81 million, of which the competitive research funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture increased by €2.3 million to the total of €41 million. The largest project financers were the Research Council of Finland (€29.2 million) and the Ministry of Education and Culture (€4.6 million). The amount of funding from the European Commission and other EU funding sources continued to increase significantly.
One of the selected focal areas of development in 2023 was the development of a coaching leadership style. Through this more coaching-based style, the construction of good leadership and our community-based working culture was strengthened. By the end of 2023, in total 180 supervisors had participated in the JYULead programme. Staff training focusing on wellbeing at work and development of expertise was organised during the year.
The amount of staff with a monthly salary in 2023 totalled 2,691 person-years (2,709 in 2022). For teaching and research staff, the total was 1,655 person-years (–1.4%) and the amount of other staff (including research assistants) was 945 person-years (+0.6%). The amount of teaching staff in the Teacher Training School was 92 person-years and remained the same as earlier. The amount of person-years for part-time teachers was 69 and for hourly paid employees 30. The share of international staff in the person-years of teaching and research staff was 18.5% (17.5% in 2022). Of the whole staff, the share was 13.1%, which is slightly more than earlier (12.4% in 2022). The University’s employees came from 75 countries, most frequently from India, China and Germany.
