Facilities at Turku

Turku is the second largest seat of learning in Finland and, accordingly, the students of Turku have built for themselves their own modern dormitories. The building of the Students' Union of Turku University, accommodating 380 tenants. closely resembles, in respect to principle, the Domus Academica in Helsinki. The Turkuites have, in addition, a dancehall which, it goes without saying, is quite a popular place. The Students' Union of the Swedish University in Turku, the Abo Akademi, also has a dormitory which accommodates 111 students. A foreign student visiting Turku in the summer time has a good chance of landing a room In one or the other of these dormitories.

Jyvaskyla boasts an Institute of Pedagogics, the 160 place dormitory of which offers the cheapest accommodations in the country. It is divided into two sections, one for men and the other for women. The distance to the school is about 30 paces, and considering that the restaurant is situated in the same building, with an indoor swimming pool a stone's throw away, the future educators of the country have no cause for complaint.

Next autumn, the Teachers' College of Oulu will be transformed into a university and in time it will doubtless provide sufficient living space, but even at present the existing dormitory can put up 100 students.

The College of Social Science, which is now spending its final period in Helsinki, is soon going to move to Tampere, the great industrial city of the Finnish interior, and present plans call for reserving space for accommodating students. The dormitory itself will represent the most ultramodern design in this sphere of architecture.

The Finnish student dormitory has gained tremendous favour in student circles, and the number of applicants for admission as tenants always exceeds the available space. Although collective living quarters have features all students cannot stomach, occupancy is quite voluntary, and therefore such disadvantages do not have appreciable effects.

It is hoped that the reader does not think that Finnish students are one hundred per cent satisfied with their present living conditions. This is naturally not the case. Much work remains to be done in order to open to all who desire it an opportunity to cut study costs by living cheaply and well.