Welcome to an online info session for international students on Wednesday, 28 April 2021, at 14–15.
NB: The event is intended primarily for degree students.
Topics:
Please, join the info session here.
Welcome!
Jukka Mönkkönen, rector
Tapio Määttä, academic rector
If you want to voluntarily repay student financial aid for 2020, you must do this before the end of April 2021. If overpaid financial aid is not returned in time, it is collected back at 7.5% interest.
Students whose income for 2020 exceeds a specified annual limit can voluntarily return overpaid study grant and student housing supplement payments. The annual income limit and the voluntary repayment provision do not apply to the general housing allowance. Overpaid financial aid must be paid back by Friday, 30 April 2021.
Recipients of student financial aid can access Kela’s e-service, OmaKela (kela.fi/web/en/e-services), to check preliminary information about their annual income and how it affects financial aid. To log in to the service, the students can use their online banking credentials or a mobile ID. The annual income details can be looked up by going to Omat etuudet (My benefits) > Opintotuki (Financial aid) > Tukikuukaudet (Months of financial aid) > Tulovalvonta (Income monitoring) > Vuositulot (Annual income).
Financial aid payments can be returned online. Students can access OmaKela to see for which months they can return financial aid and how much their annual income limit will go up if they voluntarily return aid for those months. The voluntary repayment can be made right away as an online payment through the student’s bank. Alternatively, students can print out the information needed for the payment and return the overpaid financial aid before the end of April.
Students who have received financial aid for nine months can have up to 12,498 euros in other income. For students with 10 months of financial aid the annual limit is 11,116 euros. They can check their personal income limit in OmaKela or call 020 634 2550 between 9:00 and 16:00, Monday to Friday.
With the exception of study grant payments, all taxable earnings and investment income count as income at their gross value (before any deductions). Income from abroad is also taken into account as income. It is up the students themselves to find out how much other income they have that affects their financial aid. Students can check their annual income by logging into OmaKela or the national incomes register, www.tulorekisteri.fi, or by looking it up on their pre-completed tax return.
Students who have received less financial aid for a particular month may choose to return that month’s financial aid payment. For higher education students, eligibility for financial aid is restored for each month for which they return financial aid.
Students whose income exceeds the annual limit and who do not return excess aid will be required to pay back the aid to Kela. In that case, the amount that must be paid back is 7.5% higher than if the aid had been returned voluntarily.
Last year, 27,500 students returned a total of 19.7 million euros voluntarily. Most of the voluntary repayments are made online.
The tax office will send taxpayers a pre-completed tax return form. Repayments of financial aid received by the end of February are taken into account in the tax return. Kela will notify the tax office of the amounts of financial aid returned voluntarily between March and April. This means that students need not revise their tax return on that account. The tax office will take into account all repayments when calculating students’ final tax liability.
Students’ Mental Health Day will be held on Thursday 22nd of April, and the campaign will run on social media for two weeks from 12th to 23rd of April. This year, Nyyti ry’s campaign theme is communality and right for help. The aim of the theme is to highlight that everyone is worthy of help when they need it.
During the emergency conditions and pandemic, students’ well-being and mental health problems have become an important topic of discussion. Seeking and getting help may have been difficult and health services are congested.
ISYY participates also in Nyyti ry’s campaign and wants to promote the mental health of its members by giving them a sense of community and peer support. During the campaign, ISYY will on its social media channels highlight different forms of giving help and encourages its members to share their own experiences with mental health problems along with seeking and getting help.
Everyone is #HelpWorthy.
Nyyti.fi: #HelpWorthy – Students’ Mental Health Day (opens ia a new window)
UEF Orchestra RytmiHäiriköt will take you to the musical world of Ultra Bra in this 2 hour livestream concert with free admission. Join us and enjoy the rich sounds of an extended big band with string section and four singers. Feel free to dance along in your living rooms!
Link to the livestream in YouTube
The event is organised in cooperation with City of Joensuu, Riveria, Valoparta and University of Eastern Finland.
Contact person: Timo-Teemu Passi, 050 378 4818, [email protected].
In the The Student Union of the University of Eastern Finland’s (ISYY) Representative Council Meeting held on the 8th of April, 2021, a member of the Representative Council, who had the floor, participated in the meeting in a way that a swastika flag was visible in the background. The Chairperson of the Representative Council immediately intervened on this action. Video feed to the member in question was severed immediately.
ISYY is taking this case seriously and has undertaken concrete measures together with the University of Eastern Finland. ISYY does not tolerate hate speech or threatening behavior and withdraws from the actions of the member of the Representative Council.
Due to this case, ISYY will examine its own meeting practices and emphasize its policy on safe space in order to make participating in meetings safe and accessible.
Answer ISYY’s calendar survey – share your ideas and you can win a “Straight outta” canvas bag!
What do you wish that the ISYY calendar included? How could we make the ISYY calendar even better?
We are interested in discovering the opinions, wishes, and ideas of our members regarding the calendar in order to improve it to match the needs of our members.
The survey is targeted at all our members of the Student Union of University of Eastern Finland, and we wish that many of you will answer it. The survey is open till 23rd of April, 2021 at 16:00.
Answering the survey will take only 5–10 minutes. We will draw three “Straight outta Itä-Suomi” canvas bags filled with goodies among the people who have answered the questionnaire and given their email address.
Due to the renovation of the Joensuu campus library, the service desk of Oppari and the IT service will move to the evacuation space Agora AG103 on Mon-Tue 19-20 April 2021. The service counter is closed during the move. The service will be opened at Agora on Wed 21.4.2021. There are computers for students to study independently, a printer and a service desk at Agora. We are open on weekdays from 9 am to 6 pm, on Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm. Please check for spring and summer exceptional opening hours at Kamu.
We will operate at Agora until the end of August, a more detailed schedule for the change back to the campus library will be announced in the summer.
Welcome to participate in the ISYY’s Association days from your home!
Association Days is on Facebook-events from Wednesday 7th of April to Wednesday 14th of April 2021.
In the event student organisations, campus organisations and ISYY’s clubs present their activities to new and old students.
Read more on the Student Union´s web pages: https://www.isyy.fi/en/whats-on/isyys-remote-association-days-from-7th-to-14th-of-april-2021.html.
The event is organised completely online 13.–16.4.2021 and most of the contents can be freely accessed without registration. The recordings of the event may be accessed and viewed for two weeks.
There will also be a 1 ECTS optional course about the event, stay tuned for more information!
You can find the schedule of the Career Skills Week in the address https://www.isyy.fi/en/whats-on/welcome-to-the-isyys-career-skills-week-on-13.-16.4.2021.html.
Easter and the Easter holidays are approaching, but unfortunately the coronavirus situation remains challenging both on a national level and in the university’s home regions. This is why we appeal to the entire academic community to spend their holidays safely, protecting their own health and that of others.
Jukka Mönkkönen & Tapio Määttä
