History
In 2004, a workgroup led by Anne Brunila of the Finnish Ministry of Finance concluded that Finland had too many universities and other institutes of tertiary education which should be consolidated. Following this, Yrjö Sotamaa, president of the University of Art and Design Helsinki at the time, proposed the merger of Aalto University's founding schools in his president's opening speech in 2005. Sotamaa's line of reasoning was that this move would create a unique interdisciplinary university that was needed to create new innovative thought.
The idea received attention within the Finnish Ministry of Education, which appointed Raimo Sailas, a leading official at the Ministry of Finance, to investigate the possibility of a merger. After Sailas' group reported that it considered the merger to be beneficial to the Finnish academic world and economy, the Finnish government decided to go on with the project on November 11, 2007.
On May 29, 2008, the government announced that the new university would be named for the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in recognition of his achievements in technology, economics and art. The Finnish Minister of Education at the time, Ms. Sari Sarkomaa, together with representatives of Finnish industries and professional organisations, signed the Aalto University charter on June 25, 2008 in Helsinki. On December 19, 2008, Prof. Tuula Teeri was selected by the Board to be the first President of Aalto University.
Aalto University started operating on January 1, 2010. In the process of creating the university the university law of Finland was rewritten for the university to be allowed to collect endowment. The process of collecting donations is still under way and aims to collect a total of 200 million euros from private donations. All private donations will be augmented by 2.5 times the sum by the Finnish state, to a maximum of 500 million euros. Making the projected goal of fund raising 700 million euros.
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