Hanken School of Economics

History

Hanken was founded in 1909 as a private community college under the name of Högre Svenska Handelsläroverket. Together with Stockholm School of Economics, Hanken is the oldest business school in northern Europe, with the former opening only a month after Hanken.

In 1927, the school was given its current name, Svenska Handelshögskolan. A year later, the school introduced a bachelor’s degree in economics, with professorships being introduced in 1934. The first doctoral dissertation took place in 1944.

Hanken’s second campus in Vaasa was established in 1980 to develop business education in the region - a region that houses a large proportion of the Swedish-speaking population in Finland. Consequently, the university is represented in both regions of Finland that have large Swedish-speaking populations.

Hanken was the first business school in Finland to introduce a compulsory stay abroad for its bachelor's students.

Governance

All universities in Finland, Hanken among them, are primarily regulated by the Universities Act (558/2009) and the Universities Decree (770/2009). The principal governance bodies of Hanken are the University Council, the Board, and the Rector and Deans.

The University Council appoints the external members of the Board, the auditors for the School, and the Academic Council. It approves the financial statement and grants the Board and the rector a discharge from liability.

The Board is the highest decision-making body of the School and is always chaired by an external person - at present Björn Wahlroos is chair of the Board. The Board decides on most issues of a strategic nature, such as the activity and economic plan as well as the budget. The Board is responsible for the economy of the School, the allocation of its funds, and appointing the Rector.

The current Rector is Professor Karen Spens who was appointed for a five-year period commencing 1 August 2015. The Rector exercises general authority as stated in the Universities Act, i.e. she heads the school, she is responsible for preparing and carrying out the decisions of the Board, and takes decisions on all matters that are not expressly the business of some other body.

Other decision-making bodies are the Academic Council and the Examination Board.

The student body is represented in each decision-making body by at least one student.

Departments

Hanken’s research and teaching is organized into five departments and one centre that constitute of one or more subjects. Students of the subjects are represented in each Department Council by student-elected student representatives.

Education

Currently, Hanken offers master’s degree programmes in both Swedish and English, while all bachelor’s degree programmes are in Swedish. Hanken also has PhD and MBA programmes in English.

The bachelor’s degree programmes are three year courses that include a minimum 3 month stay abroad. Those who complete a bachelor's degree at Hanken have the automatic right to continue with master’s studies.

The MSc in Economics and Business Administration programme is a two year programme with 120 ECTS. Students studying in English can choose between six different degree programmes, while students studying in Swedish have a choice of seven majors. The English degree programmes are Business and Management, Corporate Governance, Economics, Finance and Accounting, General Management, and Intellectual Property Law. In some of the programmes, students can choose between majors, e.g. International Strategy and Sustainability, Marketing, or Humanitarian Logistics in the Business and Management programme.

The Hanken PhD Programme corresponds to four years of full-time studies, during which students produce a doctoral thesis and complete 60 ECTS of coursework. The courses consist of 44 credits in the major and related subjects, and 16 credits in general methodology, philosophy of science, or other similar courses of a methodological nature.

The Hanken MBA is an accredited executive MBA programme. There are different streams within the programme; Finance, International Management, and Service and Relationship Marketing. The programme was awarded the AMBA accreditation in 2008. Hanken offers tailor-made courses to companies within the framework of Hanken & SSE Executive Education. Hanken & SSE Executive Education was founded in 2005 by Hanken and IFL at Stockholm School of Economics.

Student exchange

Hanken has approximately 120 partner universities for student exchange. Every year some 250 students from Hanken spend one semester or a full academic year abroad. Hanken also receives approximately 150 exchange students yearly.

Research

Hanken researchers are engaged in pure, applied, as well as commissioned research. Research at Hanken is carried out at the academic departments and research centres and researchers at Hanken are often involved in cross-disciplinary project groups with both national and international academic colleagues. According to data by the Academy of Finland, Hanken’s research has an index value of 1.4 compared to the world average of 1. U-Multirank ranks Hanken as fifth in the world in research and research linkages.

Hanken’s areas of strength are:

Research and knowledge centres

The research and competence centres at Hanken coordinate education, promote research, and offer a wide range of services in information and executive education.

Notable alumni

Rankings & Accreditations

Hanken School of Economics was ranked as the 67th best Masters in Management programme in 2015 and 69th in 2016 by the Financial Times. Hanken is also ranked fifth for its research and research linkages by U-Multirank, a feasibility study supported by the European Commission. Moreover, Hanken is a Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Champion, meaning the school contributes to responsible management education in the context of the United Nations sustainable development agenda.

EQUIS

EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) is an international programme for the assessment of European education in economic and business sciences. Hanken was awarded the EQUIS accreditation in 2000. The accreditation was renewed in 2005. The accreditation proves that Hanken meets the highest requirements of quality in teaching, research, internationalisation and co-operation with the business community. Moreover, it indicates that Hanken creates and disseminates knowledge of the highest standard and that Hanken actively collaborates with its surrounding society.

AMBA

Hanken was awarded the AMBA accreditation in 2008. The accreditation demonstrates that Hanken MBA holds the highest international standard.

AACSB

Hanken was awarded AACSB accreditation in November 2015. Hence, Hanken obtained the Triple accreditation by being accredited by all EQUIS, AMBA and AACSB.

Student union

The Student Union of Hanken School of Economics (SHS) was founded in 1909 under the name of Kamratföreningen Niord. Today the student union has some 2000 members and is the only student union to represent solely business students. The student union organizes events and makes sure the student voice is heard in matters at Hanken and in politics. SHS coordinates the student representatives that are present in every decision-making body at Hanken. All students at Hanken are automatically members of the student union.