Aalto University is a multidisciplinary university whose main campus is located in Otaniemi in Espoo, Finland. The institution has six schools with around 20,000 students in total and 4,500 staff, 400 of whom are professors.
Courses are offered across schools of arts, design and architecture; chemical technology; business; electrical engineering; engineering; and science.
Around 30 per cent of staff are from abroad.
The university, which offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programmes in all its fields of study, describes itself as committed to "identifying and solving grand societal challenges and building an innovative future”.
Aalto University was founded in 2010 from the merger of Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economics and the University of Art and Design Helsinki. Beyond its main campus, other campuses are located in Töölö and Arabia in Helsinki.
The aim of the institution's foundaiton was to create a new innovative university combining science and technology, business and economics, design and art.
The name of the institution is a tribute to the life and work of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. The core of the Otaniemi site is a park campus, designed by him.
The campus and its surrounds are the location for the headquarters of Finland’s largest companies’ headquarters, as well as smaller enterprises. Otaniemi is also home to over two thousand students.
The institution is a foundation-based university. The capital of the foundation was formed by donations from the government alongside those from Finnish industries and other financiers.