Centria plays a key role in supporting the prosperity of local businesses
Located in three neighbouring regions – Ostrobothnia as well as Central and Northern Ostrobothnia – Centria University of Applied Sciences (UAS) is part of a large area where innovation flourishes. The area is known for, among other things, its large export, wood processing, mechanical engineering, and inorganic chemical industries, strong SME sector, and investments in the green transition.
At its campuses in Kokkola, Jakobstad, and Ylivieska, Centria has 4,400 students – a number that has grown by a thousand in just five years. The multidisciplinary UAS offers a variety of Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes from engineering and business to healthcare and pedagogy.
“Providing education that not only suits the regions’ needs and drives their success, but also ensures future-proof degrees for our students is at the heart of everything we do”, states Rector and CEO Tapio Huttula.
“By investing heavily in research, development and innovation (RDI) as well as cooperating closely with the local business lives, we create degree programmes that produce experts necessary for a more sustainable, better future.”
With two large industrial parks in Kokkola and Jakobstad, the demand for engineers in particular is on the rise in Centria’s area as the parks invest in carbon-free operations.
“Our area is in the middle of positive structural change. Although this change is yet to be fully supported by different public actors, we at Centria are accelerating it by expanding our high-quality engineering education. The English-language Bachelor’s programme in Industrial Management – that has previously been offered only in Kokkola – is now part of our Jakobstad location’s degree portfolio as well”, Huttula says.
Of course, engineering is not the only field where Centria is developing its degree programmes to match the regional needs. In 2023, the Bachelor’s programme in Business Information Technology started in Kokkola, and the Nursing programme that has been popular at the Kokkola campus begins also in Ylivieska in 2025.
“Furthermore, we have applied for the permission to start education in tourism, possibly as a specialisation option for business studies”, Huttula reveals and continues: “Our region has beautiful nature and a lot of potential to be a bigger holiday destination, and we at Centria need to do our part in making that happen.”
A notable portion of Centria’s students come from abroad – in 2023, 20 percent of all the UAS’ students were international. The same year, a record number of 250 international students graduated from Centria.
“About 36 percent of the international graduates stay here in this area and find employment in the local companies and public sector.”
According to Huttula, supporting international students in settling in Finland and seeking job opportunities is an important part of Centria’s strategy.
“We cooperate with the working life to help our students find good internships and write their theses for businesses. This way, they get their foot in the door already during studies”, Huttula says.
In the future, Centria is also focusing more on providing international students better opportunities to learn Finnish and Swedish within degree programmes.
Although Centria is not among the largest UASs in Finland, the scale of its RDI activities is very impressive.
“We have two percent of all the UAS students in Finland, but represent five percent of all the RDI activities carried out by UASs. And the number of our RDI personnel is still rising, giving us a chance to participate in even more projects in the future”, Huttula emphasises.
Annually, Centria has over a hundred ongoing projects led by its six RDI teams – Digitalisation, Production technology, Pre-awards and networks, Entrepreneurship and business, Wellbeing and health as well as Chemistry and bioeconomy.
“All of the teams aim for regional development in their RDI activities. Our operations affect about 800 companies, half of which are local SMEs. Some of these companies are part of our service network and use, for instance, our laboratory and testing services.”
In addition to local projects, Centria constantly has multiple active international consortium projects. At the beginning of 2025, their topics ranged from developing a community-based virtual power plant to using forestry biomass residues more efficiently.
