Östra Finlands Nation (ÖFN) is one of the 15

student nations Student nations or simply nations ( la, natio meaning "being born") are regional corporations of students at a university. Once widespread across Europe in medieval university, medieval times, they are now largely restricted to the oldest universit ...

at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

-speaking and established in 1924. The nation is formed to represent the interests of Swedish-speaking students coming from Eastern Finland, nowadays interpreted as the community of

Sipoo Sipoo (; sv, Sibbo) is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The administrative center of the munic ...

and any place more to the east of it. While the official language of the nation is Swedish and most members are students at the University of Helsinki, any student (including international degree or exchange students) studying at any university or applied university in the Helsinki region is welcome as a member.

History

Historically, this nation was split off in 1924 from one of the original nations of the university, "Wiborgs nation", that is nowadays known as "

Wiipurilainen osakunta Wiipurilainen Osakunta (WiO) is one of the 15 student nations at the University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsink ...

" and was originally established in 1654 for students coming from the region of the city of

Vyborg Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...

. Hence the nation maintains the memory and traditions of the city of Wyborg as its heritage.

Current activities

In the current day, the nation represents the interests of Swedish-speaking students coming from Eastern Finland in the University community. It also provides a meeting place for leisurely and academic activities for its members at its premises, "Nypolen", at the new student house of the

student union A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

. It also regularly arranges excursions to Eastern Finland and

, as well as friend

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...

s in Sweden. It also participates in the joint activities of all the Nations at the university of Helsinki.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ostra Finlands Nation Student nations in Greater Helsinki