Topic summary
Student nation
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Nation (university).
Finland
In Finland, student nations (Finnish: osakunnat, Swedish: nationer) exist at the University of Helsinki and Aalto University, where they are legally sanctioned and were established in the mid-1600s (in the Royal Academy of Turku) and 1800s (in the to-be Polytechnical School), respectively. Named after regions in Finland, students had to join according to their own geographical roots before membership became voluntary in 1937. Today, students can usually choose to join any nation. Both Finnish and Swedish speaking nations exist. Organizations termed nations exist also at other universities, although these are legally considered normal registered or unregistered associations. In Finland, student nations co-exist with a wide range of other student organizations, such as student unions.