Source – the website of Tampere sport academy
http://sport.unipolitampere.fi/opportunities/sportsacademy.html
Studying athletes to the Sports Academy in Tampere!
The sports academy of Tampere is a sports network in the Pirkanmaa area, the aim of which is to support top athletes or students aiming to the top in combining studies and sport career, to offer a service network of different experts, to train athletes and their coaches, and in co-operation with other operators in the area to develop the circumstances of sports.
The national network is consisted of 19 national sports academies. Tampere Sports Academy got its top-sports academy status in the spring 2009. Every athlete already in the top or aiming to the top in their sports can apply for the academy. The acceptance criteria is points given by the sports federations. The points are based on the instructions of the Olympic Committee.
The sports network is open and the operators are primarily institutions of higher education, secondary sports schools, high school classes directed to sports, sports federations and local sports clubs, the city of Tampere and expert operators providing coaching and health care.
Tampere University of Technology, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, the University of Tampere and the Police Academy are strongly functioning in the Sports Academy actions. In addition to the expert services and study counseling one is able to become a part of the sports network via the Sports Academy.
Every university and school in the network needs to take into consideration the challenges and special needs of an athlete students, settle the studying possibilities offered by the university and offer special support e.g. with planning the studies.
Sports academy students at TUT, TAMK and UTA receive Unipoli Sport’s services for whole academic year with just the price of autumn sports fee. Reduced price is available as long as the academy athlete status is valid. If the athlete is chosen in the middle of the academic year and the sports fee has already been paid for the whole year, the remainder is not returned. Access rights to the sports facilities are granted with the sports academy card at the Tamppi Areena customer service point (at TUT), Atalpa reception (at UTA) or contacting the sports expert Esko Tirkkonen (at TAMK). Access rights and sports academy sticker need to be collected separately for each academic year, and the reception needs to see the sports academy card with a valid academic year sticker. When the student graduates, the right to use the sports facilities also ends.
Sports academy students studying at TUT also have a separate sports club under TUrVoKe (reg. association) called TUAT (technical students of the sports academy). The club has, among others, its own club room with possibilities to rest and cook. To be able to join the club one needs to be a member of TUrVoKe. This is made possible by paying 2,5 euro membership fee to the account of TUrVoKe, with the same instruction as the Unipoli Sport fee is paid at TUT. See more information in the TUT price list.
More instructions in applying for the academy status and the benefits offered by the academy for the students can be found online (in Finnish): http://www.tampereenurheiluakatemia.fi/
Tampere Sports Academy coordinator Petteri Luukkainen, petteri. luukkainen(at)varala.fi, tel.+358 40 739 2231.
More information from the contact persons by university:
Tampere University of Technology: heli.tiitinen(at)tut.fi, tel. 040 849 0544
Tampere University of Applied Sciences: Sports Manager Esko Tirkkonen, esko.tirkkonen(at)tamk.fi, tel. +358 50 593 2552
University of Tampere: Head of University Sports Kirsi Mänty, kirsi.manty(at)uta.fi, tel. +358 50 421 1065.