My Oulu: Part-time work would benefit many international students in Finland
Arafat Islam came to Oulu in September 2023 to study in the Business Analytics Master’s Programme at the University of Oulu. Photos: Janne-Pekka Manninen.
Jaa sosiaalisessa mediassa:
Arafat Islam is studying at the University of Oulu and in the process of writing his thesis about corporate sustainability in the fashion industry. Islam is one of the many international students who come to Oulu to complete a two-year Master’s programme at the university and wish to continue studying and eventually work in Finland. One challenge that many international students face is finding employment during their studies.
Arafat Islam had a Bachelor’s degree from Dhaka University in his home country, Bangladesh. During his studies and an internship with a multinational telecom company in Bangladesh, he realised he enjoyed working with data more than finance, and he started looking for opportunities to study more in this area.
“I wanted to study abroad and I started researching different places and programmes. I found Oulu through my research and saw that I could study business analytics here, which was the thing I was looking for”, Islam says.
Islam came to Oulu in September 2023 to study in the Business Analytics Master’s Programme at the University of Oulu. He says he chose Finland also because he thought the lifestyle would be a bit more easygoing compared to many other places.
“I am an easygoing person myself. I don’t enjoy being in a very high-pressure environment, or a very low-pressure environment, either. Finland seemed to be an optimal place in that sense. And I also knew that Finland is the happiest place in the world, which Finnish people always seem to find funny when I mention it”, Islam says.
A challenging start
Moving from Bangladesh to Finland was a change in terms of climate, customs and culture and Islam says he had a bit of a culture shock when he first arrived. His arrival was made more challenging by the fact that he had no student housing because of a delay in his visa processing and had to rent private housing for three months before clearing the bureaucracy involved.
“It was expensive for me and I couldn’t find a part-time job to help me offset my cost of living. I went to many cleaning companies and restaurants and the like, but they had no openings. Because of studies, many international students are not able to take full-time jobs to complete their degrees in the given time, and there are very few part-time positions available. I also didn’t know anybody before I met people through the Bangladeshi community in Oulu”, Islam says.
Arafat Islam believes that his thesis will work as a starting point for more research.
Because of not having a job and having to dip into his savings, Islam decided to finish his degree as soon as he could. He is on track to graduate in 18 months instead of two years. Islam says that studying in Finland is very flexible in that students can largely make their own schedule, which was helpful in his situation.
Taking aim at greenwashing
Islam’s Master’s thesis concerns the impact of greenwashing to the ESG score in the fashion industry. The ESG score is a tool to measure a company’s performance with environmental, social and governance issues and it is an evaluation of an operation’s sustainability. In his thesis, Islam is looking at the reputation of a company or a perception of a company’s sustainability in terms of their ESG score compared to reality.
“I am working with data, comparing ESG scores with sustainability reports, advertisements and financial statements through content analysis. These are all the things I enjoy and came here to study. Global investments in ESG criteria have turned into a trillion-dollar industry, so it is worth asking whether the investments are actually helping develop sustainable practices or are they just there to clean up corporate images”, Islam says.
After his initial challenges in Oulu, he did meet new people through the Bangladeshi community and built a social circle to balance his studies. He also landed a job as a trainee at the University of Oulu’s International Mobility Services, where he is working with two different programmes. Islam says that having the job is helping not only financially, but socially and culturally.
“I am now getting to know Finnish culture better, which is very nice. I really like Finnish people and I find that they are very straightforward. If you need something, you just ask for it. Many people complain about the Finnish bureaucracy and yes, there is some, but many places have a lot more of it”, Islam says.
Islam is also keen to continue his studies further after completing his Master’s and he thinks that his thesis will work as a starting point for more research. He is also keeping up with his Finnish language studies and says he would like to pursue a doctorate degree in Finland. He would like to stay and work in a country which he enjoys and is now getting to know better.
“Also this winter is also going to be easier than the first one because I know what to expect in terms of the weather and the darkness and I know now to enjoy the sunlight during the fall”, Islam says with a chuckle.