A small flock of 110 students started studying in Tampere at the department of mechanical, electrical and construction engineering in autumn 1965. President Urho Kekkonen had signed a decree concerning higher education in technology in the city on 13 August 1965.
So it was that already on Wappu, the first of May, in 1966, the first-year students received the first dipping (teekkarikaste) in Tammerkoski. As a result of the event, locals and especially employers started noticing tech students. Up until then, the students living and studying all over Tampere had felt they were all too invisible.
The subsidiary of the University of Technology became independent in 1972 and was renamed Tampere University of Technology. Construction of the Hervanta campus began in the same year. Tech students felt that there would have been a dozen better places for a campus in Tampere.
In 2003, the university changed its Finnish name from Tampereen teknillinen korkeakoulu to Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto, and in 2019 it became Tampere University after merging with the city centre campus.
Examples of teekkari culture in Tampere: Wappu magazine Tamppi, song book Rasputin, musical NääsPeksi, Mörrimöykky sauna and the World Championships of Academic Kyykkä, one of the biggest student events in Finland.
Sources
- Koskessa kastetut – teekkarieloa Tampereella 1965–2002 (TTKY 2002)
- Teekkarielämää ennen ja nyt (TEK 2006)
- www.tampereenteekkarit.fi/fi/teekkarikulttuuri
Read more (in Finnish):
50 vuotta teekkarielämää Tampereella