The jewel of Kouvola, the Kasarminmäki campus was built by the Russians. The heart of this culture historically significant campus of a unique milieu is Paraatikenttä (The Parade Field), breathing an atmosphere of military dignity. The army left the area in the early 1990s. Since then many of the buildings, already in quite a bad shape, have been renovated.
The outcome has been exceptionally successful. The atmosphere of the campus may easily be compared to any well-known university campus in Europe. For the moment, three different institutes of higher education have positioned activities in Kasarminmäki. The Department of Translation Studies of the University of Helsinki trains translators. Media and Communication is taught in four training programmes of Kymenlaakso Polytechnic; graphic design, organisational communications, network media and audiovisual media are taught in the campus area.
The Pitkäkasarmi (Long Barracks) and the Mediakasarmi (Media Barracks), the former military hospital, both belong to the most impressive buildings of the campus. Only a stone's throw away lays the so-called IT-campus, a high-tech edifice, where a unit of the Lappeenranta University of Technology and some operations of the Kymenlaakso Polytechnic are situated. Apart from the institutes of higher education, many communications businesses and several associations of public utility locate themselves in Kasarminmäki. The Kouvola Region Expertise Centre is located in a building known as the Päävartio (main guard house).
For its part, the European Institute for a Sustainable Information Society aims to advance the prerequisites of a fruitful cooperation between the different academic communities of Kasarminmäki and other actors. The Institutes activities themselves contribute to the goals defined in the research and development strategies of the Kymenlaakso region.
Links in Kasarminmäki:
The Department of Translation Studies of the University of Helsinki
Palmenia, Centre for Continuing Education, University of Helsinki