According to Tero Tiitu, there were certain challenges in balancing sport and studies, but once they were sorted out, it was a great time in life. ‘I would say that sport is the most important useless thing in the world. Sport gave me the best results when it didn't feel too important. What I mean by that is that even though I was training hard and it was a phase of my life where I was putting my all into training and games, I felt it was a good thing to have my studies alongside my sport and not just floorball. It felt like an honour to be able to study at a top school and combine that with playing for the team and national team of your choice. The studies indirectly gave strength to the sport as well.’
Negotiating schedules and flexibility
Tero Tiitu says that when he started his first few years at TKK (tech school), he was quite unaware of how to complete the courses and what kind of flexibility could be found to support a dual career. ‘It is very important that Urhea has brought clarity to these issues and that each of Aalto's universities has its own Urhea contact person to help with these discussions.’
Two courses are available for students who belong to Urhea, which can be included in the optional part of the degree. These courses are Dual Career and Student Athlete Wellbeing and Using Sport Skills in Career Planning.
When making special arrangements, Tero encourages you to make sure that the teacher is aware of the Aalto Urhea agreement. Through this partnership agreement, Aalto University is committed to supporting students to combine competitive sports and studies. ‘In addition, when negotiating special arrangements, it's a good idea to have a constructive solution in mind beforehand if you need flexibility in, for example, exam times or deadlines for returning assignments.’
‘Among the positive memories, I could highlight Riitta Peltonen from the School of Business (Kauppis) Learning Services and her attitude towards dual careers. Riitta came to introduce herself to me shortly after I started at Kauppis and asked if I knew about the opportunities Kauppis offers to competitive students, and then she told me about them. Later on, I was able to turn to her when I needed flexibility on the study side.’ Today, a welcome event is organised for new Urhea students at the beginning of each academic year.
‘I do remember one bad experience from 20 years ago. I asked for an extra 24 hours for a large exercise because the national team's intensive camp was about to start. The course assistant replied: ‘Work and leisure issues are not a valid reason for extra time, it is a scheduling and prioritisation problem’. ‘I may not have presented my case well, and Urhea was not there to support me at the time.’
‘In general, every athlete should be able to articulate their story and their skills and strengths. For many athletes, the strengths they have developed through sports are self-evident, but others may not be aware of them, so it is important to articulate them.’
After studies towards working life
Tero Tiitu said that sport was ‘here and now’, while studies served a longer story. ‘Whatever you study, you acquire the skills to acquire knowledge and structure it, and to a certain extent you can also use those lessons in sport. Students who compete in sport are multi-talented.’
‘I feel the pressure when so-called normal students are working and doing internships, and you spend the same amount of time on sport, and money is tight. But it's pointless to compare yourself to them. The athlete encounters on campus were important, because the normal students obviously didn't share the same life. On a daily basis I had two reference groups: my locker room mates and a very different reference group of fellow students, which helped to take my mind off floorball sometimes.’
Already during his sporting years, Tero worked a bit related to his studies and other sports-related appearances (such as being part of the panel on Yle's Morning TV programme ‘Jälkihiki’, discussing the previous week's sports events). During the playing season, he was not working. ‘There are the world championships in floorball every two years and every summer when the world championships were not at the end of the year, I was working during the summer and usually did some kind of internship. Life was financially a hand-to-mouth experience and the government-backed financial support for students was important. There was no big money in floorball.’
‘When I decided to quit my playing career and go into the working world, I was naive to think that I could get the same kind of kicks from work that I had gotten in my playing career. But that wasn't the case: I don't get the same feelings, even though my current job is great and challenging in its own way. There's no “all in” physical stretch, and at first it felt a bit flat, but I got used to the new phase of my life. Fortunately, you can get sporty kicks from UniSport circuit training, for example, which I attend every Monday.’
Towards the end of 2025, Aalto University will participate in the Finnish Olympic Committee's Top Athlete-Friendly University / Dual Career Audit. The aim of the quality model for top athlete-friendly universities is to improve the conditions for top and professional athletes to pursue higher education studies alongside a demanding sporting career.
Text: Terhi Ollikainen
