Advice services offered by HYY have been reformed

Have you encountered a problem in your studies or elsewhere in student life that you cannot resolve yourself? Our specialists are happy to advise you in tricky situations related to student life!

HYY’s reformed service path for advice services makes it easier to reach our specialists. Students can fill in a form to report a problem they encounter in studies or student life. A team consisting of HYY’s specialists will respond to the reports submitted through the form, processing the responses confidentially. The team will respond to requests for advice within five working days.

‘We do not want any of our members to be left alone with their problems just because they do not know who to contact. Using this form, students can receive help from a single service point: our team of specialists will assess the report and decide who is the best party to help with the situation’, HYY’s Chief Financial and Service Officer Anna Laurila explains.

The reform of our advice services is part of the overall development of our member services conducted in part based on the feedback received in our member survey in spring 2025. Equality, students’ legal protection, discrimination and harassment are among the most typical themes included in our members’ contacts. These themes have also been taken into account in the new form. Problems and misconduct can also be reported anonymously using the form.

HYY will not take action based on the reports without the consent of the person submitting the report. This means that anonymous reports will be processed only as general feedback. HYY is not an authority or a judge and cannot impose sanctions on individual members of the University of Helsinki’s personnel, students or people involved in organisations based on the reports. HYY further does not offer mediation for conflicts between private individuals. However, the feedback may be taken into account on a case-to-case basis in working groups related to the theme within the University.

‘It is important to us that students get help for the challenges they face in student life. We also want to know where students encounter problems so that we can influence their prevention both in our own operations and at the University, for instance. Matters often do not improve simply because we have no knowledge of their existence’, Anna points out.

In connection with the reform of our advice services, HYY is discontinuing its old harassment contact person model. Despite this, however, HYY’s major events will continue to have designated event safety persons. In addition to this, the legal advice provided by Pykälä and Codex will continue to serve students as normal.

‘HYY’s most important duty is to provide our members with support. We believe that this reform will help us serve more students at the University of Helsinki than we did before’, Anna sums up.

Students can always also ask for advice directly from any of HYY’s employees.

Further information

Anna Laurila
Chief financial and service officer
anna.laurila@hyy.fi