The University of Eastern Finland has decided to cancel the honorary doctorate of former Minister Tarja Cronberg. Cronberg has attended a seminar in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in April 2024 as an invited, and paid, guest of the Russian government. According to information obtained from various sources, the seminar constituted part of an influencing campaign by Russia.
The University of Eastern Finland has suspended all collaboration with Russian organisations following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the national and international sanctions that ensued.
Cronberg’s collaboration and attendance in the seminar is in conflict with the university’s principles and practices, which is why the preconditions for conferring an honorary doctorate upon her no longer exist.
The honorary doctorate was intended to be conferred upon Cronberg in a doctoral conferment ceremony to be held in Joensuu on 7 June 2024. The decision to cancel the honorary doctorate was taken today, on 7 May 2024, by the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies.
For further information, please contact:
Rector Jukka Mönkkönen, University of Eastern Finland, jukka.monkkonen@uef.fi, tel. +358 40 728 8057