The University of Joensuu was founded in 1969 and is situated in North Karelia, Finland's easternmost province. The university is a multidisciplinary, public university with five Faculties: the Faculties of Education, Humanities, Science, Social Sciences, and Forestry. Despite being relatively young, it is well known for the excellence of several of its departments. It has advanced teaching and research facilities. The student enrollment is about 6,500 and the university staff numbers about 1,200. In 2000, international students numbered 353.

The main campus is located in Joensuu (a town of 50,000 people, 140 km from Savonlinna). The town of Savonlinna hosts the Department of Teacher Education, the School of Translation Studies, the Saima Centre for Environmental Sciences, Finnish University Network for Tourism Studies, Savonlinna Summer University, the University Practice School and Savonlinna Institute for Regional Development and Research. In total, there are about 2,000 students in Savonlinna, 1,000 of them studying at the university departments. In the Savonlinna School of Translation Studies, students can take either English, German or Russian as a major subject and English, German, Japanese, Swedish or Culture and Communication as a minor subject. In 1998, the School of Translation Studies launched a two-year training project for interpreters in Russian, financed by Interreg programme of the European Union and the Finnish Ministry of Education. The project aims at training highly skilled professional interpreters with an expert knowledge of the legal, organisational and practical aspects of the Finnish-Russian relations and their European Union dimensions.

The university takes special pride in its tradition of inter-disciplinary co-operation. For example, research and teaching programmes in Biology and Forestry find common cause when it comes to renewable resources and environmental issues. From 1994 to 1999, and for a period of six years beginning in 2000, the Academy of Finland awarded the Forest Ecology Research Project the distinction of being a ‘centre of excellence in research’. Also, in 1994, owing to innovative co-operation between the Faculties of Education and Science, the Finnish Council of Higher Education awarded the Mathematics Teacher Education programme the distinction of being a ‘Centre of Excellence in University Teaching’. This distinction was extended to the Mathematics and Physics Teacher Education Programme in 1995. Moreover, the Psychology Department of the University of Joensuu is a member of PsykoNet, a network of six Finnish university psychology departments, which was designated a ‘centre of excellence in university teaching’ by the Finnish Ministry of Education in 1997. The same distinction was awarded to the Department of Biology for the years 1999-2000.

To promote international exchanges of scholars and students, the University of Joensuu has concluded bilateral agreements of co-operation with 35 universities in 18 countries. Furthermore, it also participates in international exchange programmes, such as SOCRATES/ERASMUS, NORDPLUS, TEMPUS, ALFA, MED-CAMPUS, ISEP and ASLA-Fulbright. It is also active in several international research programmes, notably those sponsored by the European Union and the Nordic Council of Ministers. Moreover, it is involved in several projects of development co-operation in Africa and Asia. The Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences sponsor numerous research projects in Eastern Finland and North-western Russia dealing with social, economic and cultural topics.