VERBA is the student organization for all the students of English, Nordic and Germanic Philology as well as the French language. We are part of the Department of Humanities (and the Humanistic Guild) in the University of Oulu. Verba is your link to other students, both in your own field and others. Our mission is to ensure the well-being of our members both at the University and in their free time. We are the largest student association of the humanistic student associations at the University with over 500 registered members.
What does Verba do?
Verba is the representative for language students at the University’s Guild of Humanities and we strive to promote our students’ interests in the administrative bodies of the University. One of our most important duties is to inform our members of study-related matters that concern them and offer possibilities to further improve their language skills. Whether the issue is a course structure reform or the amount of study grants, Verba is always there to promote its members.
The most visible field of Verba’s work, however, is outside lecture halls in the form of leisure activities. The guild organizes parties as well as non-alcoholic events throughout the study year. The idea is to offer everybody something fun to do. The events and schedule of Verba develops each year according to our members’ wishes – for example, in recent years, we have increased the amount of board game and film nights according to our freshmen’s wishes.
We have also our own magazine, Reema. It is published four times a year.
Guild room
You can come there to work or relax – the room is equipped with computers, sofas, books and board games as well as a refrigerator, a microwave oven and a coffee maker. The guild room is a great place to hang out between lectures, meet up with friends or even take a nap. You can also support Verba by buying our overall patches there. Welcome! (Room adress is HUM103)
Verba Board of Executives
The day-to-day matters of Verba are handled by the annually elected Board of Executives (or, informally, the Board). Any of our members can run for a seat in the Board in the guild’s general assembly in November. The Board is a great way to make a difference in matters related to yourself. The Board consists of students of each Philology subject, if possible. You can see the Board in action by participating in one of its meetings; the meetings are open for all Verba members.
You can see the faces, names and contact details of our current executives on the Verba Executive Committee poster in Verbaario, on various bulletin boards in the Faculty of Humanities, and here on our website. You can ask any of our executives about anything regarding university studies – and if it so happens that they don’t know the answer, they will make sure to figure it out.
So how can you join?
If you are studying any of the aforementioned languages, you can join our organization by filling out this electronic form (the form is currently mostly in Finnish, if you need help translating we are always willing to help) and paying the registration fee (20 euros for a 5-year membership, 15 euros for a one-year membership) either in cash or by bank transfer.
By joining Verba, you can, for example, order our beautiful green overalls along with our freshmen, you get a discount from all of our badges (2.5 euros instead of the regular price of 3 euros), and you can join our annual autumn excursion.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask!