The City as a Learning Platform: Student Projects and Knowledge Creation in Small Municipalities

Abstract

This article examines collaboration between the City of Heinola and higher education institutions as a learning and development platform in the context of a small municipality and as a mechanism of municipal competence and knowledge management. Between 2021 and 2025, approximately 120 student projects (n≈400 students) were implemented, linked to the city’s strategic objectives such as sustainability, service renewal, and strengthening participation. The study is a qualitative case study combining document analysis, survey data, and strategic and financial documents, complemented by a self-assessment–based maturity analysis. The case is analyzed through the frameworks of the learning organization and the SECI knowledge-creation model, supplemented by helix thinking. The findings indicate that Heinola’s model is positioned at maturity level 3/4 (“partnership and systematization”), suggesting that collaboration has become institutionalized within municipal governance structures. Student projects support service development and organizational learning, and the phases of the SECI cycle are identifiable, although the systematic embedding of results varies. Evidence of long-term impact remains limited. The theoretical contribution of the article lies in demonstrating that student-project-based micro-interventions can form the core of a small municipality’s learning infrastructure and generate a lightweight helix-type mini-ecosystem without heavy institutional structures.

Keywords: Agile Municipality, Higher Education Collaboration, Learning Organization, Open Innovation, Helix, Maturity Model, Competence Management.

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007378