FINLAND: Change the only constant in higher education

Finland's Universities Act of 2009 produced major changes in governance and funding from the start of 2010, and this seems to have whetted the government's appetite for reform. In a document just released, a cross-departmental Ministerial Working Group on Educational Policy has issued a statement about the future structure of Finland's universities and polytechnics.

By 2020 there will be fewer universities and polytechnics, changes in the disciplinary mix and student intakes will be reduced. The aim of the new reforms is to improve the education system and to increase competitiveness, well-being and culture.

The university sector has already experienced mergers in the past 12 months. In the capital Helsinki's region, three of the 20 universities under the auspices of the Ministry of Education merged to form Aalto University, two regional universities combined to form the University of Eastern Finland, and two institutions in the western city of Turku also merged.

The working group report envisages no more than 15 universities by 2020, with most having at least 3,000 full-time equivalent students. Three small creative arts universities are likely to merge in coming years.

Similar rationalisation is being called for among polytechnics. The target for 2020 is no more than 18 polytechnics (currently 25), with most to have a full-time equivalent student population of at least 2,500. There is also a call for polytechnics to be located in fewer places.

The group also announced reductions in student intakes. Finnish students are among the slowest in Europe to complete their degrees.

Currently the annual intake to universities and polytechnics numbers about 56,000; the number of graduations each year is about 34,000 and the aspiration is to have 75% of students completing in minimum time; should this occur, an annual intake of 46,000 would suffice, according to the report.

The group looked at the nation's discipline mix, and highlighted a need for rationalisation of teaching in some disciplines. The number of students in engineering and some areas of the humanities ('language science', history, education and culture) is to be cut, while some areas of the social sciences are to be promoted.

Although reducing the number of institutions should be easy enough to achieve, it is less certain how the other reforms will be implemented in practice.

At the nitty gritty level, universities and polytechnics are to use new funding models by 2012, and these are to emphasise the quality of teaching and research, and higher education's impact on society. The group provides scant detail on how these emphases will be measured.