Professor blames government for eroding research quality

A professor of health law at the University of Helsinki and administrative chief physician at the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa has warned that cuts in education spending by the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä mean that Finland will lose its status as a top-tier research country, writes Aleksi Teivainen for the Helsinki Times.

Lasse Lehtonen said in a blog on Puheenvuoro: “Our most talented researchers are already forced to apply for positions at foreign research institutions in order not to fall behind the competition, while our domestic research institutions are unable to recruit top researchers from abroad to replace them due to scarce basic funds.”

The University of Helsinki has reported that its finances deteriorated considerably from the previous year in 2016, in part due to a decline in basic funding from the central administration.
Full report on the Helsinki Times site