Students, universities criticise latest round of budget cuts

Student organisations and several higher education sector representatives in Finland have criticised recent changes by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s coalition government to taxation and public spending that include tax breaks to companies and employees but significant cuts to core spending on higher education.

Finance Minister Riikka Purra described the measures announced in the midterm policy review as “necessary to promote employment, strengthen consumer purchasing power, and support investment”, the Helsinki Times reported on 24 April.

In its official press release, the government said it would lower the “taxation of work” by around €1 billion (US$1.137 billion), boost entrepreneurship by lowering the corporate tax rate to 18%, increase defence spending by €3.6 billion by 2029 and improve resources for internal security.

While the government announced that universities were to receive new research funding – €20 million in 2026 and €39 million per year from 2027 – and that applied science universities would gain an additional €10 million in 2026 and €15 million from 2027 for research and development, of particular concern to the higher education sector was the announcement of a decrease in core funding for higher education institutions – “by €30 million in 2026, by €20 million in 2027 and by €15 million from 2028 onwards”.

According to higher education stakeholders, taken as a whole, the cuts to higher education funding go beyond the government's most recent announcement of cuts totalling €65 million and outweigh announced increases to research and development funding and funds for new student intakes.

Former of the Alto University Student Union (AYY) Board Sakari Ropponen put the total cuts to core funding at €117.7 million.

“Core funding for higher education institutions will be reduced by €65 million as a result of Petteri Orpo government’s ‘Room for Growth’ project decisions, which concluded on 23 April.

In addition, €52.7 million of previously planned cuts will be targeted at higher education, while a one-time investment of €100 million will be made in new student places, allocated to ‘degrees that support economic growth’,” he said.

“Even if you manage to add up the millions so that the overall picture does not seem to cut funding for education, the session on spending limits reduced the potential to succeed in raising the level of expertise.

“The government is restricting the autonomy of higher education institutions to operate according to their own strategies and to educate students to become leading specialists in their fields,” Ropponen said in a statement.

Open education – The right to grant degrees

In addition to the core funding cuts, student bodies have condemned the government’s proposal to give open higher education the “right to grant degrees”.

National Union of University Students in Finland (SYL) president Anselmi Auramo told University World News the SYL was “outraged” by proposed legislation to “give open higher education the right to grant degrees, which will in practice mean paid education”.

“The National Union of University Students in Finland is deeply concerned about the Finnish government’s 2026 to 2029 fiscal plan, which proposes cutting core university funding while introducing limited new funding for open university studies via vouchers.

“SYL considers the cuts to be excessive and ill-founded at a time when the government is aiming for a 50% higher education rate for the younger generation and economic growth, which is scientifically correlated with a high level of education,” Auramo stated.

“Simultaneously, a new €3.8 million annual investment is planned to fund open university studies with the voucher for young people without a study place after upper secondary school.

“While offering free studies for this group is, in principle, a good initiative, it is unlikely to significantly improve access to higher education given the limited number of vouchers it can realistically fund,” he added.

Explaining the union’s calculation behind the figure of €3.8 million, Auramo said: “In unofficial discussions we have gotten the impression that the voucher would be funded with the same money that is allocated to new study places (€100 million in total), which, according to current information, is €3.8 million per annum.”

Ropponen said the study voucher for open higher education, which was intended for individuals who have graduated from secondary education but had not received an offer of admission to higher education, was “an efficient way to attract students to higher education and enable them to apply for degree programmes through an open pathway”.

“However, the session on spending limits also decided to grant open higher education institutions the right to confer degrees and to deregulate their payments, which in practice increases the maximum price per credit paid by students,” he said.

“With changes to open higher education, the government is creating the most significant upheaval to the Finnish degree system in years, without any prior discussion.

“At the same time, a de facto fee-paying degree system is being created in Finland, where students have no right to any form of student financial aid. We must not let this happen, and even financially struggling higher education institutions must not consent to this,” Ropponen said.

Acting to the contrary

The Student Union of the University of Lapland (LYY) also expressed its disappointment with the mid-term budget decisions which, it said, would impose “massive cuts of €117.7 million to the core funding of higher education institutions”, as well as the proposal to grant degree-awarding rights to open universities, which would create a “paid pathway” to degrees in Finland.

“The government talks about raising the level of competence but acts to the contrary. Without sufficient and long-term core funding, the quality of education will deteriorate, the level of competence will fall, and Finland’s future success will be at risk,” said Mariel Tähtivaara, chair of the LYY executive board.

Professor Michael Jeltsch of the Drug Research Programme, IndiviDrug Research Programme and the Wihuri Research Institute at the University of Helsinki told University World News the government’s tax reductions for the rich did not find support in the Finnish population, with two out of three being against it.

He said while there were “a few positive initiatives” for university research funding in the midterm budget, against the backdrop of massive cuts, they would not have a “lasting impact”.

“What the universities need is a sizeable increase in basic funding to be able to employ teachers and lecturers to serve their main function: to educate the coming generation.

“We do not need another initiative to attract some foreign researchers to Finland with promises that we cannot keep, an insecure financial future, and being economically the rat's tail of Europe,” Jeltsch said.

Hocus Pocus trick

Heikki Holopainen, executive director of peak university body the Council of Rectors of Finnish Universities (UNIFI), told University World News that some of the government decisions were “still a bit unclear or difficult to interpret”, but said the overall financial result for universities was negative.

“The government said that it is committed to increasing the proportion of young adults with a higher education degree from 40% to 50% by increasing the intake of new students to higher education institutions.

“At the same time the government is cutting higher education funding. We can’t see how this equation would work,” he said.

Holopainen said because the budget contained both “cuts and investments” to the higher education sector, the overall picture was “blurry”.

“The basic problem is that the cuts are permanent and are made to the core funding [which is used for teaching, doing research and keeping the higher education institutions running in general], while the increased funding is either targeted or unsure and for a fixed term.

“Anyway, there are more cuts than increases,” he said.

“There is a much smaller permanent extra funding coming to fund the intake of new students than the core funding cuts account for.

The overall funding effect is negative even with the new R&D funding and the possible €100 million investment in the student intake. It is a hocus pocus trick to add funding to one end and cut more from the other and then say that we are investing.”