The Finnish Council of University Rectors

1
The Finnish Council of University Rectors

• The role of universities in the national context.
• Case Finland
• Krista Varantola

2
Whats going on in Finland?

• Current situation
• 10 Multifaculty Universities
• 6 Specialized Universities
• 4 Art Universities
• (1 National Defence College)
• Students population total 176,599
• Women 95,066
• Men 81,533
• Universities are public and state-owned
  government agencies without a balance sheet (part
  of the state budget)
• No tuition fees for degree students

3
Whats going to happen in Finland?

• University law reform
• Universities will form a new type of legal person
  under public law but remain state-owned
• One new coalition university, aka Innovation
  University (technology trade industrial
  design)) will become a private, state-owned
  foundation (with 500 Meuro state capital 200
  Meuro private sector industrial capital)
• Structural Change
• Mergers, coalitions, alliances
• 20 universities will become 15 universities
• No study fees for EU/ETA degree students

4
Why? Guess!

• Competitiveness in a global environment
• Aging population and shortage of labour
• Overall changes in the operating environment
• OECD review recommendations
• University governance model needs to be reformed
• Funding system needs to be modernized
• More emphasis on internationalization
• Further development of the dual model in HE
  (universities and polytechnics)

5
From Early Harmony to Current Confusion/Conflict

• General agreement about the need for law reform
• First outlines promised equal treatment to the
  whole university sector irrespective of the form
  of governance
• General disagreement about the recent government
  proposal for funding the reform
• Proposal means an infusion of budget money to the
  Innovation University while the rest of the
  sector has to be satisfied with a minimal
  increase over the next four years (est. 1.5)

6
The next four years

• Innovation University 10 of student population
  
• 700 Meuro foundation capital 100 Meuro extra
  from the state budget for running costs
• The remaining 17 universities 90 of student
  population
• 100 Meuro increase in the state budget for
  running costs

7
The central aims of the reform

• Enhance institutional autonomy
• Create a stronger regional network with higher
  societal impact
• Improve the quality of education and research
• Target resources to top-level research and
  strategic focus areas
• Strengthen the role of HE institutions in the
  innovation system

8
Government response to criticism

• Create more confusion
• All universities are allowed to become private
  foundations if they can generate foundation
  capital from the private sector. Then the state
  will respond with 2.5 times more state capital.
• Serious doubts about the availability for such
  altruistic capital.
• Rules of the game? We should learn about them on
  April 1. April Fools Day

9
What is the message?

• Strategic focus areas technology and trade
  technical innovations
• The government puts all eggs in the technology
  basket.
• Why? The dream of a new Nokia
• Therefore no criteria have been used in assessing
  which universities deserve the extra investments
• Large multi-faculty universities are the main
  losers (basic sciences, medicine, social
  sciences, humanities), among them the University
  of Helsinki and large regional universities
  Joensuu Kuopio, JyväskyläTampere, Oulu and
  Turku
• What about social innovations and welfare
  innovations? Not on the agenda now.

10
Increased autonomy? Current suggestions

• Standard universities
• One Board in which half the members and the chair
  are external members. Academic Board?
• Board nominates rector
• Private Foundation universities (Innovation
  university)
• State and donor organizations decide on the Board
  members all members external. A merger of the
  Board of Trustees and the Academic Board?
• Board nominates rector

11
The historical ethos of Finnish universities

• The Finnish university system has been
  established and expanded to provide a qualified
  and well-educated work force to cater to the
  needs of Finnish society and its economy.
• The education system is Finlands finest
  innovation system
• There is no doubt that the success of Finland in
  economic and societal terms can be traced to the
  reliable standard and regional distribution of
  the universities.
• Universities have been able to recruit students
  from the whole talent pool irrespective of the
  applicants socioeconomic background.
• We need to be very careful not to destroy our
  inheritance.

12
Statistical Proof
13
Throwing university with the bath water?

• Endangered principles
• Autonomy
• Equal criteria for budget funding
• Regional equality and equal access to HE
• Equal opportunities for all universities to reach
  their strategic aims and compete for external
  research funding

14
Who knows what is relevant in the future?

• By aiming to obtain immediate benefits and to
  exclusively favour relevant research and
  education, we will limit the freedom of research
  and seriously restrain creativity and curiosity
  thinking which are necessary elements in all
  innovative research.
• Bell Labs also devoted major resources to pure
  and fundamental research. Its philosophy has
  always been that first-rate, arcane, pure
  research nurtures a culture of curiosity and
  builds bridges with universities, which
  ultimately leads to concrete commercial benefits.
  Those benefits aside, research discoveries at
  Bell Labs have netted six Nobel prices in
  physics, shared among eleven scientists, a record
  that is matched only by the worlds greatest
  universities. (Simon Singh. Big Bang. 2006)

15
What do we need?

• More perspective immediate economic gains must
  not become the raison dêtre of the reform
• Nationally acceptable principles for the reform
• To contribute to the success of a country,
  universities need to be equal partners in their
  cooperation with industry and able to speak with
  their own voices and rely on their own strengths.

16
Back to basics?

• If the prestigious French Academy of Sciences
  in Paris, which had been set up to so that
  scientists could pursue independent research,
  free from having to pander to the whims of kings,
  queens or popes (Simon Singh)
• Where in the world is now the place where
  Neo-Humboldtian ideals find an asylum for
  universities that believe in basic research,
  research-based education, creativity and social
  responsibility?