Finland Higher Education
Main reading room of Library, University of Helsinki
Courtesy Embassy of Finland, Washington
In the late 1980s, Finland's system of higher education
consisted of ten universities--each with at least several
different faculties--seven one-discipline institutions
with such
specialties as technology or business administration, and
three
art academies. The largest, the University of Helsinki,
was
founded in 1640. The remainder date from the twentieth
century;
the newest, the University of Lapland at Rovaniemi, from
1979.
During the mid-1980s, there were about 90,000 students at
institutions of higher education. Competition for
acceptance for
university-level study was intense, and fewer than one out
of
four applicants obtained a place. There were no private
universities in Finland.
By the late 1980s, institutions of higher learning were
granting three degrees: a master's degree that required
from four
to six years of study; a graduate degree, the licentiate,
requiring another two years of study; and the doctorate,
awarded
usually after four years or so of graduate study. A
candidate did
not have to obtain the licentiate to be awarded the
doctorate.
Like the country's primary and secondary schools,
Finnish
universities were free. To help with living expenses,
however,
students who were enrolled in secondary schools and at
universities were entitled to financial aid by the Study
Allowances Act of 1972. By the 1980s, more than half the
student
body at these institutions received aid in the form of
allowances
or low-interest loans.
Institutions of higher learning had about 7,000
instructors
altogether in the 1980s. Academic freedom was ensured
through a
tenure system that protected most of this number from
dismissal.
The institutions themselves were under the overall
direction of
the Ministry of Education, but they enjoyed considerable
internal
autonomy. The autonomy of the University of Helsinki was
even
guaranteed by the Constitution of 1919. The trend toward
greater
internal democracy had also touched Finnish universities,
and by
the late 1980s professors were sharing much of their
former power
with other faculty members, university staff, and
students.
An area of future growth in Finnish education was
expected to
be that of supplementary education at the university
level. No
degrees were to be granted, but much greater access to
university
resources was to be offered to those wishing to deepen
their
knowledge of a particular field either for professional
reasons
or for personal pleasure. It was estimated that, by the
early
1990s, one-tenth of university teaching would occur in an
openuniversity -like forum.
Data as of December 1988
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