As trees need roots, expertise requires core funding

Core funding for higher education institutions will be reduced by EUR 65 million as a result of Petteri Orpo Government’s ‘Room for Growth’ project decisions, which concluded on 23 April. In addition, EUR 52.7 million of previously planned cuts will be targeted at higher education, while a one-time investment of EUR 100 million will be made in new student places, allocated to ‘degrees that support economic growth’.

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.

‘If the Government were growing a tree, it would not cut the branches now to make the tree lusher in the future. Instead, it would cut its roots, taking away its vitality. Let’s not grow our tree to be stunted and twisted’, thundered Chair of the AYY Board Sakari Ropponen.

A study voucher for open higher education, intended for individuals who have graduated from secondary education without receiving an offer of admission to higher education, is 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.

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.

Further information:

Sakari Ropponen 

Chair of the AYY Board 

+358 40 843 3899