Recent Developments in Finnish
HEIs
Kalervo Väänänen
Rector, University of Turku
Chair, Universities Finland
Introduction
• Finland has ”a dual-model” of HEIs:
Universities and Universities of Applied
Sciences (or Polytechnics)
• University Act 2009
• Universities of Applied Sciences Act 2013
• Reasons for the new legislation aroused from
decreasing performance of both HEI sectors
and expected decreasing funding possibilities
due to economic crisis
Contents
• University Act 2009 and its implementation
• University mergers in 2010
• Re-organization of some basic services and
building of joint actions
• Profilation program for the future outlined by
UNIFI ry
University Act 2009 and its
implementation
• Universities became independent legal entities
• A lot stronger role for University Board (external
chair and external + internal members) and
Rector (elected by the Board)
• State funding was linked to performances instead
of plans; a 4-year contract with a university index
• The number of universities decreased from 20 to
15 by merges
University mergers 2010
• From 20 to 15 via four mergers
• University of Eastern-Finland (Prof Kekäle will
present a case report tomorrow)
• Aalto University owned by Aalto University
Fund
• The University of Arts
• University of Turku: Turku School of Economics
was merged to University of Turku and it
became one of our seven faculties
Re-organization of some basic services
and building of joint actions
• Three real estate companies were established;
the biggest one, Suomen Yliopistokiinteistöt
Oy, is jointly owned by 10 universities and
holds now a balance of about 1,2 billion euros
• Certia Oy, owned now by 9 universities,
provides administrative services
• Finland University Ltd is an education export
company owned by three universities (UEF,
Tampere and Turku)
UNIFI’s Profilation Programs
• At the beginning of 2014 UNIFI ry launched a
program to improve both the quality of teaching
and that of research in Finnish universities
• The goal is to reach a significant improvement of
quality, both in education and research, and more
effective societal impact, by using tight
networking, collaboration and ”functional
merges” (joint study programmes ect.)
• From routine academic profession to adaptive
academic expertise (a new instrument, ERKO, just
passed the Parliament)
How the process is running…
• Working groups in: natural sciences, humanities,
social sciences, educational sciences, business
studies, foreign languages, medical sciences,
technical sciences
• Rational analysis by asking a question: What is
the best way to arrange education and research
of each discipline in our country considering the
quality of research and education, costeffectiness and local societal impact?
• Final decision is up to each university but all
universities are involved
f
FACULTY OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
FACULTY OF LAW
TURKU SCHOOL OF
ECONOMICS
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
FACULTY OF MATHEMATICS
AND NATURAL SCIENCES
FACULTY OF MEDICINE
• Political Science, Contemporary History
• Social Research
• Behavioural Sciences, Philosophy
• Law
• Business Administration, Economics
• Education
• Teacher Education
• School of History, Culture and Arts Studies
• School of Languages and Translation Studies
• Biology
• Mathematics and Statistics
• Chemistry
• Physics and Astronomy
• Geography and Geology
• Information Technology
• Biochemistry and Food Chemistry
• Medicine
• Health Biosciences
• Dentistry
• Nursing Science
From industrialization to knowledge
and research based society
•
•
•
•
In 2010 a new University Act was passed, however, university reform has
started already in early 1990’ by national PhD-programs.
In 2010 Universities were fused into larger entities (from 20 to 14)
-> Boost in research activity and research quality
-> Both local and global functions (High quality education and
research is best for local development)