Why
Finland?
What makes International Education
work in Finland?
Finland is a country of nearly 5.4 million people located in the North of Europe with Sweden, Norway and Russia as its neighbours. Since 1995, Finland has been a member of the European Union. Education has always been a high priority for Finland. At the moment, Finland has 16 university level institutions and 25 polytechnics. International students (including both degree and exchange students) constitute about five per cent of the total student enrolment at the above institutions.
Citizens
of a relatively small country like Finland understand that
contacts with other countries are a key to survival and
success to today's global competition. Finns have always
been eager to study abroad and to bring new skills back
home from foreign countries. For professionals of international
education in Finland, the problem is not how to persuade
Finnish students to depart on an exchange in other countries.
The key issue for us has always been how to attract international
students to Finland and to achieve reciprocity in student
exchanges with foreign universities.
During the 1990s,
student mobility flows to and from Finland have increased
dramatically. However, until recently, students studying
abroad clearly outnumbered the international exchange students
coming to study in Finland. For this reason, it was quite
surprising for us to learn that, according to statistics
published by the European Commission in Spring 2000, Finland
(considering its size) seemed to have become the most popular
destination for European ERASMUS exchange students planning
to study in another European country during the academic
year 2000-2001. Not only have the numbers of ERASMUS students
been growing. A similar development has also been visible
in the flows of students coming to Finland through other
international exchange programs and bilateral exchange programs
of Finnish universities and polytechnics. (For further information,
please see the Statistical Overview of the Development of
internationalisation in the Nordic countries distributed
to the participants of this session).
Why
Finland?
Why have the
numbers of international exchange students increased so
much during the last years of the 1990s? Why do more and
more international exchange students today choose Finland
as their destination? In the following, I will briefly try
to describe some of the reasons for this development. My
conclusions are based both 1) on my own observations during
the last eleven years and 2) on a study entitled "Why
Finland?" carried out by the Finnish Centre for International
Mobility, CIMO, and in the fall of the year 2000. To find
out what makes international students come and study in
Finland, a questionnaire was sent to about 1,000 newly arrived
international exchange students, of whom 561 students of
52 different nationalities answered the survey.
1- A national
policy for internationalisation
Since
the late 1980s and especially during the 1990s, internationalisation
of higher education has been one of the key development
areas in Finnish education policy. The objective defined
by the Ministry of Education of Finland at the beginning
of the last decade was to send 5,000 university students
to study abroad annually. Since 1999, the official target
figure has been 6,000. To be able to send students abroad
on an exchange, it has been necessary for Finnish institutions
of higher education to intensify their efforts to recruit
a corresponding number of international exchange students
to study in Finland.
2- The genesis
of international exchange programmes launched in the late
1980s and 1990s
The many international
exchange programmes launched in the late 1980s and during
the 1990s have provided a convenient channel for an increasing
number of international students to come and study in Finland.
The ERASMUS program of the European Program, for example,
opened student flows between Finland and the other European
countries, and student exchanges between the Nordic countries
have been made possible by the NORDPLUS program sponsored
by the Nordic Ministerial Council. Exchanges between the
United States and Finland, which had been started in the
1950s in the framework of the Fulbright program, were considerable
increased in the 1980s and 1990s when 12out of Finland's
20 universities joined the International Student Program,
ISEP. Not only American students from more than 100 U.S.
Universities, but even non-U.S. Students from Canada, Mexico,
Australia, the Republic of Korea and Japan have found their
way to Finland through the multilateral exchange program
of ISEP launched in the late 1990s.
3- Creation
of international study programs taught in English
The study entitled
"Why Finland?" published by CIMO in March 2001,
showed that one of the main reasons why a growing number
of international students today come to study in Finland
is the availability of a great variety of international
study programs taught in English at Finnish universities
and polytechnics. The establishment of such programs in
the early 1990s was necessary, since the Finnish and Swedish
languages, which are the main languages of teaching at Finnish
universities and polytechnics, are not known to many people
outside of Finland and Sweden. The study programs taught
in English at Finnish universities and polytechnics, which
are intended for both international and Finnish students,
cover a great variety of fields. These include, for example,
fields known as Finland's special areas of strength, such
as Architecture, Art and Design, Russian and Baltic Area
Studies, Information Technology and Engineering, and Environmental
Science and Forestry.
4- Nationally coordinated marketing of study programs abroad
International
marketing of study programs is necessary to guarantee reciprocity
in student exchanges with foreign universities. To inform
international students about study opportunities in Finland,
Finnish universities and polytechnics cooperate closely
with the Finnish Centre for International Mobility, CIMO.
The booklet "Study in Finland" published annually
by CIMO includes information on more than 300 international
study programs taught in English at Finnish Institutions
of Higher Education. The same information, as well as information
on scholarships and living conditions in Finland, can be
found at CIMO's "Discover Finland" website at
http://Finland.cimo.fl
Since the early
1990s. CIMO has also coordinated the presence of Finnish
universities at several international conferences, e.g:
the annual conferences of NASA and the European Association
for International Education, EAIE. The main purpose these
marketing efforts has been to inform international educators
and academics in other countries about study opportunities
in Finland, In addition, CIMO has organised, in cooperation
with Finnish universities and polytechnics, marketing seminars
to representatives of institutions of higher education in
different countries, e.g: the United Kingdom, France, Belgium,
the Netherlands, Japan, Argentina and Chile.
5- Establishment
of international relations offices at Finnish universities
and polytechnics
During the 1990s,
all Finnish universities and polytechnics have established
international Relations Offices or International Student
Services providing various services for international students.
These include, for example, orientations for incoming students,
services of trained student tutors, daily advisory services
that host family programs. To build up their global networks
and to improve their professional skills, Finnish international
relations administrators participate actively in the conferences
of NAFSA and the EAIE, as well as in seminars organised
jointly by CIMO and Finnish Institutions of higher education.
6- The combination
of modern facilities and beautiful nature
The "Why
Finland2 survey carried out by CIMO in the fall of 2000
showed that Finland's natural environment, its lakes, forests
and white winters also seem to attract international students
to our country. What the students who answered the survey
seemed to find particularly interesting in Finland was the
availability of modern studying facilities and advance technology
in a natural, "green" environment.
Future
challenges
1-Quality Assurance
In order to be
able to continue attracting international exchange students
to Finland it is necessary for Finnish universities and
polytechnics to continually evaluate the quality of their
international study programs taught in English, as well
as the quality of the support services provided to incoming
international students. The participation of the University
of Helsinki in a pilot project called "IQRP, International
Quality Assessment Project" carried out jointly by
the Academic Cooperation Association, ACA, and the program
for Institutional Management in Higher Education in Finland.
An evolution of the quality of the international study programs
taught in English was carried out by the Finnish Higher
Education Evaluation Council in 1998-1999.
2-A new national
policy for internationalisation
At the moment,
a working group established by the Finnish Ministry of Education
is designing anew strategy fro internationalisation for
Finnish universities and polytechnics. The new national
strategy will serve as an important guideline for Finnish
International educators in the coming years.
By Outl Savolahti
Director of International Relations
University of Joensuu
The 53rd Annual
Conference of NAFSA, the Association of International Educators,
Philadelphia, May 30, 2001.
