|
Contents | Executive summary | How to obtain this publication | Additional information
The following OECD assessment and recommendations summarise chapter 6 of the Economic survey of Finland published on 3 June 2008.
Contents
Higher employment also requires changes to tertiary education so as to speed up the transition from secondary school to tertiary education
While Finland is excellent at providing the population with basic skills, there are problems in the later stages of the education system. The transition from secondary to tertiary education is a particular problem, as it can take many years. Due to this “matriculation backlog”, only a minority of students is admitted to their preferred field of study immediately after completing secondary studies. Most require several attempts before gaining a study place. This is a considerable source of inefficiency and contributes to the high age of tertiary graduates. To reduce inefficiencies in the allocation of study places, tertiary institutions should be encouraged to assess applications using the matriculation exam results only. To eliminate the matriculation backlog, additional starting places should be temporarily allocated to areas of greatest demand, although not to the full extent of the backlog. In the long term, the centrally-planned system of starting places should be relaxed by allowing the educational institutions to determine the number of starting places, with financing following the student. Allowing demand to play a larger role in the determination of starting places would also support a more regionally balanced division of starting places, taking better into account the preferences of the students and needs of the labour market. To ensure that prospective students are making informed choices, students should be provided with more information on employment prospects and the wages of graduates.
6. To support the other measures, tuition fees should be introduced. Although tuition fees have traditionally been considered taboo in Finland, there is little evidence that they would conflict with equity considerations, provided that a well-designed income-contingent loans system, which covers both tuition fees and living expenses, ensures study opportunities for students from all family backgrounds. Tuition fees would offer considerable benefits including: greater financial resources for educational institutions; improved incentives for students to graduate quickly; improved incentives for them to select their courses of study based on labour market potential; higher expectations by students and greater responsiveness of institutions to students’ preferences.
Enrolment rates of 27 year-olds
Full-time and part-time students in public and private institutions, 20051
1. As a percentage of the population in the same age group.
Source: OECD (2008), Education database.
And more needs to be done to shorten study times and ensure that the degrees are flexible enough
Besides the delays in starting tertiary education, Finnish students graduate late because of long study times. One contributing factor is the Finnish system of study support. Study support should be reformed by tightening the annual minimum study credit requirement. Achieving this standard should also be a condition for continued eligibility for student benefits, such as cheap housing. The system of grants should, at the same time, be changed into a system of income-contingent loans. Long study times are also explained by the dominant position of the Master's degree as the first university degree. Finnish degree requirements may also not be flexible enough to adjust to changing labour market demands, as subject specialisation begins early and continues straight on to a Master’s degree. To shorten study times and to increase degree flexibility by encouraging students to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree first, university admittance rules should be changed, so that students would be automatically enrolled in a Bachelor’s instead of a Master’s degree. Bachelor’s degrees should also be given a stronger weight in the financing of universities. Admission to a Master’s degree should be contingent on completion of a Bachelor’s degree to a sufficiently high standard.
How to obtain this publication
The Policy Brief (pdf format) can be downloaded in English. It contains the OECD assessment and recommendations.The complete edition of the Economic survey of Finland 2008 is available from:
- Subscribers and readers at subscribing institutions can access the online edition via SourceOECD , our online library.
-
Non-subscribers can purchase the PDF e-book and/or paper copy via our Online Bookshop
-
-
Government officials with accounts ( subscribe) can go to the "Books" tab on OLIS
-
Additional information
For further information please contact the Finland Desk at the OECD Economics Department at eco.survey@oecd.org. The OECD Secretariat's report was prepared by Anne-Marie Brook, Petar Vujanovic, Marketta Henriksson and Marte Sollie under the supervision of Peter Hoeller. Research assistance was provided by Isabelle Duong.
|
