Higher Education Research in Finland
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Higher education research in Finland EMERGING STRUCTURES AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES Editors Sakari Ahola David M. Hoffman Higher education research in Finland Higher education research in Finland Emerging structures and contemporary issues Editors Sakari Ahola & David M. Hoffman THIS PUBLICATION CAN BE OBTAINED FROM: Finnish Institute for Educational Research Customer services University of Jyväskylä P.O. Box 35 FI-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland Phone +358 40 805 4276 E-mail: [email protected] www.ier-publications.fi/ This publication has gone through a referee-system. © Authors and the Finnish Institute for Educational Research In co-operation with Consortium of Higher Education Researchers in Finland (CHERIF) Cover and graphic design: Martti Minkkinen Photo in the cover: Main Building of the School of Engineering, Aalto University. Aalto University Image Gallery, photographer: Johannes Romppanen. Layout: Taittopalvelu Yliveto Oy ISBN 978-951-39-4647-0 (printed version) ISBN 978-951-39-5189-4 (pdf) Printed by Jyväskylä University Press Jyväskylä 2012 Contents Part I: IntroductIon 1. Higher education research from a Finnish perspective – an introduction .......................................................................... 11 Sakari Ahola and David M. Hoffman 2. The relationship between Finnish higher education and higher education research .......................................................... 27 Jussi Välimaa 3. Some research threads in sociology of higher education in Finland ... 49 Osmo Kivinen and Päivi Kaipainen Part II: The higHer educatIon system – structures, reForms and PolIcy Issues 4. New elitism in universal higher education: The building process, policy and the idea of Aalto University........................................... 69 Jussi Kivistö and Jarkko Tirronen 5 Contents 5. In the shifting sands of policy – University academics’ and employees’ views and experiences of Finland’s new higher education policy ........................................................................ 89 Risto Rinne and Arto Jauhiainen 6. The role of basic research at the entre preneurial university: Back to basics? .......................................................................... 111 Oili-Helena Ylijoki , Liisa Marttila and Anu Lyytinen 7. The problems with prolonging studies and delaying: The beginning of graduates’ working careers from the Finnish national and international perspectives .......................................................... 131 Satu Merenluoto and Matti Lindberg 8. Different worlds of financial autonomy: Reflections on Finnish higher education institutions ........................................... 147 Vuokko Kohtamäki 9. Administrative costs and the new financial autonomy of Finnish universities .................................................................165 Kari Kuoppala and Timo Näppilä Part III: InternatIonalIsatIon – a vIew From a small nortHern country 10. Internationalized campuses just don’t happen: Intercultural learning requires facilitation and institutional support ..................................................................189 Barbara Crawford and Lloyd Bethell 11. Finnish higher education institutions as exporters of education – Are they ready? ......................................................................... 215 Yuzhuo Cai, Seppo Hölttä and Jussi Kivistö 12. Internationalization and the invisible language? Historical phases and current policies in Finnish higher education .......................... 235 Taina Saarinen 6 Contents Part Iv: InsIde FInnIsH academIa 13. A comparative perspective on the work content of the academic profession ..................................................................251 Timo Aarrevaara and Elias Pekkola 14. Precarious work at the ‘entrepreneurial’ university: Adaptation versus ‘abandon ship’. Individualization and identity work: Coping with the ‘entrepreneurial’ university .........................271 Minna Nikunen 15. Understanding curriculum in Finnish higher education ...................291 Marita Mäkinen and Johanna Annala 16. Mapping guidance and counselling between policy and practice ..... 313 Johanna Annala, Vesa Korhonen and Leena Penttinen 17. Research on scholarly communities and the development of scholarly identity in Finnish doctoral education .............................337 Kirsi Pyhältö, Anna Raija Nummenmaa, Tiina Soini, Jenni Stubb, Kirsti Lonka Part v: HIgHer educatIon and workIng life 18. Current employability and graduate employment research in Finland ... 357 Antero Puhakka, Juhani Rautopuro, Visa Tuominen and Päivi Vuorinen-Lampila 19. The three phases of the research and development activities in the Finnish universities of applied sciences ........................................ 383 Teemu Rantanen and Timo Toikko 20. Developing the work-based mission of the universities of applied sciences – Case: The Professional Master’s Degree ............. 407 Marja-Liisa Neuvonen-Rauhala 21. Establishing virtual learning places between higher education and working life through e-mentoring ...............................................421 Irja Leppisaari and Marja-Liisa Tenhunen Contributors .....................................................................................................................441 7 Part I: Introduction Sakari Ahola David M. Hoffman THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM REFORMS STRUCTURES, REFORMS AND POLICY ISSUES STRUCTURES, REFORMS IONALISATION INTERNATIONALISATION1 PERSPECTIVE INSIDE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE INSIDE NATIONAL EDUCATION AND WORKING LIFE HIGHER EDUCATION AND WORKING LIFE THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM TRUCTURES, REFORMS AND POLICY ISSUES STRUCTURES, REFORMS INTERNATIONALISATION INTERNATIONALISATION Higher education INSIDE research NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE from INSIDEa Finnish NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE perspective – an introduction The development of higher education research, as a self-standing field of inquiry, is closely related to the instit utionalisation of the field and to the building of academic self-awareness of actors having varied disci- plinary and institutional backgrounds. This is accentuated, as the main thrust for an increasing interest in higher education matters comes from outside academia. Inside academia, there is, as described by Guy Neave and Ulrich Teichler, “an element of navel gazing when academics come to look at themselves, their colleagues and their institutions” (Neave & Teichler 1989, 207). The growing interest by national governments and international organizations, like the OECD, relates to the fundamental transforma- tions of higher education itself, usually referred to as massification (e.g. Tight 2004). Along with the rapid expansion are also the relationships between governments (often as the principle funders) and evolving higher education institutions, whose missions are increasingly rede- fined. In the 21st century, the autonomous university, or ‘ivory tower’, where navel gazing was the norm, has been transformed into a system 11 Sakari Ahola and David M. Hoffman with in-puts, through-puts and out-puts, the quality of which should be measured and monitored (Neave 1985, 1989.) The birth of educational planning, especially in the Finnish case, was part of a wider reorganisa- tion of the central government. The corps bureaucratique has grown, as the organisation of government became more differentiated. A new political and administrative ideology has emerged, according to which the devel- opment of a society can be rationally planned and controlled (Ahola, Kivinen & Rinne 1992). There have, of course, always been those that Teichler (2000, 19) termed “discipline-based, occasional higher education researchers”. In the Finnish case these were historians and social scientists, who were interested especially in the relationships between higher education and social mobility. Along with the above-mentioned changes, using Teich- ler’s widely cited typology, applied higher education researchers, consult- ants and reflective practitioners have been quite active in colonising this field (Ahola & Välimaa 2002). In the Finnish case, a specialised educational research institute was established in 1968, at the University of Jyväskylä, which had been upgraded to a university from a former teacher training college, a few years earlier, as part of the regional expansion of Finnish higher educa- tion. The mission of this research institute, the Finnish Institute for Edu- cational Research (FIER), has focused on the follow-up and evaluation of large and ongoing educational reforms, like the build up of Finland’s comprehensive school system. The large administrative and curricular reforms of the late 1960s and 1970s stirred growing interest also in higher education. In 1971, during a project commissioned by the Ministry of Education, the first review of the state of the art and future needs of higher education research in Finland was produced. In addition a bibliography on higher education research from 1969 to 1971 was published (Ahola & Välimaa 2002; see also Välimaa in this volume). The cited review revealed an intense discussion in Finland on the organisation of higher education research. The report concluded, not at all surprisingly, that the field was scattered, and research, although expanding fast, did not serve the development of higher education particularly well. There had been, for instance, individual initiatives to 12 Higher education research from a Finnish perspective – an introduction establish