The cry of international students and its impact on Finnish education
31.03.2009 10:19 Eric Buah
At first, I thought this international pressure on Finland to introduce tuition fees was a rumour. But for all that I know, there is little truth attached to a rumour. Therefore when a rumour of a sound enters your ear, you have to imitate an action of a tiger, until I personally read it in an article written by Erikka Mannila, one of the Editor’s of Warkauden Lehti on this hot debate. That made me to believe this but the question is “How will people embrace this idea and its impact on Finnish education”.
My dear readers, I can attest to the fact that Finnish education system is among the best in the world and obvious fact is that people will not reject Finnish education if the Universities are given the mandate to charge tuition fees. Actually Finland needs a pat on the back because the country’s effort in giving free quality education to international students over the years is highly commendable.
But the hullabaloo circulating this issue is getting out of hands and has left so many questions on the minds of international students studying in Finland, because of the current world economic crises which has rendered a lot of people unemployed.
That is where the problem comes, if the proposed tuition fees ranging from 3500 euros to 12000 euros materialized, don’t you think the number of international students coming to this cold and geographically remote country will decrease despite the aim of this proposal?
Honestly speaking, the tuition fee is in no doubt will help increase the competitiveness of Finnish universities and improve their position in the international educational market. But the question is, in the bid of Ministry’s effort in doing this to improve the quality of teaching in English in order to attract high calibre of intellectuals of the academic world to teach in their universities, thereby enticing a higher calibre of students and increase the number of student’s intake.
What will be the impact in the foreseeable future of the “low class institutions” in the remote areas? Are they going to be close down? What will be the destiny of the teachers? Are they going to be unemployed?
However, will employers be ready to take students without asking if he or she speaks Finnish? Because little did I know, news paper distribution work (Mainnoskia) in Finland demands somebody who speaks Finnish. How will students survive and Finance their education if they are in shortage of money.
Let us not loose sight of the fact that, countries like UK, Sweden, Germany, Canada etc that have taken the initiative offer campus jobs to students especially in UK. Are the top ranking universities who are putting pressure on the Ministry of Education ready for these challenges? On a fair note the decision is not bad, since Finnish national abroad pay tuition fees but that shouldn’t be the main point.
Let us look before we leap because if this materialized, students will prefer to be in city universities and this will likely cause “stampede” in country side, thus, decreasing international integration of different nationals. If care is not taken, a time will come Finns themselves will not have chance to enjoy quality education and study for international programs, and remember the backbone of every country relies on the youth and education!
Peace be with you all but Kokonsah will try to reach out to other students for their views. Keep reading!
