Finland's universities facing loss of thousands of jobs

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According to the Finnish government's decision last spring, only half of the posts that become vacant in the state-run universities by 2011 will be filled. Hence up to 6,000 jobs could be axed. The target is to improve the cost-effectiveness of the public sector administration .
      A total of some 35,000 employees in the public sector will retire or take other employment by the year 2011.
     
The ministries have been asked to check their own cost-effectiveness so that cuts in staff would be possible.
      The Ministry of Education had asked the universities to submit their own proposals on cost-effectiveness and cuts of jobs by last Friday.
      The universities find the issue of cost-effectiveness highly controversial, as demands have been made to increase the amount of internationally competitive research at the same time as thousands of jobs should be cut.
      Last April, the Finnish Government adopted a resolution on the structural development of the public research system. According to the resolution, universities were to invest in the quality of research, interdisciplinarity, and research personnel of an internationally high standard.
     
"More research means more personnel.The current staff cannot do more", says Chairman Antero Puhakka of the Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers (FUURT).
      "Finnish universities do not have any extra personnel, as the staff cuts made during the economic crisis of the 1990s have not been re-filled", comments Chairman Gustav Björkstrand of the Finnish Council of University Rectors (FCUR).
      According to Björkstrand, Finnish universities have already noticeably intensified their operations in terms of the number of graduates as well as published scientific articles.
      "In comparison, the top universities worldwide typically have just 13 to 14 students per teacher, while in Finland, the ratio is 20 to 30 students per teacher", Björkstrand points out.
     
Björkstrand believes that the chances to increase cost-effectiveness are rather slight, unless entire universities or departments are to be closed.
      Björkstrand claims that only in the administrative and financial sector could cost-effectiveness be slightly improved by means of data technology, cooperation, and outsourcing. "Actually, extensive cooperation for example between Turku-based universities already exists".
     
By mechanically "halving" the jobs, unique brances of science could be lost for example at the University of Turku, because they are Swedish-speaking.
      In the University of Helsinki, the carrying out of the decision would mean a loss of about 1,000 jobs.
     
"If every second job of those employees who take retirement will disappear, it would be very destructive with respect to the university's international competitiveness and would seriously endanger basic scientific research", was the comment of the University of Oulu.
      "The current level of cost-effectiveness cannot be improved because of the insufficient human resources compared with the scope of the operations", states a representative of the Helsinki University of Technology.
      While acknowledging the controversy, Director General Arvo Jäppinen of the Ministry of Education insists that the universities will in any event have to improve the cost-effectiveness of their administration and other structures.
      Jäppinen sees further possibilities in joint service centres which would handle for example universities' salaries. In the long run, the cost-effectiveness of universities should include also their efficacy and quality.


Links:
  The Finnish Ministry of Education News: Government Resolution on the structural development of the public research system (7.4.2005)
  The Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers (FUURT)
  The Finnish Council of University Rectors (FCUR)

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