Foreign exchange programmes interest Finnish students once again

Number of foreign exchange students coming to Finland fell slightly for the first time

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Various student exchange programmes and training abroad have once again started to interest Finnish students, after some quieter years.
      Last year nearly 9,400 students from Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences spent more than three months studying or training abroad. The figure translates to a growth rate of eight per cent compared with the year before.
      In nearly half of the cases the students made use of the EU-based Erasmus programme.
      The universities’ own programmes were utilised when travelling further, such as to the United States, China, Canada, Thailand, and Japan.
      Most of the Finnish students - 66 per cent in all - still favoured European destinations.
     
The number of foreign students coming to study with the Finnish institutions of higher education, on the other hand, fell for the first time since the keeping of such records began in the late 1990s.
      Mind you, the number of the arrivees was only reduced by less than a hundred individuals.
      In all there was still in excess of 8,800 of them, more than 80 per cent of whom came from another European country.
      For example with the Pirkanmaa, Oulu Region, and Seinäjoki Universities of Applied Sciences the number of foreign exchange students was reduced somewhat from the year before, whereas in the Kemi-Tornio and Diakonia Universities of Applied Sciences the trend was exactly the opposite.
     
The financial aid to students - which in many countries is weaker than in Finland - combined with the recession partly explain both trends, says CIMO (Centre for International Mobility) assistant director Juha Ketolainen.
      Finland has been a forerunner - together with the Netherlands - as a provider of English-language education, but today an increasing number of other countries as well offer various study modules taught in English.
      Even those in vocational education are increasingly interested in completing part of their studies abroad: nearly 13% of those enrolled at Finnish trade schools took part in foreign exchange programmes last year.
     
”Training abroad is good for a vocational school student’s self-esteem”, encourages CIMO assistant director Mikko Nupponen.
      The vocational school students’ favourite exchange destinations were Estonia, Sweden, Germany, Spain, and Great Britain.
      Also on the trade school side the number of arrivees into Finland diminished slightly.


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