Where do the funds for internationalisation come from?

The importance of internationalisation is emphasised a lot nowadays. Representatives of business life write about the importance of international experts in working life, the media makes headlines about the decrease in the popularity of higher education students’ exchange studies and the government works hard to encourage young people towards a career in the EU.    

One recent instance was the government’s mid-term budget session, which included the internationalisation of students as one of the measures taken to create growth. The government wants to encourage students to participate in exchange programmes and to network and get employed abroad. There are enough exchange students coming to the country, but Finnish students are not going abroad at the same rate. Analysing the statistics, it is clear that the trend on studying abroad has been going down for several years now. In 2016, over 1,100 students went on exchange from the University of Helsinki, whereas last year, the number of students going on exchange was slightly over 650 people. The coronavirus pandemic cannot be blamed for the number of exchange students decreasing, as the number of exchange students was already around the same figures in 2019.  

The reasons for the decrease in the number of people going on exchange has been discussed repeatedly over the years, and several factors affecting it have been identified in the Eurostudent VIII study, for instance:   

• Students can no longer afford to go on exchange to the same extent as before  
• Diverse situations with family and work make it impossible to go abroad for an extended period of time  
• The student’s health or the structure of the degree programme does not allow for the exchange   

Attempts have been made to rise to some of these challenges. Higher education institutions have created opportunities for short and varied exchanges, making it easier for students with children, for instance, to get internationalisation experiences. The structures of degree programmes have also been developed to make them more flexible. The goal of the University of Helsinki, for instance, is for each degree programme to include a mobility window that provides an integrated spot for the exchange as part of the studies and the degree structure.  

Finland wants more international degree students in the country. The Roadmap for Education-based and Work-based Immigration 2035 includes the goals of tripling the number of international degree students by 2030 and ensuring that 75 per cent of them get employed in Finland. Even though Finnish education boasts a good reputation abroad, there is a lot of work to do to reach these goals.  

One major obstacle on the road to internationalisation still remains: funding. This can be seen on many levels in higher education.  

 Students’ financial situation is acknowledged as one of the reasons behind the decrease in the attractiveness of exchange studies. When discussing student mobility, reference is often made to how the changes to student aid made in 2016 correspond to the decreasing numbers of students going on exchange. At that point, the emphasis on loans in student aid increased and the number of months of aid decreased.   

The student loan compensation system created before this encourages students to complete their studies quickly and graduate in target time. Many students are not prepared to risk not getting the compensation, which makes going on a long exchange seem impossible. Higher education institutions can only take limited action against this problem. Is the government ready to invest in student aid to make internationalisation easier?  

Currently, it seems like the answer is no, and that the direction is the exact opposite of this. The project for the comprehensive restructuring of student aid was launched last year. The project reviews the current status of student aid and aims to reform the system based on this. The working group preparing the reform published its proposals at the beginning of the year, and they make for unfortunate reading from the perspective of internationalisation. The reform is planned to be cost neutral, which means that to improve one part of the student aid system, cuts are needed somewhere else. Making cuts to the prerequisites for internationalisation seems like an easy answer. The memorandum reflects on issues such as whether the criteria for the right of students studying abroad to receive student aid should be restricted by, for instance, removing their right to student loan compensation.  

If internationalisation taking place in Finland, also known as internationalisation at home, is thought of as the solution, the current government has undermined opportunities for this too. International degree students now have to pay not only an application fee but also tuition fees that, by law, must cover the full cost of education for citizens of non-EU/EEA countries. This means that international applicants have to pay 100 euros just to send in an application, after which they are likely to face larger tuition fees than others. We have already seen a drop in the number of applicants this spring.  

As a cherry on top of the funding problems stands the funding model for higher education institutions. The Ministry of Education and Culture allocates funds to universities and universities of applied sciences based on the funding model. The 2017–2020 funding model still took into account both student exchange and master’s degrees completed by foreign citizens, with both positively affecting the funding universities received. The current funding model does not include corresponding criteria, and discussions have been held on removing students paying tuition fees and their degrees from the criteria for funding. In speeches, higher education institutions are encouraged towards internationalisation, but no-one is prepared to fund it.  

To many decision-makers, internationality in higher education seems to amount to flowery festive speeches – when push comes to shove, they are not ready to invest in it. This is a very contradictory message: internationalisation could be considered vital for Finland’s future, but there is no desire to financially support higher education institutions or students to make it a reality. The English-speaking world has a fitting expression for this kind of a situation: put your money where your mouth is. 

Tiia Niemi
Specialist in social policy