Message of hope to the fatherland

We students made Finland a reality through our ideas and songs. We were the first to sing the Maamme anthem around 180 years ago. We dared suggest hope for a better future for our people in the form of independent Finland. Today, we dare to propose measures that will help everyone in Finland to once again have faith in the future.

The election programme of the Student Union of the University of Finland paints a picture of the vision today’s students have for Finland’s future. It also describes our needs and wishes for society to help us truly make our dream a reality.

In these times of confrontation and polarisation, students have come together under the Student Union’s banner to discuss matters that are of crucial importance to us. We asked students on campuses what the Finland of their dreams looks like. Three important themes emerged from the answers, connecting students from all around the University: free education, the mitigation of the ecocrisis and securing students’ wellbeing and subsistence.

Students consider free education as the cornerstone of society. Education, culture and research form the solution to the sustainability gap in Finland’s public economy and to wellbeing created within the boundaries set by nature. That is why we demand that the Finnish government commits to retaining free higher education and strengthening its role in Finnish civilised society.

Students want to be involved in building Finland’s future on sustainability and internationality. Young people’s faith in the future is undermined especially by the discrepancy between words and actions in climate policy. This cannot continue. Measures that research data agrees ensure that Finland can become carbon neutral by 2035 must be decided during the next parliamentary term. Harvesting forests, for instance, must be limited to the level set by the academic community in order to protect carbon sinks and our unique nature.

Students also emphasised the importance of wellbeing: mental, physical and financial wellbeing during studies must be taken care of to ensure that we can serve Finland the best possible way when we move to working life. The entire student aid system needs a complete overhaul. Students’ increasing indebtedness must be curbed and the student loan stock that has got out of hand must be dealt with.

We have drafted an election programme in close cooperation with HYY’s Representative Council, Board and Central Office. In the programme, representative Council groups from the right to the left all stress the importance of free and accessible education as the foundation of a resilient society and a means to ensure social peace. Groups representing different disciplines, organisations and communities all want to ensure that students have the basic needs to survive their studies.

According to an old saying, whatever students do first, the rest of society will follow. What if, in the next elections, we could change this to ‘whatever students do first, the rest of society will help them with’.

The lack of prospects will not crush us. When the world around us offers no hope for the future, leading the way falls on us, the hopes of the fatherland. Read our parliamentary election programme and let us know what you think of the measures we are proposing. Join us on the path to the future!

Olli Jalonen

Vice Chair of the Board