Equality of starting points or a class society?

This is the second part of a three-part blog series in which Delila Belahcen, member of our Board in charge of educational policy, outlines a vision for educational policy for 2040.

There are many obstacles facing young people seeking higher education. A sufficient number of available student places is not one of them. The age group born in 2008 and ending their secondary studies this spring consists of around 59,000 people. In this year’s joint application procedure, there are over 56,000 places available in higher education, with the majority of them reserved for applicants in the first-timer quota. The aim is to further increase the number of student places even though significantly fewer places get accepted each year than the number of places available.

It is great that the vision for higher education and research wants to allocate student places to fields that young people are interested in and that provide employment. This can partially fix the mismatch between available student places and the wishes of young people. However, we should also remember that one’s field of study does not ultimately fully determine one’s career path. Internships, hobbies, organisational activities and jobs all help diversify career paths even among people with the same educational background.

Being successful in higher education studies requires, above all, foundational skills learned in previous levels of education. Comprehensive education should offer enough knowledge-based competence for the next stage of studies, but it should also teach resilience, skills needed for learning new things and appreciation for the work and competence of oneself and other people.

The competence of Finnish young people is still above the OECD average but differences in competence between young people have exploded. When education paths diverge due to a lack of competence, some young people who want to get into higher education get left out. To ensure that everyone who wants to receive higher education has genuine opportunities to do so, comprehensive basic skills should be provided in previous levels of education regardless of background. As age groups get smaller and smaller, we cannot afford to allow young people to get left behind. Otherwise, the level of education among young generations will be lower than that of previous generations and an increasing share of social mobility will be downward mobility.

We need development and visions that cut across the entire educational system to remove the underlying problems that prevent people from seeking higher education. Finland’s level of education will not start rising if higher education is only available for young people who come from academic families and have completed general upper secondary education. We also need all-round education in vocational education as well as extensive investments in study guidance during both lower secondary school and secondary education.

Delila Belahcen

Member of the Board in charge of educational policy