New power configurations of higher education policy in Finland: the birth of the foundation university and the struggle for university democracy

Säätiöyliopiston synty ja kamppailu yliopistodemokratiasta

Authors

• Hanna Kuusela Tampereen yliopisto https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3845-8140
• Veera Kaleva Tampereen yliopisto
• Tuukka Tomperi Tampereen yliopisto https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1676-3523
• Mikko J. Poutanen Tampere University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1914-9345
• Tuomas Tervasmäki Tampereen yliopisto https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2300-6451

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37452/politiikka.101246

Keywords:

higher education policy, foundation university, university democracy

Abstract

In the beginning of the 21^st century many voices called for an urgent reform of the Finnish higher education system. The reform drive, referred to as “structural development”, aimed to concentrate resources, cut down the number of institutions, and profiling the universities more strongly. It was believed that doing so would create more cost-effectiveness in universities, improve Finland’s standing in international rankings and allow for closer interaction with business and industry. This article focuses on the birth of the foundation university as a part of this drive in the context of the 2009 Universities Act. We find that the drive for reform was made possible by a meeting of interests between the Ministry of Education and Finnish business and industry, and by the receptiveness of the highest levels of university administration. These interests combined led to the marginalization of democratically organized university communities, and also to partially bypassing Parliamentary procedure in order to realize the reform. Our conjunctural case analysis suggests, that the key motivating drive behind early 21^st century higher education policy and the shifting power configurations in Finnish universities is made evident in the birth of the foundation university – Aalto University.