In its mid-term policy review session this spring, the Prime Minister Orpo’s Government unexpectedly outlined a policy allowing open higher education institutions the right to grant degrees. The change may at first glance seem small and innocent and may even seem to promote the accessibility of higher education. Nevertheless, this is not the case. The implementation of this change would fundamentally reshape the Finnish higher education system and make paid degrees a part of it. In addition, allowing open universities to grant degrees would also involve numerous other challenges that are not at all simple to solve.
If implemented, the right of open higher education institutions to grant a degree will create a paid shortcut for bypassing the carefully refined student admissions process based on success in studies and entrance examinations. In other words, the reform would benefit individuals with the greatest wealth who would always have access to the paid shortcut. On the other hand, it should be noted that success in studies correlates with socio-economic background, and education in Finland is already strongly inherited. In other words, in most cases, young people from a low socio-economic background would be the ones who would have to pay for their degree, while the privileged children of educated parents would continue to be successful in gaining admission to free of charge higher education. In other words, the reform would provide more options for the wealthiest, while the disadvantaged would still struggle.
It is noteworthy that the open university is not a separate education provider but a part of the university. In practice, those completing an open, paid-for degree would therefore participate in the same courses together with those studying in free education. However, open university students are not members of the university community referred to in the Universities Act and would thus not be represented in the decision-making bodies of the university. This would create a situation where students completing the same studies would be in segregated into a two class system: some would be paying customers, while others would be members of the university community.
In recent years, there has been a shift in student admissions to higher education institutions to favouring first-time students. It is therefore more difficult for those who have already accepted a place at a higher education institution to gain admission. Would it be possible for people completing degrees in open universities to circumvent the first-time quotas and study for a degree without losing their first-time university student status or would they lose this status by studying in an open university? Currently, many young people who were not able to gain admission to studies use their gap year to study in an open university or gain admission to university via the open university path. The challenge is real.
Students studying in open university are not currently eligible for student financial aid. Full-time degree studies also have an impact on other social benefits, such as unemployment benefits and basic social assistance. Thus, when the reform is being implemented it must be carefully specified which social benefits students of open universities would be entitled to. This would not be an easy or simple exercise. Instead, it would require a review of several legislative entities. No one can say how expensive allowing open universities the right to grant degrees would be with regard to social benefits and how many unreasonable and difficult income situations it would cause for individuals.
In other words, the right of open universities to grant degrees may sound like a simple and pleasant idea, but it most definitely is not. The Government has set the goal of raising the education level of the young age group, and the best way to achieve this goal would be to increase the educational capacity of the current higher education system sustainably with sufficient additional funding. On the other hand, providing open universities the right to grant degrees would create a complicated jumble, the consequences of which would only be harmful for Finnish higher education and would be almost impossible to undo. Free education can only be destroyed once.
