International recruitment

Finnish universities have always maintained an international perspective, although they were established largely to satisfy national needs. The primary goal of the universities has nevertheless contracted from one of advancing the interests of citizens at large to one of functioning as regional growth centres. The desire to be part of the international scientific community has, how-ever, remained firmly in place.

The role of the universities as re-search producers and as a channel for communicating the hugely expanded volume of knowledge has increased in importance. Research conducted in the universities is expected not only to produce new information and knowledge but also to ensure that Finnish society benefits from the results of international research, thus advancing the country's development and boosting prosperity.

International involvement requires that Finland has high-level research of its own, allowing us to operate as equal members of the global scientific community.

Until the Second World War, Finnish universities closely followed those of Central Europe, mainly Germany. After the War, however, the strong support given by the United States for deve-loping Finnish scientific endeavour and the key position of the US within the scientific community as a whole meant that Finnish attention and research co-operation became focused on the United States. In the past thirty years, progress made in European research has, in turn, led to an increase in Finnish co-operation with its European partners, to the extent that Europe is now the most important area for Finnish research co-operation.

The biggest breakthrough for international co-operation has undoubtedly been the spread of information technology and computer networks. This has made international contact part of everyday life: information is sought from global databases, real-time discussions are held with colleagues via e-mail, and research is conducted using resources commonly available over the Internet, and all this on a daily basis.

A key issue for international co-operation nevertheless still remains: universities and research institutions must be able to compete not only for the best home-grown talent, but also for the best from other countries.

Although Finland is now starting to produce research environments which are internationally competitive, an important weakness remains. The salaries of university professors in Finland do not stand up to international comparison.

Based initially on the international needs of Finnish industry, tax relief measures have been introduced in Finland to aid in recruiting experts from abroad. The monthly salary threshold for this, set at 35,000 marks, is not applied in the case of international recruitment by universities.

This demonstrates two things. Firstly, it is acknowledged that Finnish universities would benefit from recruiting researchers of international standing, and there is a desire to support this. And secondly, it is recognised that scientific experts needed by universities are lower paid than experts recruited by industry.

As international applications for professorships have become commonplace, Finnish universities have had to tempt foreign applicants with higher salaries than those that would be offered to Finnish applicants. We will certainly be in an unsustainable situation if the payment principle applied to foreign applicants goes beyond their level of scientific competence.

The search for external funding so strongly emphasised in the work of professors nowadays and the absence of any system of remuneration for managing externally funded projects also impose additional obstacles on the recruitment of foreign professors and on their work within the Finnish scientific community. Since external funding often concerns not only scientifically competitive re-search but also the commercial application of that research, those involved in competing for funding would benefit from familiarity with the practices of the Finnish public and private sector science-fund-ing communities.

The competitiveness of Finnish professors' salaries has continued to weaken in recent years. Correcting this situation is one of the key requirements for the future success of Finnish research policy and the international orientation of Finnish universities.

Juhani Keinonen
President
Finnish Union of University Professors