A Canadian´s view of
Finnish universities
I came to Finland twelve years ago from Ecole Polytechnique in
Montreal, where I was associate professor. I've worked at Tampere
University of Technology as instructor (päätoiminen
tuntiopettaja), as researcher, as yliassistentti (there is no
equivalent for this position in the north american system, so
I won't translate the title), and as professor with various appendices
(vs, vt, and ma).
Because my wife is Finnish, I had no difficulties obtaining a
visa to live and work in Finland. I haven't taken on Finnish citizen
because I do not wish to give up my Canadian citizenship, as would
be required by Finnish authorities for naturalisation. In any
case, lack of Finnish citizenship hasn't been an obstacle in my
work: I can hold a university position, be a member of a union,
and can apply for research funding from the Academy of Finland
and from EU programmes.
I'm sometimes asked how long it took me to learn Finnish, but
really this question is impossible to answer. I'm still learning
it, so are you. I know immigrants who haven't learned to speak
Finnish after living here 20 years, but I know that if one is
firmly decided to do it then reasonable fluency can be achieved
in a year. Learning the language is obviously essential to integrate
into Finnish society.
Finnish system is more relaxed
I've noticed that in some respects university students here have
an easier life compared to their counterparts in other countries.
For example, they have practically unlimited opportunities to
retry exams. I come from a university system where failing exams
can mean the end of your studies, and flunking out of school was
a constant threat. At Ecole Polytechnique about a third of students
were flunked out of school already in their first year. Students
in Finland, once they're admitted to university, aren't subjected
to this kind of pressure. An advantage of this more relaxed system
for me as a teacher is that situations of desparate students pleading
for improved grades are much rarer.
Because of Finnish reticence, extra effort is needed to get students
to become active participants in the classroom. I suppose that
it must also take a bit of time for students to get accustomed
to my "american" teaching style. I try to encourage
them to ask questions during lectures, but it always seems to
take a long time before the group thaws and we get a reasonable
level of interaction in lectures.
Some of my Finnish colleagues have conjectured that students
agree to go along with some of my unconventional teaching techniques
because, as a foreigner, I'm not subject to the same expectations.
I expect that it also helps that I'm from North America, which
is held in high esteem in Finland, rather than somewhere else.
Students attending my courses can feel that they're getting a
taste of "exchange student" experience.
Society is well-disposed to education
I feel that Finnish society is very well-disposed to education.
People stay in university many more years than in other countries,
educational achievements are a source of pride (on May Day people
wear their diplomas on their heads!), and continuing education
courses are very popular at all levels of society. I've certainly
had no shortage of opportunities for doing part-time teaching
of math courses in English and in Finnish.
This attitude to education is reflected in the fine facilities
provided by universities for teaching and research. Buildings
are modern and well maintained, equipment is new and plentiful.
These fine facilities are an important attraction for foreign
graduate students and researchers. True, there were cutbacks in
Finnish universities during the recession, but I don't think they
were as severe as what my colleagues have to deal with in Canada,
where cutbacks are continuing for ideological reasons.
Of course the financial situation at TUT is greatly helped by
the considerable amount of cooperation with industry. Engineering
universities in Canada and elsewhere usually have some industry-university
collaboration, but it seems to be especially well established
here. One can of course discuss the app-ropriateness of some university
research projects that are more "product development"
than basic science, but on the whole the financial and technological
transfer benefits of such collaboration are obvious.
Post-graduate students here also have a much easier life than
their counterparts in other countries. There is not much social
hier-archy: students and professors eat in the same cafeteria,
have the same borrowing privileges at the library, etc. Post-graduate
students can travel to international conferences to present papers.
They are paid salaries (as assistants or researchers) instead
of scholarships, and so can have a trade union.
I was here several years before I realised that there was a union
for researchers that I could join. One reason for the delay was
that I thought that union membership was automatic, as it is in
Canada when a workplace has a union. (There, if you don't want
to be a member of the union, you still have to pay the membership
fees, but they go to a mutually agreed charity. In this way there
are no free riders. I'm surprised that this "Rand formula"
is not applied in Finland.)
Another reason is that there was no union information in English.
Nowadays I try to rectify that situation by translating our local
union's newsletters and web info into English. I hope that this
issue of Acatiimi is the beginning of improved information services
for foreign members!
Robert Piche
Mathematics
Tampere University of Technology
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