|
Editorial
University Institution
— Shadowy Outskirts and
Glamorous Centre
In the third part of his autobiographical trilogy, Moi universitety
(1923, My Universities), Maksim Gorki depicts the life he led in
a city by the river Volga during the final decades of the 1800s.
In his typically naturalistic style, he describes his attempts at
a study place at the University, which resulted in a failure. Instead
of academic studies, Gorki ended up working in a bakery. There
he encountered a group of radical students, whose study circles induced
in him much intellectual turmoil, including both new revelations
and feelings of doubt. Gorki considered this period as compensation
for the University education that he actually lacked. He also
maintained that the period radicalized his ethos as a writer.
Academic career in Finland can also be observed and conducted both
from the shadowy outskirts of the system and from its illuminated
centre. When the facade of the University establishment is contemplated
from the outside, it shows itself as an Institution that potentially
enables a glorious career. It has provided people not only with
salaried work, but also with fresh challenges. Furthermore, solutions
to new research questions have brought visibility and coverage to researchers.
The ragged careers of many University employees afford another
kind of vista. In addition to permanent and semi-permanent personnel,
there are a lot of people with academic activity on the outer
fringes of the system. The work of these people does not always show when results and achievements are downloaded into
databases.
There are always people who have become dropouts
due to a recently terminated employment and
who are now searching for possibilities for continuing
their work by participating in the bingo for research
funding. Few drop-outs find their way into a bakery,
however; without the hygiene proficiency certificate,
you are not qualified for that line of work.
The career path system has not been applied in
the Finnish Universities to the extent it could have.
The system favours early-stage-researchers, but the
entering into the system of more advanced researchers
from the intermediate levels is difficult and often
impossible. On the other hand, dropping out of a career
path is like getting the silver medal or becoming
fourth in a sports cup: it is always a failure. There is no
respectable alternative for exit.
The recent retirement age -debate should not
leave University people with guilty conscience: the
average retirement age is already over 65 years, and
with Professors over 67. Let us hope that the recently
perpetrated normative solutions will not dilute the
willingness to stay in working life as long as possible.
But how to serve those University pensioners, who
are in good health and willing to work? If they have
enough academic competence, they can enter contracts
as researchers or Adjunct Professors. But pensioners
may not lead research projects. This is odd. It
is small wonder that many academics who have either
become drop-outs, or have been forced into retiment
by circumstances, have established cooperatives for
the purposes of conducting research. Via cooperatives,
the leading of an international research project
is allowed also for retired academics.
There are those, who are of the view that Universities
no longer offer proper career prospects. Some
of these people leave the scene and change the trade.
Others put up a company or act as sole traders to apply
for funding from the various foundations, or to
make contracts with companies to earn a living and
to keep up with the intense competition.
What to do about all this, then? Gorki wondered, why
these subdued people do not act together, but compete
and even fight with each other. A University
should be like a garden, on the fringes of which various
kinds of crop and runner germinate. And the gardener
should not weed out growth that does not immediately
fit the garden strategy, but rather encourage
common growth as part of the same community.
And what if Universities were in the form of cooperatives?
There could be Faculties and working space
cooperatives. All this would require would be a slight
legislative alteration. Besides, one would think that
this format could not only enhance academic efforts,
but also endorse democracy more constantly than it is
followed today.
Tapani Kaakkuriniemi
president, The Finnish Union
of University Researchers
and Teachers
- Painetussa lehdessä sivu 36
|