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Editorial
Knowledge as the Basis
for Decision Making
This year, the theme for the Autumn Seminar of the Finnish Union
of University Professors was knowledge. We contemplated both the
future of knowledge and the forms that knowledge might take in the
future. The reason for choosing this topic was our firm belief that the
future of Finland has to be built on knowledge and know-how.
This Autumn Seminar was also the celebratory event to mark
the 45th year of the Finnish Union of University Professors. The Union
was founded in 1969, when the Professors wanted to rally their
troops against the project that was to bring significant administrational
changes to Universities at the time. The administration was
to be changed so that it would follow the so called 'vote per person'
principle. The government bill, which had already advanced into parliament
level, proposed equal right to vote and to become an eligible
candidate for elections to all levels of personnel within the University
administration. Everyone (a member of staff or a student) within
the University establishment would thereby have had a vote when
decisions had to be made. The Professors were of the opinion that
there was in deed a need for administrative change, but not the kind
of change that would yield the power to the continuously changing
flux of students. Within Universities, all activity, including administration,
requires proficiency and competence, as well as profound
knowledge and commitment.
The research and teaching personnel of Universities are still adamant
about requiring scientific expertise in their daily work. They also demand
it when significant and far-reaching decisions are being made. In the near future, profiling and structural development
will be among these kind of decisions. For the
next year, 50 million euros of the basic funding originally
reserved for Universities will be channeled to
the Academy of Finland. This is called 'profiling capital'
for building up, or, in some cases, perhaps cutting
down, certain scientific and educational fields. The
Universities will demand this funding back from the
Academy in January.
At the moment, vehement discussion is required
in the Universities on what to do: what to embrace
and what to discard. Universities cannot make decisions
without firm scientific expertise. Professors
carry responsibility for their fields of scientific expertise.
They also have the up-to-date knowledge
on how and with what kind of emphases their own
fields are represented in the Universities and research
institutions around the world. Members of University
governments coming from outside the very heart of
the scientific community may sometimes have a narrow
view on these matters.
The national scientific policy should also be based
on firm knowledge. The State of Scientific Research
2014 -report of the Academy of Finland outlines that
“planning and decision making based on knowledge
has to be lifted into a higher level in the politics of science”.
This is a magnificent goal, the realization of
which we shall observe and estimate. One wishes and
hopes, though, that politics concerning science has
already been implemented so that it has been founded
on research-based knowledge.
The requirement of utilizing research-based information
has been presented to our entire political
organization in the recent years. The Chancellor
Emeritus, Kari Raivio, has now completed his recommendations
on how the Prime Minister's Office and
the Ministries could base their decisions on knowledge
more efficiently than before. Raivio presents befuddling
figures on how small a portion of the Ministries'
personnel have the background of having been
educated as researchers. In the Ministry of Transport
and Communications, only 3% of the employees have
a PhD. In the Prime Minister's Office, the percentage
is 6 and even the Ministry of Education and Culture
only scores 14%.
When one follows the media, it sometimes seems that
what is of interest to people is quasi-knowledge and
humbug. An individual experience is taken for a fact.
Opinions on the climate change seem to supersede
research results, and populism seems to go for politics.
But we, who work in Universities and research
institutions, need to have faith in that knowledge will
be appreciated in the end. The Finnish people seek
higher education, they respect their organizations
that provide knowledge and they trust their scientific
community. Research is of interest to schoolchildren,
too. In knowledge lies the future, and with this in
mind, we continue our work.
Maarit Valo
Chair, the Finnish union
of university professors
maarit.a.valo@jyu.fi
- Painetussa lehdessä sivu 42
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