The obligation to collect tuition fees makes university teachers cringe

The desire of Finland’s government to force higher education institutions to impose minimum tuition fees of EUR 4,000 per study year on non-EU/EEA students astonishes the unions representing university teachers and researchers. The Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers and YLL point out that the experiment with fees organized in 2010–2014 did not yield financial profit, but instead increased bureaucracy and inequality.

— It is a completely wrong starting point to force universities to collect fees that impair their internationalisation. Internationalisation at home in Finnish universities is extremely important for the quality of degrees.

The unions point out that in its proposal the government itself mentions that a reduction in the number of foreign students may negatively influence the internationalisation of some Finnish universities.

— The proposal for collecting tuition fees is also an indication of a very unstable higher education policy. The funding model for universities has just been revised, and its aim is to reward universities for degrees completed by international students.

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