A History of Finnish Higher Education from the Middle Ages to the 21st Century

330 Pages·2019·2.988 MB·English

by  Jussi Välimaa

Higher Education Dynamics 52
Jussi Välimaa
A History of
Finnish Higher
Education from
the Middle Ages to
the 21st Century
Higher Education Dynamics
Volume 52
Series Editors
Peter Maassen, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Science,
University of Oslo, Blindern, Oslo, Norway
Johan Müller, School of Education, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 
South Africa
Editorial Board
Alberto Amaral, CIPES and Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
Akira Arimoto, Hyogo University, Kakogawa, Japan
Nico Cloete, CHET, Pretoria, South Africa
David Dill, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
Jürgen Enders, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom
Patricia Gumport, Stanford Institute for Higher Education, Stanford, USA
Mary Henkel, Brunel University, Uxbridge, United Kingdom
Glen Jones, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Scope of the Series
Higher Education Dynamics is a book series intending to study adaptation processes
and their outcomes in higher education at all relevant levels. In addition it wants to
examine the way interactions between these levels affect adaptation processes. It
aims at applying general social science concepts and theories as well as testing
theories in the field of higher education research. It wants to do so in a manner that
is of relevance to all those professionally involved in higher education, be it as
ministers, policy-makers, politicians, institutional leaders or administrators, higher
education researchers, members of the academic staff of universities and colleges,
or students. It will include both mature and developing systems of higher education,
covering public as well as private institutions.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6037
Jussi Välimaa
A History of Finnish
Higher Education from the
Middle Ages to the
21st Century
Jussi Välimaa
University of Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä, Finland
ISSN 1571-0378 ISSN 2215-1923 (electronic)
Higher Education Dynamics
ISBN 978-3-030-20807-3 ISBN 978-3-030-20808-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20808-0
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
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Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 The University as an Organisation and Institution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Historical Layers in Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 The Main Research Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 The Scope and Method of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 T he Emergence of Universities in the Middle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 T he First Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 D ifferences Between Studia Generalia and Studia Particularia . . 14
2.3 Bologna and Paris as the Archetypes of Universities . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.4 The Relationship Between Universities and Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.5 Education and Students at Medieval Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.5.1 C haracteristics of Medieval Instruction and Studies . . . . 22
2.5.2 F ive Student Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.5.3 T he Degrees and the Mobility of Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.6 Scholasticism, Collegiums, and Universities
as a Social Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.6.1 Collegium as a Form of Collaboration
and a Solution to Accommodation Problems . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.6.2 W hy Universities Did not Develop in Other Civilisations 33
2.7 The Development of the Relationship Between Universities
and Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.8 The Cornerstones and Historical Layers of Medieval
Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3 Finnish Students at Medieval Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1 The Beginnings of the Connection to the Western
Cultural Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2 The Beginning of Schooling in Finland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.3 Finnish Students at European Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.4 To Which Universities Were Finnish Students Sent and Why? . . . 46
3.5 Who Were the Students? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
v
vi Contents
3.6 How Did the Finnish Students Fare in Their Studies? . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.7 The Social Significance of University Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.8 The Decline of the Middle Ages, Humanists, and Universities . . . 54
4 From the Reformation to the End of Swedish Rule – Laying
the Foundations of a National University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.1 The Reformation and the Rise of Centralised States . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2 The Reformation and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.3 The Thrice-Founded University of Uppsala and Finnish
University Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.4 Higher Education and Studying Abroad
in the Seventeenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.4.1 E ducation as an Instrument of Politics – Petrus Erici
Petrosa and the Jesuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.4.2 Aristocratic Education: The Case of Johan Jespersson
Kruus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.5 W hat Happened to Humanism? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.6 S chool Conditions in Finland After the Reformation . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.6.1 Reforms in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries:
Pedagogiums, Trivial Schools, and Gymnasiums . . . . . . 69
4.6.2 A ttempts to Reform Education in the Estate Society. . . . 71
4.6.3 T he Four-Estates Doctrine and Patron-Client
Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.7 An Educational System? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5 The Founding of the Royal Academy of Turku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.1 T he Founding of the Royal Academy of Turku in 1640 . . . . . . . . 76
5.2 The Charter: Justifying the Founding of the Academy of Turku . . 78
5.3 The Inauguration of the Academy of Turku:
“God’s Greatest Good Deed Since the Creation of the World” . . . 80
5.4 The Statutes and Privileges of the University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.5 The First Professors of the Academy of Turku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.6 T he Governing Bodies of the University of Turku:
the Consistory, the Rector, and the Chancellor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
6 The Academy of Turku During the Last Century of Swedish
Rule (1720–1809) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.1 The Academy of Turku as a Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.2 The Controversy over the Professorship of Economics
Between 1746 and 1747 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.3 Research at the University of Turku and at the Academies
of Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.4 The Academy of Turku and the Rise of Local Patriotism . . . . . . . 96
6.5 The Number of Students and Their Socio-Economic
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.5.1 T he Development of the Number of Students
in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. . . . . . . . . . 98
Contents vii
6.5.2 T he Students’ Socio-Economic Background . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.5.3 Students’ Entrance Examinations, Grants
and Accommodation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.5.4 T he Significance of Degrees in the Labour Market . . . . . 105
6.5.5 T he Birth of Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.6 T he Economy of the Academy of Turku and Its Professors . . . . . 107
6.7 The Historical Layer of the Academy of Turku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
7 The Age of Autonomy – The Role of Higher Education
in the Building of the Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7.1 The European Framework – The Napoleonic Wars
and the Crisis of Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7.2 Finland’s Separation from Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
7.2.1 T he Emergence of the Autonomous Grand
Duchy of Finland and the University of Turku . . . . . . . . 116
7.2.2 A n Overview of Finnish History During the Age
of Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.3 From the Academy of Turku to the Imperial Alexander
University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
7.3.1 S tudents of the Year 1822 and Finland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
7.4 C hanges in the University’s Statutes in 1828 and 1852 . . . . . . . . . 129
7.4.1 T he Statutes of the Imperial Alexander University
of Finland in 1828: Establishing the Changes . . . . . . . . . 129
7.4.2 The Historical Developments Leading to the Statutes
of 1852 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7.4.3 T he New Statutes of 1852 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
7.4.4 T he Finnish Language and the University . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
7.4.5 T he Science Societies and the Finnish Language . . . . . . 138
7.5 Students of the University in the Nineteenth-Century . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.5.1 T he Number of Students and Their Socio-Economic
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.5.2 The Distribution of University Students by Discipline
and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.5.3 H ighly Educated Finns in the Service of Russia . . . . . . . 145
7.6 Professors’ Socio-Economic Backgrounds and Elite Renewal . . . 145
7.7 The University as the Cradle of Civil Society
and the Nation-State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8 The Expansion of Higher Education into Practical-Utilitarian
Disciplines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
8.1 Reforming the Educational System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
8.2 The Emergence of New Higher Education Institutions . . . . . . . . . 157
8.3 The Debate on Practical-Utilitarian Education
in the Nineteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
8.4 From the Technical Real School to the Polytechnic
Institute and the University of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
viii Contents
8.5 Business Education and Its Development Towards
University-Level Business Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
8.6 The Development of Agriculture and Forestry Education –
From Agricultural Institutes into a Faculty of the Alexander
University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
8.7 Hamina Cadet School: An Institute for Young Noblemen . . . . . . . 168
8.8 Folk School Teacher Training Colleges and the Debate
Leading to Their Establishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
8.8.1 T he Founding of Jyväskylä Teacher Training
Seminary in 1863 and the First Years of the Seminary . . 171
8.8.2 T he Founding of Teacher Training Seminaries
Before the Age of Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
8.8.3 T eacher Trainees’ Socio-economic Background
and Social Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
8.8.4 E mma Irene Åström and the Educational Policy
of the Nineteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
8.8.5 The “Spirit” of Teacher Training Seminaries . . . . . . . . . . 179
8.9 T he Debate on New Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
8.10 T he Historical Layer of the Age of Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
9 The First Decades of Independence – White Finland . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
9.1 The Birth of White Finland and Its Development
till the Second World War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
9.2 S ocial Change and the Higher Education System
of White Finland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
9.3 T he Founding of New Universities in the 1910s
and the 1920s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
9.3.1 Å bo Akademi University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
9.3.2 The University of Turku – “A Free People’s
Gift to Free Science” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
9.4 The Founding of New Higher Education Institutions
in the 1930s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
9.4.1 F rom the Civic College to the School
of Social Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
9.4.2 The Founding of the College of Education
in Jyväskylä . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
9.5 T he Development and Significance of the University
of Helsinki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
9.6 S tudents of the University and their Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
9.6.1 T he Problem of “The Overflow of Matriculated
Students” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
9.6.2 T he Students’ Socio-economic Background
and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
9.7 The Historical Layer of Higher Education in White
Finland – Why an Elite System? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Contents ix
10 The Development of Finland’s Higher Education System
After the Second World War – Towards a Welfare State . . . . . . . . . . 209
10.1 Social and Political Changes and Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
10.2 The Activation of Higher Education Policy After the Wars . . . . . . 214
10.2.1 T he Requirement for a More Systematic Higher
Education Policy and the Problems of Private Higher
Education Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
10.2.2 The Process of Founding the University of Oulu. . . . . . . 216
10.3 The Layers of Higher Education Policy-Making in Finland
Between the 1950s and the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
10.3.1 T he Academic-Traditional View of Universities . . . . . . . 220
10.3.2 E ffects of the Myrberg Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
10.3.3 T he Expansion of Higher Education
and 12 November 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
10.3.4 The Drafting of the Development Act of 1967
and Its Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
10.4 The University Governance Reform and the Degree
Reform of the 1970s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
10.4.1 The Battle Over the Governance Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
10.4.2 The Degree Reform as a Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
10.4.3 O utcomes of the Governance and Degree Reforms . . . . . 236
10.4.4 T he Comprehensive School Reform
and the Reform of Teacher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
10.5 Towards an Accountable Entrepreneurial University . . . . . . . . . . . 239
10.5.1 “The Globalisation Shock” and Its Effects . . . . . . . . . . . 242
10.5.2 Higher Education Legislation
After the Globalisation Shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
10.5.3 T he Expansion of the Open University
as a Result of the Globalisation Shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
10.5.4 F rom Academies of Art to Universities of Art . . . . . . . . . 248
10.5.5 The Linkage Between the National Innovation
System and Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
10.6 The Contents of and the Process of Drafting
the Universities Act of 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
10.6.1 T he Main Contents of the Universities Act . . . . . . . . . . . 254
10.6.2 E ffects of the Universities Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
10.7 The Dynamics of Higher Education Reforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
11 T he Growth of Student Numbers and the Establishment
of Polytechnics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
11.1 The Development of the Number of Students
from the 1940s to the 2010s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
11.2 The Two “Perennial Problems” – Over-Education
and University Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265