Aalto University Student Union

Statement

11.11.2013

A working group of the Ministry of Education and Culture wants to increase the number of international students in Finland to 60,000 students. As the most important means, the working group proposes tuition fees for students coming from outside the EU/EEA area. Aalto University Student Union also wants to have more international students. ”At an international university, networks are created, ideas are processed in multicultural groups and the future success of Finland is constructed”, says Chairperson of AYY Board Piia Kuosmanen. “Tuition fees, however, do not implement this objective. Direct expenses of international education are already covered by the students’ own consumption and, moreover, are a very profitable investment.”

According to the International Student Barometer, free education is the most important reason to come to study in Finland, along with the quality of education and research. Finland’s competitive advantage is the reputation of a reliable and equal country of education. When tuition fees were tried out in Finland, only 6% of international students required to pay tuition fees accepted their place of study at Aalto University. Not even all of those students, who received a full scholarship covering both the tuition fees and the living expenses, came to Finland. In Sweden and Denmark, the number of students coming from outside the EU and EEA countries has collapsed along with tuition fees and has not recovered in spite of a massive increase in scholarship funds. Tuition fees in general are not expected to generate revenue due to expenses caused by scholarships and administration, among other things – the expenses of Aalto’s tuition fee trial are almost twice as high in comparison with the revenue.

Education export discussion should take into account the benefits brought by international students to the Finnish economy. International students finance their living with savings and scholarships and use Finnish services during their study period. According to the report of the Education Exports Vision Working Group of student organisations, the consumption of 20,000 international students who currently study in Finland, brings approximately EUR 170 million to our national economy on an annual level. Half of the international students are employed in Finland within one year of their graduation. They bring new know-how, cover with tax revenues their education and the education expenses of those who have left Finland, and patch our negative dependency ratio. According to the survey conducted by AYY, two-thirds of international students would like to be employed in Finland and only 16% are planning to leave Finland after their studies. Even if students are employed elsewhere after their graduation, their education cannot be regarded as a poor investment. ”The current leader of the African Union, Prime Minister of Ethiopia Hailemariam Desalegn, for example, is a former student of engineering in Tampere” says Kuosmanen. ”Personal contacts and ties to our northern country of those who have studied here are major opportunities for Finland and the Finnish export industry.”

Similarly to Ms Lipponen’s working group, AYY wants to make Finnish education a success in international education. We want to see that Finnish education is exported to the world as consultancy services, training abroad organised by university training companies and as open online teaching.

Piia Kuosmanen, Chairperson of AYY Board

Janne Koskenniemi, Secretary General

Further information: Specialist for International Affairs Milla Ovaska tel. 050 520 9446