To Achieve the Same as the Others? Policy Preconditions for Successful Higher Education Governance

Higher Education (HE) Institutions in different European countries have been steered towards an increased level of quality and performance through a comparable market governance approach. Despite t...

Conceptions of teachership in the professional identity construction of adult educator graduates

The aim of this study was to investigate the conceptions of teachership among graduates (n = 126) from a Finnish higher education study programme called Pedagogical Studies for Adult Educators. The conceptions of teachership comprise notions of teaching and of oneself as a teacher. Accordingly, the conceptions of teachership are viewed as one element in the process of constructing teacher identity. Currently, we have little knowledge about the professional identity construction of adult educators, even though there is a growing need for adult pedagogics in the changing professional life. Based on a qualitative thematic analysis of open-ended questionnaire data, three main conceptual categor…

Problematising the equivalence of the test results of performance-based critical thinking tests for undergraduate students

Abstract This article compares the test results of two different performance-based assessments of critical thinking: a constructed-response task from the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) and a multiple-choice questionnaire (MCQ). These tests ostensibly measure the same critical thinking skills, such as analysing, interpreting and evaluating information and problem solving. The study utilised a mixed-method approach to explore the differences in students’ ( n  = 330) test scores. The results showed that the correspondence between the CLA and the MCQ was fully comparable in 45.5% of the students’ test performances. Ten percent of the students had completely opposite test results. Explanat…

Dominant and emerging approaches in the study of higher education policy change

The purpose of the article is to analyse recent literature on higher education policy change. Based on the review, three different approaches are distinguished: structural, actor and agency. In the structural approach the dynamic of policy change originates in well-established structures. The actor approach focuses on either individual or institutional actors as the drivers of policy change. The agency approach understands higher education policy change as an interactive process between various actors and domains within transient structures. We will also present two emerging, alternative approaches: actor-network theory, which takes interaction as a starting point and proposes that no organ…

Assessment in Higher Education (Finland)

Characteristics of Finnish medical and engineering research group work

Tutkimusryhmätyöskentelyä lääketieteissä ja teknisissä tieteissä tutkinut Jani Ursin toteaa väitöskirjansa olevan puheenvuoro tutkimusryhmien puolesta. Ursin kuvailee tutkimilleen tutkimusryhmille tyypillisiksi piirteiksi sisäisen harmonisuuden, mutta akateemisten piirteiden vähäisyyden sekä tieteenalaan sidoksissa olevien käytänteiden ja normien näkymättömyyden ryhmätyöskentelyssä. The study examined research group work characteristics from the perspective of the work design approach. The purpose was, first, to describe research group work characteristics and, second, to explore the relationships between different work characteristics and form a model with which to analyse research group w…

Tieto akateemisilla kentillä : tieteellisen tiedon tuottaminen tutkimusryhmässä

Emotionally loaded identity and agency in Finnish academic work

This narrative study investigated identity, agency and emotions, amongst an under-researched academic group – those without PhDs with primary responsibility for teaching, who are also expected to do research. In this interview-based paper, we examine the experience of such Finnish academics in a research-intensive university. Thematic and then narrative approaches were employed. The findings demonstrated five narratives which indicated both balanced and tensioned relations as regards academic identity, with variable perceptions of agency and emotions embedded. The study contributes in two ways: first, it adds to the little that is known of the experiences of the aforementioned under-researc…

Finnish Experiences of Oecd’s International Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (ahelo)

The aim of this article is to describe the implementation of International Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) in Finland and to highlight ethical considerations of large-scale international assessments. The Finnish results of the AHELO feasibility study show that a fully-fledged project is possible to carry if special attention is paid to the participation of students in test sessions, if enough time is reserved for the implementation phase and if scoring of open-ended questions is carefully carried out and monitored.It is, however, important that large-scale international assessmentssuch as AHELO do not start to colonialise and converge understandings of what is consi…

Projekteilla parempaa laatua yliopistoihin?

Markkinatalousvetoisen kulttuurin soveltaminen yliopistoihin ei ole ongelmatonta. Erilaiset laadun kohottamisen nimissä tehtävät kehittämishankkeet ilmentävät markkinataloustumista keskusjohtoisina ja nopeatempoisina. Onnistuessaan kehittämishanke luo perustan aidoille uudistuksille.

Student engagement in Finnish higher education : Conflicting realities?

This chapter focuses on how students are engaged in Finnish higher education by describing issues related to student engagement from macro, meso and micro perspectives and highlights the fact that student engagement is more than representativeness in decision-making bodies. It presents a concrete example for each perspective. Student engagement at the macro level refers to the socio-cultural climate on student experience, which typically is created at the national level. In Finnish higher education, student engagement seems to have two layers or realities. First, at the level of representativeness, students are well engaged and students have strong voices in decision-making bodies and strat…

Quality management in higher education: A comparative study of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland

This chapter examines lecturers’ perceptions of the balance between quality assurance and quality enhancement in three case study higher education institutions in different European countries. Where quality initiatives emphasised assurance rather than enhancement, this was taken to indicate a significant limitation on a lecturer’s autonomy in the quality management process. In-depth interviews using a semi-structured schedule were conducted with 20 randomly selected academic staff in each of the three higher education institutions. The results from the interviews demonstrated a very wide range of views among the interviewees. However, generally, it was found that there was a high level of d…

Why (not) assess? Views from the academic departments of Finnish universities

In Europe, national quality assurance systems of higher education have begun to be established. In Finland, this development has had the consequence of forcing universities to take notice of assessment procedures. However, little is known about the procedures taking place in individual academic departments as a result of this pan‐European trend. This article describes how academics currently comprehend quality assessment, paying particular attention to self‐evaluations and quality assurance systems. Altogether, the paper casts light on how academics are responding to the increasing university assessment activities.

Implementation of quality assurance standards in European higher education: does context matter?

ABSTRACTThe vast majority of studies concerning the implementation of quality assurance in higher education institutions have been conducted from a national perspective, with few cross-national stu...

Lukion tuottamat jatkokoulutusvalmiudet korkeakoulutuksen näkökulmasta

The Bologna Process: Help or Hindrance to the Development of European Higher Education?

JANI URSIN Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland BARBARA ZAMORSKI Centre for Applied Education and the Centre for Educational and Staff Development, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom ELINOR EDVARDSSON STIWNE Department of Behaviourial Sciences and Learning, Linkoping University, Sweden CHRISTINE TEELKEN Department of Organisation Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands MONNE WIHLBORG Department of Health and Social Sciences, Lund University, Sweden

Linguistic, Contextual, and Experiential Equivalence Issues in the Adaptation of a Performance-Based Assessment of Generic Skills in Higher Education

This qualitative study investigated the various linguistic, contextual, and experiential equivalence issues embedded in a performance-based instrument aimed at assessing generic skills in higher education. A rigorous translation and adaptation process (American English to Finnish) was conducted on one instrument, namely Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) International. The data were obtained from cognitive laboratories (n = 13), with think-alouds and follow-up interviews conducted among Finnish undergraduate students. Content logs were created, and the data were analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that linguistic and contextual equivalence issues were more prominent than experie…

The construction of academic identity in the changes of Finnish higher education

This article sets out to explore how academics make sense of the current transformations of higher education and what kinds of academic identities are thereby constructed. Based on a narrative analysis of 42 interviews with Finnish academics, nine narratives are discerned, each providing a different answer as to what it means to be an academic in the present-day university. Narratives of resistance, loss, administrative work overload and job insecurity are embedded in a regressive storyline, describing deterioration of academic work and one's standing. In a sharp contrast, narratives of success, mobility and change agency rely on a progressive storyline which sees the current changes in a p…

Higher Education Reforms in Finland

Finland has implemented several higher education (HE) reforms over the past decades in order to make its HE system more competitive in the global educational markets. These reforms are in line with the developments in other Western higher education systems in which the transposition of principles and philosophy from the private sector into the public sector has become more common or even a norm thus reinterpreting the economic, social and cultural basis of higher education (e.g. Exworthy & Halford 1999). Furthermore, the implementation of the reforms is a response to the rapidly changing needs of the labour markets. In Finland, Bologna process was partly incorporated to be part of the react…

Yliopistot laadun arvioijina : akateemisia käsityksiä laadusta ja laadunvarmistuksesta

Korkeakoulutuksen laadunvarmistuksella pyritään osaltaan lisäämään eurooppalaisen korkeakoulutuksen kilpailukykyä ja vetovoimaa. Laadunvarmistus ei ilmiönä ole uusi, mutta käsitteenä ja käytännössä se on moniselitteinen ja jopa ristiriitainen. Miten yliopistoissa laadunvarmistus ymmärretään? Tämä raportti pureutuu tähän kysymykseen tarkastelemalla akateemisia käsityksiä laadusta ja laadunvarmistuksesta. Raportissa pohditaan, millainen laadunvarmistusjärjestelmä parhaiten soveltuu yliopistoon. Raportti auttaa korkeakoulujen laatutyötä tekeviä, opetus- ja tutkimushenkilöstöä, opiskelijoita, arvioinnin ammattilaisia ja päätöksentekijöitä paremmin ymmärtämään laadunvarmistusta ja sen edellytyks…

Is Education Getting Lost in University Mergers?

Mergers are common phenomena in higher education institutions. Improving educational quality is typically one of the stated goals of university mergers. Yet, little information exists about how merging institutions approach this goal. This paper presents results from a study of planning documents created prior to four mergers in the Finnish higher education system. These documents show that there was little concrete attention given to the educational issues related to the mergers. Most attention was placed on administrative issues and issues related to research. When educational issues were mentioned, it was almost always in the form of vague goals with few details provided about how the go…

Evaluation and Quality Assurance in Finnish and Italian Universities in the Bologna Process

Abstract The purpose of the study is to describe the evaluation and quality assurance practices employed in the basic units of Finnish and Italian universities and analyse the impact of the Bologna process on quality assessment. The data consist of interviews (n=30) conducted in Finland and Italy. The results suggest that: (1) evaluation and quality assurance were primarily seen in connection with the educational provision of the university; (2) although the respondents were familiar with evaluation, they were unsure about the procedures and effects of quality assurance in their unit; and (3) despite the harmonising aim of the Bologna process, evaluation, and quality assurance appeared to m…

How to measure students’ innovation competences in higher education : Evaluation of an assessment tool in authentic learning environments

Abstract In all sectors of the economy, the importance of innovation is underlined. Although education plays a central role in the development of human innovation skills, several studies suggest that higher education institutions cannot fulfill these demands. In such, there is a need to update pedagogical practices and develop assessment tools to measure and develop a person’s innovation capacity. The aim of this study is to test and evaluate the functioning of the earlier developed assessment tool to measure students’ innovation competences in the authentic learning environments of Finnish higher education institutions. The electronic self-assessment questionnaire was distributed to studen…

Tuntematon tunnetuksi : kansainvälistyvän yliopiston ja kehittyvien opiskelijavalintojen haasteet

Suomalaisen korkeakoulutuksen merkitystä yhteiskunnassa ovat koetelleet ja kyseenalaistaneet viime aikoina niin vähenevät resurssit kuin kasvanut tutkijoiden aivovuoto ulkomaille. Tutkimustiedon arvostuksen laskua on kuvattu myös viittaamalla aikaamme kuvaavaan käsitteeseen totuudenjälkeinen aika. Totuudenjälkeisellä aikakaudella tunteiden – jopa suoranaisten valheiden – väitetään syrjäyttäneen päätöksenteossa tutkitun tiedon (Muhonen 2017; Raivio 2018). Myös viime vuosien tilastot väestön koulutustason nousutrendin pysähtymisestä antavat aihetta huolelle korkeakoulutuksen tilasta. Vielä vuonna 2013 nuoret ikäluokat (25–34-vuotiaat) olivat vanhempia ikäluokkia koulutetumpia, mutta vuonna 20…

Finnish adult students’ perspectives on short-cycle study programmes : motives and evaluations

We investigated how students in Finland perceive short-cycle higher education programmes. In line with the European trend, Finland has piloted short-cycle study programmes in order to attract adult students into higher education. We found that the students were mainly satisfied with their studies, and that their orientations to studies and learning were extrinsic in nature. The strengths of the programme were perceived as related to the flexibility of the studies, the variety of teaching methods, and the extensive contents of the studies. The main challenges were associated with difficulties in using information and communications technology (ICT) within the studies, and issues with time ma…

Transforming Finnish Higher Education : Institutional Mergers and Conflicting Academic Identities

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"> </p><p class="RESUMENCURSIVA">As in many other European countries also Finnish higher education system has witnessed several reforms over the past decade many of which originate in efforts to make more competitive and affordable higher education system. The aim of this paper is to describe the changes and institutional mergers in particular that have taken place in Finnish higher education and explore what kind of academic identities are constructed amid changes in Finnish higher education. The paper shows that the mergers followed the objectives set by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture for the structural development of the hig…

Kansainväliset vertailevat oppimistulosarvioinnit perus- ja korkea-asteella

International comparative assessments of learning outcomes in basic and tertiary education International assessments of learning outcomes have rapidly increased over the last two decades, especially as a consequence of PISA studies. There are now international comparative studies of learning outcomes ranging from basic to tertiary and adult education. The purpose of the present article is to describe the history and background of international comparative assessments with particular respect to two OECD assessments: PISA and AHELO. We argue that educational policy, pedagogical and scientific interests exert influence on international comparative assessments. These different interests promote…

‘It's Not Like Everything Changes Just With a Click on New Year's Eve’ : Perceptions on Educational Issues of University Mergers in Finland

The study explored educational perceptions concerning Finnish university mergers. The data were collected by interviewing academics and students (n = 30) in four merger projects. Qualitative content analysis was applied to the data. According to the findings, (i) the implications of the merger with regard to educational activities were primarily connected to the institutions’ own culture and history; (ii) new openings in education, teaching, and learning were only moderate in scope at the time of the interviews; (iii) there is strong potential for the enhancement of teachers’ pedagogical competence; (iv) creating a joint organisational and educational culture is a challenging and time-consu…

University Mergers in Finland: Mediating Global Competition

University mergers have become a common strategy for increasing global competitiveness. In this chapter, the authors analyze the implementation of mergers in Finnish universities from the perspective of social justice as conceived within Finland and other Nordic countries.

The role of education and educational research for a sustainable future

The Dynamic Relationship between Response Processes and Self-Regulation in Critical Thinking Assessments

Our aim was to explore higher education students’ response and self-regulatory processes plus the relationship between these, as evidenced in two types of performance-based critical thinking tasks included in the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) International instrument. The data collection consisted of 20 cognitive laboratories. The data were analyzed using a qualitative approach. The tasks were found to trigger different response and self-regulatory processes. Overall, the performance task evoked more holistic processes than the selected-response questions, in which students’ processes were more question-oriented. The results also indicated the entanglement of students’ response and …

Finnish and German student teachers’ motivations for choosing teaching as a career : The first application of the FIT-Choice scale in Finland

This study introduces and validates the Finnish version of the FIT-Choice scale and uses the scale to explore Finnish undergraduate students' motivations for choosing teaching as a career as well as their perceptions of teaching as a profession in comparison to German student teachers. The results replicated the FIT-Choice structure both in Finland and Germany. Sample comparisons revealed that motivations for teaching and perceptions of the teaching profession reflected both differences and similarities between Finland and Germany. The study offers novel information on student teachers’ motivational structure. peerReviewed

Finnish and German student teachers’ motivations for choosing teaching as a career. The first application of the FIT-Choice scale in Finland

Abstract This study introduces and validates the Finnish version of the FIT-Choice scale and uses the scale to explore Finnish undergraduate students' motivations for choosing teaching as a career as well as their perceptions of teaching as a profession in comparison to German student teachers. The results replicated the FIT-Choice structure both in Finland and Germany. Sample comparisons revealed that motivations for teaching and perceptions of the teaching profession reflected both differences and similarities between Finland and Germany. The study offers novel information on student teachers’ motivational structure.

AHELO – Korkeakouluopiskelijoiden oppimistulosten kansainvälinen arviointi

Kaikki koulutuspolitiikkaa seuraavat ovat varmasti havainneet, mikä merkitys Taloudellisen yhteistyön ja kehityksen järjestön (OECD) toteuttamilla arvioinneilla, kuten esimerkiksi perusasteen oppimistuloksia kartoittavalla PISA-tutkimuksella tai aikuisväestön oppimista mittaavaalla PIAAC-tutkimuksella, nykyään on. Niinpä oli vain ajan kysymys, milloin oppimistulosten arviointi ulotettiin korkea-asteelle. Tällainen tutkimus toteutettiinkin vuosina 2009–2013. nonPeerReviewed

How do self-regulation and effort in test-taking contribute to undergraduate students’ critical thinking performance?

Critical thinking is a multifaceted construct involving a set of skills and affective dispositions together with self-regulation. The aim of this study was to explore how self-regulation and effort in test-taking contribute to undergraduate students’ performance in critical thinking assessment. The data were collected in 18 higher education institutions in Finland. A total of 2402 undergraduate students at the initial and final stages of their bachelor degree programmes participated in the study. An open-ended performance task, namely the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) International, was assigned to assess students’ critical thinking, and a self-report questionnaire was used to measu…

Collegial or Managerial? Academics' Conceptions of Quality in English and Finnish Universities

Two specific forms of quality are identified: Type I, which has a managerial focus and stresses fitness for purpose and accountability, and Type II, which is collegial and concerned with enhancement. Through an analysis of the literature on quality in higher education and small-scale empirical research with a sample of academic staff, this article compares conceptions of quality assurance in the English and Finnish higher education systems. The authors highlight the similarities and differences in the two countries and possible reasons for them. Over time the blend of managerial and collegial approaches to quality has come to favour the former but much more so in England than in Finland, wh…

Vallitsevia ja nousevia lähestymistapoja korkeakoulupolitiikan muutoksen tutkimukseen

High-flyers and underdogs: The polarisation of Finnish academic identities

Public to private: Narratives of change in the wake of European higher education decentralisation

Korkeakouluopiskelijoiden geneeristen taitojen arviointi : Kappas!-hankkeen tuloksia

Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää, millä tasolla korkeakoulututkintoa suorittavien opiskelijoiden geneeriset taidot ovat, mitkä tekijät ovat yhteydessä geneeristen taitojen tasoon ja missä määrin geneeriset taidot kehittyvät korkeakouluopintojen aikana. Tutkimuksessa arvioitavia geneerisiä taitoja olivat analyyttinen päättely ja arviointi, ongelmanratkaisu, argumentatiivinen kirjoittaminen sekä kielen hallinta. Tutkimukseen osallistui yliopistojen alemman korkeakoulututkinnon ja ammattikorkeakoulututkinnon alku- ja loppuvaiheen opiskelijoita (n = 2402) ammattikorkeakouluista (n = 7) ja yliopistoista (n = 11). Tulosten mukaan lähes 60 prosentilla korkeakouluopiskelijoista geneeriset ta…