Miten työelämälähtöinen avoin korkeakouluopetus vastaisi paremmin työelämän osaamistarpeisiin? - AVOT-hanke kehitti toimintamallin
Valtakunnallisena tavoitteena on, että korkeakoulut lisäävät yhteistyötä työelämän kanssa ja näin vahvistavat koulutuksensa työelämärelevanssia. Työelämälähtöinen avoin korkeakoulutus -hankkeessa (AVOT) tavoitteena oli vastata työelämästä nouseviin osaamistarpeisiin ja luoda toimintamalli, jossa avointa korkeakouluopetusta järjestetään korkeakoulujen yhteistyönä. Tässä katsauksessa kuvaamme ensin AVOT-hankkeen tavoitteita. Tämän jälkeen tarkastellaan hanketoimijoiden näkemyksiä ja kokemuksia työelämän roolista ja työelämäyhteyksistä kokeilussa. Lopuksi tehdään päätelmiä hankkeesta saaduista kokemuksista. nonPeerReviewed
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…
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…
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.
Doctoral education reform in Finland : institutionalized and individualized doctoral studies within European framework
In Europe, doctoral education systems have been systematically reformed. These reforms are aimed at improving the quality of research and the competitiveness of European countries. In Finland, the reform project of doctoral education started vigorously in the mid-1990s which has contributed significantly to the emergence of more structured doctoral training. The starting point for this article was a recent national follow-up evaluation of doctoral education in Finland. The results are based on qualitative analysis of a survey and interview data collected in the evaluation. The results showed that Finnish universities are launching the university-wide graduate school model. Each university i…