(translation)
Aalto University Student Union (AYY) appreciates the opportunity to assess for its part the tuition free trial for students from outside the EU and the EEA countries and states the following on Sections 16–19 of the survey form of the monitoring group of the Ministry of Education and Culture:
16. What kind of services are offered to the paying students, do they differ in any way from the services of non-paying students or have new services been developed for the paying students (e.g. services provided by the student unions)?
AYY:
The services provided by the student union to the paying and non-paying students are the same, and currently it would not even be possible to make any distinction, as the student union does not have a list of the paying students. The most important member services include, among others, the right to apply for AYY’s student housing and use the services of FSHS, the official student card, weekly newsletter and other communications in three languages, rentable van as well as club and sauna facilities, student advocacy, AYY’s support for over 200 associations and the coordination of student tutoring.
17. What type of measures support/have supported the students’ integration into the university and student community?
AYY:
Integration is one of the most important objectives of AYY’s international sector. Our own activities follow far-reaching trilingualism, so that international students would have equal opportunities to participate in all activities and decision making. We also train organisations, associations and student tutors to activities which acknowledge international students, instead of organising separate international events, and lower the threshold to join regular leisure time activities.
Promoting the integration of leisure time is not enough, however, but the university must for its part ensure that integration is also possible in everyday life. Teaching, services and the reception of new students should not be planned separately for international students, but their interaction with local students should be promoted in all activities from the very first day. We emphasise this in advocacy work at the university.
18. Which measures support the students’ integration into the Finnish society (e.g. career planning, working life connections, teaching of domestic languages)?
AYY:
It is precisely by focusing on these issues that Finland could become international and gain the economic benefit from it most effectively. Even though there is support available for all of these issues, there would still be plenty of room for improvement.
It is positive development that international students can apply for Aalto’s internship grant, which is tailor-made for them, from this autumn onwards. In addition, career services provide plenty of CV counselling for those who know to ask for it, but there are not so many other services. International students have fewer networks and tacit knowledge about the Finnish labour market than Finns do and that is why they need more personal services and help in job search. Subject organisations offer students plenty of networking opportunities and corporate visits in one’s field but they are currently provided mainly in Finnish. Thus, international students are placed at a disadvantage.
The selection of Finnish language courses in Otaniemi is fairly comprehensive, but the arranging of language courses with other course schedules is challenging. At the School of Economics, it is only possible to choose 3-9 credits of domestic language courses, which is way too little to achieve moderate language skills. In the Swedish language, some levels only have courses in which the language of instruction is Finnish. As the studying of domestic languages is completely optional, some international students only notice the need for them when it is too late to achieve good language skills and there is not enough space reserved for language studies in the study modules.
Aalto has been involved in the co-operation body Helsinki Education and Research Area, which has promoted the integration, employment and the improvement of the housing situation of international students in the metropolitan area. Aalto is withdrawing from the cooperation at the end of 2013.
19. Please assess informally the overall impact of the tuition fee trial on the operations of your university.
AYY:
The effect of tuition fees on the activities of the whole Aalto is minor since tuition fees have been introduced only in the minority of programmes. The large number of scholarships also ensure that very few students are actually charged tuition fees. Thus, the fees have not brought a significant change in the number of international students at Aalto.
However, in those programmes where fees are charged, an alarming proportion of students have not accepted their study place. The erasure rate in various scholarship categories is the greater the larger the share should be paid by the student. This suggests that fees have a repellent effect on some of the students, and therefore fees could hinder the achievement of the internationalisation objectives.
Since the fees only relate to a minor group, also the income from them is very small and will therefore be smaller than costs caused by administration and scholarships.
The debate on the fees and the related planning and evaluation take plenty of working hours from many people in relation to their concrete effects, both in the administration of the student union and the university.
The evidence, which we have obtained to this date, does not suggest that fees have brought improvements to the quality of studies. Some new resources have been channelled to fee-charging programmes. However, also without the fee trial, these resources could have been used to improve the quality of teaching in all programmes. On the positive side, students who study in paid programmes, receive health insurance and an additional language course. However, it would be much better if all students received the same level of improvements to their conditions, and students in the paid programmes would not become a privileged group compared with the other students.
The extra funds, earmarked for improving the quality of paid programmes, have been partly spent in a different way than what was intended, such as marketing. There is a risk that the repellent effect of the fees on some students, combined with the internationalisation goals, creates pressure to target such funds on marketing, which could otherwise be used as reasonably as possible to improve the quality of education for all students.
If students belong to scholarship categories on different levels, it creates a new dividing line among students, which makes them unequal and, on the other hand, emphasises the difference of international students in relation to other students. That is why it certainly does not facilitate the interaction between different groups, or improve the conditions for the internationalisation at home for the Finnish students.
The tuition fee also puts an unreasonable pressure on a student to complete studies in the given schedule, especially if a compulsory course is offered only once during the whole year. If the student fails, one may have to pay the tuition fee for the next year, which easily wrecks the student’s finances. The median consumption of Aalto’s international students in Finland is 600 euro per month, so an additional tuition fee may more than double the student’s annual cost of living.
In addition, the tuition fee has brought ideas to the planning of university operations, which have not been previously common in the academic world in Finland. Business aspects have become more common in the planning of academic education, especially on the international side. The way of thinking, in which tuition fees are used as tools in shaping the university’s brand, has become more common. Students are rather regarded as customers than equal members of the academic community. AYY is concerned about this development, as we want students to be equal members of the academic community, not paying customers whose wishes and needs are evaluated mostly from the perspective of financial benefits and costs.
Approved by AYY Board
In Espoo, 28 Nov 2012