VYY demands a parliamentary time-out: Paid degrees won’t save our civilized nation, they will destroy it

The Student Union of the University of Vaasa (VYY) has commented on the Government’s bill, which would grant open universities the right to award degrees. In practice, the proposal would create a second, paid path to a higher education degree alongside free education. VYY is extremely critical of the bill and warns that such a problematic reform, in terms of educational policy, legality, and society, should not be advanced.

The bill will intensify educational inequality

VYY considers the bill’s problems profound and detrimental to the principles of Finnish civilized society. Creating a paid path to degrees will create a two-tier system that will weaken equality by making students’ ability to pay an obstacle for admission. 

“The bill will intensify already existing educational inequality and create intergenerational educational privilege to those already better off”, says the Chair of VYY’s Executive Board, Heidi Elers.

The bill restricts students in paid degree programmes from receiving student benefits, further emphasizing that this solution is actually meant for the already wealthy. Further, according to the bill, studying a degree in an open university would not affect the student’s status as a first-time applicant, which would enable wealthy applicants to more easily apply for a second degree after their paid one.

Endangering trust towards our higher education system

VYY concludes that the bill will jeopardize citizens’ trust towards an equal higher education system. The proposed model is bound to direct resources and development to the paid selection of open universities, which threatens the quality of publicly funded degree education. 

VYY sees the bill’s note that paid education cannot weaken other degree education as hollow words. Regulation would require strict, measurable criteria for ensuring that resources like teaching staff’s time or teaching facilities do not spill over into the paid side at the expense of degree students.

“We do not accept shifting responsibility for funding from the state to the individual”, says Elers.

VYY says that opening the possibility for paid degrees leads to the state pulling back from financing responsibility. Teemu Kuoppamäki, the Executive Board member responsible for educational policy, gives a cautionary tale: 

“In England, raising the maximum limit for tuition fees wrecked direct state funding for higher education”, he says. “This market-driven model did not save the institutions’ finances. We oppose development that jeopardizes the stability of our higher education system.”

Students’ position remains unequal

Were the bill confirmed, the Student Union worries about students’ equality. The proposal leaves the students’ position unclear. VYY warns about a judicial void, where students in paid programmes have the obligations of degree students with none of the rights in student democracy or legal certainty.

VYY outlines an example from the bill that would leave students in paid degrees outside student healthcare. In their comment, the Student Union reminds the Government that the FSHS’s services are not mere medical care for individuals, but comprehensive, statutory maintenance of the student community’s wellbeing, health, safety, and ability to study. Dividing the student community among separate healthcare systems is both absurd and fragmenting.

The bill disregards how our society is constructed

The bill is subject to significant critique, and the university community does not support it. VYY also points out that even the expert steering group largely disagrees with the model proposed in the bill.

“The impact assessment in the bill is seriously lacking”, Elers says. “It completely lacks structural understanding.”

Finland is a small country that has prospered and become known for expertise that does not require a specific background or wealth. According to VYY, this bill is a serious, dangerous step towards educational inequality. VYY comments that if the Government aims to raise the number of young adults with higher education degrees, it should focus on admission numbers and accessibility of free education instead of tinkering with paid express lanes.

You can read the entire comment in Finnish on Lausuntopalvelu.