Free education must be secured now and in the future!

Today on 16 October, we celebrate the Day for Free Education. In this day and age, it’s important to recognize the importance of free education and why we must secure its future in Finland. This topic is especially important now, as the government has decided to decrease core funding for higher education institutions and provide the right to obtain a degree in open higher education. Last spring, VYY published a comment where it considers these policies a serious threat to the future of free education in Finland.

Education is a path we take to find our place in the world. It enables us to explore topics we find meaningful. Our journey on this path begins in primary school and leads us to higher education and for as far as our curiosity and willingness to learn takes us. In Finland, everyone must have the right and opportunity to educate themselves as they wish. Free education is an essential element in securing equal opportunities for everyone to create their own study paths.

Although free higher education secures students’ livelihood, it also carries other important tasks. Free higher education ensures that access to education applies to everyone, not just those with extra funds or skills to secure their study place. Section 16 of the Constitution of Finland says that the public authorities shall guarantee equal opportunity to receive education, and that the freedom of science, the arts, and higher education is guaranteed. How else could we ensure this, except with free higher education? That’s right, we couldn’t.

Higher education creates research and diverse experts, and together they are the force that propels our society forward and helps us grow. The freedom and opportunity to specialize help us overcome obstacles and develop new innovations. Research and its home, the universities, are a powerful counterforce to regressive societal phenomena like inequality, polarization, misinformation, antiscience, social exclusion, and poverty. However, these issues can only be solved if the group of educated people is diverse and research free.

It has been said that development doesn’t happen, it is made. That can’t happen if spokes are put in the wheels of progress by threatening the prerequisite for growth. That is, free higher education.

Today, let’s take a moment to appreciate our opportunity to receive a free education and to understand its importance in creating our future. We can’t allow ourselves to be lulled into apathy by this current convenience. We must uphold it with active dialogue and advocacy.

Heidi Elers
Board Member, Educational Affairs