The regional development and present structure of higher education in Finland

Abstract

During the post‑war period Finland has participated in the world‑wide rapid expansion of the higher education system. The number of students rose from 15 500 in 1950 to 82 500 in 1980. At the beginning, there were 12 units of higher education, in 1981 there are 29. The number of university centres rose from 3 to 10. Regionally the development has approximately followed a mixed expanding‑hierarchical model of innovation diffusion. The growth of the number of university centres has been followed by a process of in­creased versatility. Because of great differences in the composition of aca­demic fields, Finland's university centres can be classified as follows: (1) aca­demic capital, (2) diversified university centres, (3) university centres and (4) specialized university centres. It is impossible to draw reliable functional boundaries between university centres. A calculation based on a division of Finland into six functional regions shows that there still exists great regional imbalance in opportunities for obtaining higher education. There are several plans to even out these differences by further developing the university system regionally. The degree of imbalance is now approx. 20 %. After the plans have been realised it will be approx. 10 %.