Lost in Finland?

”I wanted to give lectures besides my research, but I was given no opportunity to teach – probably because I am a foreigner here.”

This was one of the stories told during a get-together of foreign staff in Finnish universities. Some 40 participants came along to deal with problems faced by doctoral candidates, grant researchers and other experts staying in Finland.

The meeting was arranged by the Helsinki University Researchers and Teachers Association HUART in cooperation with the Finnish Association of Academic Researchers (Suomen akateemisten tutkijoiden yhdistys, SATY). They are member associations of the Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers (FUURT).

The themes of discussion varied from insurance issues to labour legislation. Some foreigners had had disputes with their Finnish supervisors, while others had had difficulties in getting medical treatment.

Most foreign researchers in Finland seem to know there is a union especially for academics, but some were suspicious when it comes to membership.

“What does joining a union give to grant researcher?” asked young female researcher, posing her question to Riku Matilainen, a senior adviser of FUURT.

“Among the most important benefits is the legal advice you get “, answered Matilainen.

One of the frequently asked questions by the foreign researchers is the taxation of the grants. As a gift, grant should be tax-free, but in practice there is often a fee that has to be paid of a grant. Most Finnish universities collect some 14 - 20 % of the grant for processing costs.

Another problem often raised by foreigners is the jungle of abbreviations like KELA or MELA. KELA is the Finnish institution for insurance security of all citizens while MELA is important for the researchers working on grants.

Matilainen pointed out the importance of being included in the KELA-system. “Without registering oneself with KELA, there will be limited, or expensive health care and also one’s scope of social security is limited.”

A Finnish curiosity is the employment office. Researchers may be faced with unemployment due to their funding being a patchwork of short employment contracts and grants. Besides the problem of unwanted breaks, the bureaucratic procedures may feel overwhelming to a foreign researcher.

For example, to get the unemployment benefits one may be forced to take part in all kind of courses organized by the officials. It is common knowledge that those courses are pure hogwash, consisting of self-evident truths like “wake up in the morning and be positive”, or “this is how to write a CV”.

To avoid loss of time with hollow training periods, one needs to know the system, especially as the rules seem to vary from pillar to post.

According to Matilainen, the period of unemployment is an example of the situation where one would clearly benefit from union membership. “We can help you to manage with employment officials and make sure that even during temporary unemployment the researcher can sustain his or her professional skills.”

Mai Allo

"Your job title is Doctoral student?"

“Are you sure this is your job title?” a bank clerk asked me in an email when I sent my scanned monthly pay slips to prove that I am employed. I answered yes but the staff was still doubtful and double checked with me again. “Your job title is Doctoral student, ‘student’ is your job title?” That was really embarrassing! I had to explain and try to convince the bank staff with a very long email. Honestly, I could imagine what the staff felt: “Student” is your job title?

This was the situation my wife and I encountered with several Malaysian banks when we were negotiating for a loan from a bank back home. The banks were thinking that we were trying to cheat with the lame job title ‘Doctoral student’. Fortunately, as Finland is not a nation known for scams and has a global reputation, we finally managed to negotiate the loan at last.

However, the job title, Doctoral student, printed in monthly pay slips or the contract is something that should be changed. Are we, doctoral candidates merely students? After all, a Doctoral candidate is more like a junior researcher in the University or an institute. What do doctoral candidates do, then? Some of us supervise Master’s theseis, some of us write funding applications to fund our doctoral research as well as our scholarly careers.

Majority of us are involved in teaching either Bachelor’s or Master’s degree classes as doctoral candidates. Some of us are actually writing our research plans without much help from our supervisors, and conducting majority of the research on our own, and supervising trainee students in the laboratory every year during doctoral career. Does the title Doctoral student, then, imply that a doctoral candidate is merely like a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree student going to lectures and sitting for the exams?

Besides, as Doctoral candidates, we pay income tax and contribute monthly to the federal unemployment benefits as well as to the pension insurance. Yet, our job title is a Doctoral student. As Doctoral candidates, we are not entitled for example to the Student health care benefits such as, Mental and Dental health care as Student Union claims that we are employed and have salary — even though we are addressed as Doctoral students. Doctoral candidates are indeed in a very embarrassing zone, where we are not considered as students from the point of view of Finnish law, while with “student” as our job title we are not entitled to any student benefits.

What kind of logic is this? While this may not appear as problem for the locals, it is indeed a serious problem for the foreigners, especially for those from non-EU countries. Our own experience is a good example of this.

Why cannot we be addressed as junior researcher in the contract as well as in the pay slips? If the tittle ‘junior researcher’ sounds too fancy, an alternative choice could be ‘doctoral candidate’ or ‘doctoral. Finland has made remarkable technological achievements in the past, such as being the first nation in the World that has fully digitized TV broadcasting in 2007, and being the first nation to ensure by law 1Mbps broadband access for all residents in 2010. Thus, why not move further in 2012? Could Finland be the first nation to address Doctoral students as junior researchers as their job title?

Kean-Jin Lim

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