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
A Network of Foreign Researchers
The Finnish Union of University Researchers and
Teachers has started A Network of Foreign Researchers.
The coordinator of the network is Jussi Jalonen
from Tatte, the Tampere University Association
of Researchers and Teachers.
The network aims at finding ways to advocate the
interests and working conditions of foreign union
members. The working language of the network is
English.
"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
From the Editors:
The job title ’junior researcher’ is already in use
in the University of Eastern Finland and the
Lappeenranta University of Technology. Also the
University of Lapland is considering using it.
In the European Charter for Researchers and Code
of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers –
the recommendation accepted by the European
Commission – the title for Ph.D. candidates is
’early stage researcher’.
- Artikkeli löytyy painetun lehden sivulta 28
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