Parliament Members and Scientists Contemplated the Future of Science and Research
The Society of Scientists and Parliament
Members (Tutkas) gathered
together a record number of 160 participants
to its seminar, the Future
of Science and Research, which was
organized at the auditorium of the
Finnish Parliament Annex in September.
Chairperson of Tutkas, MP Sanna Lauslahti emphasized the topicality of the theme, as the opposition
had just a few hours earlier tabled an interpellation
measure on the effects of the education budget
cuts. Though the Prime Minister’s speech, which
was to be shown that same evening, took media attention
away from the interpellation measure.
Lauslahti called for solution-focused discussion
on the allocation of cuts. She asked whether
it would be possible to find stronger approaches to
managing higher education institutions, her example
being the management of corporations. However,
the rector of the University of Turku and the
chairperson of Unifi, Kalervo Väänänen, emphasized
in his talk that we need to strengthen the autonomy
of universities instead of weakening it.
Minister of Education and Culture Sanni Grahn-
Laasonen called for innovative thinking and new
courses of action in the face of reducing resources.
According to Grahn-Laasonen, the network of
higher education institutions is still fragmented.
Reports on the distribution of work between different
fields of education are a good start, but now
the level of ambition needs to be raised and there
needs to be action. She expects that in the outcome
evaluations next spring, universities will make bold
proposals about profiling and the redistribution of
work. In her talk, the Minister emphasized the importance
of impact and actions.
Jukka Westermarck, Professor of the Turku Centre
for Biotechnology, gave a refreshing talk about the
importance of funding for a researcher. His cancer
research group has made breakthroughs in basic research
that have moved into medicine development.
Westermarck called for shifting the point of view
from the funding of universities to the funding of
researchers and research groups. Research groups
need to have resources because they are the ones
doing the research, not university organizations.
According to Westermarck, at the moment there
is too little project funding available for researchers,
which hinders the creation of top-level publications.
The lack of top-level publications, in its
turn, hinders getting external funding from abroad.
Westermarck emphasized that the standard of science
depends on the conditions of research groups.
The best researchers can be attracted to Finland
through research groups. We should move from
brain drain to brain import.
Marja Makarow, Vice President for Research of the
Academy of Finland, presented the new funding instruments
of the Academy.
There were 13 applications for the funding for
strengthening university profiling. Three universities
received the full amount of funding they applied
for, seven universities got a part of the amount they
applied for and three universities were not granted
funding. Makarow said that also the projects of the
first strategic research programmes have been selected.
Väänänen, chairperson of Unifi, said that cutting
down on Master’s level education is a major
flaw in the government programme. He also said
that his wish was that Finland would implement
the Bologna model better and abandon the dual
model. Tuomo Puumala, chairperson of the Education
and Culture Committee, gave the “pale
green” light to the Tampere3 project, and asked
for a Minister of Science. Tapio Kosunen, Director
General of the Ministry of Education and Culture,
said that the Tampere3 project still requires
further planning.
Väänänen said that his personal wish was
for the state government to leave universities in
peace to get on with their work, as guaranteed
by the Universities Act. The cycles for developing
universities are long, and it is not possible
to change the direction on every government
term.
text Raija Pyykkö, Head of Union Affairs
The Finnish Union of University Professors
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