The Helsinki Metropolitan Area plays an important role in Finland’s economic development. Brain drain is a genuine problem that we cannot ignore. More higher education places are needed in Uusimaa, says SFP MP Anders Adlercreutz.
Adlercreutz considers the uneven distribution of higher education places in Finland to be problematic.
“Elsewhere in Finland, for every upper secondary study place there are 0.85 higher education places. In the Helsinki region, this ratio is 0.7. This is a significant difference, which leads to more and more students applying elsewhere to study. Often this means a university in a different Finnish location, but increasingly often it is also leading to students moving abroad.
In Helsingin Sanomat newspaper (18 February 2023), the Rector of the University of Helsinki pointed out that 60% of students who move abroad from Finland are from the Uusimaa region.
“This is a disproportionate figure, and although it is natural and even desirable that Finnish students receive experience of studying abroad, there is a risk that those who move abroad to study will stay there permanently. This is problematic for Finland,” Adlercreutz says.
“We need sensible regional policies and an extensive education network to maintain the vitality and population of all parts of Finland, but we must ensure that this does not take away from somewhere else. Our aim is to increase the proportion of people with higher education degrees, and this cannot be achieved by encouraging young people to move abroad to study as soon as they enter the tertiary level,” Adlercreutz concludes.
