University’s resources must meet the set expectations

We at the University of Turku are building a strong and sustainable future. This means that we want to be at the forefront of tackling important challenges regionally, nationally and internationally. Our operating environment is constantly changing, and we need to define our own activities and their direction, which is why the University is working to renew its strategy.

At the University of Turku, we have a strong will to create a new future through our own activities and their development. We want to create innovations that are needed by Southwest Finland, the entire Finland, and the rest of the world. Through new research information and education that is based on it, we can promote democracy, non-discrimination and equality, and prevent exclusion and polarisation.

In addition to being willing to develop and continue to be a relevant actor as a university, a great deal is also expected of us, as is from the other universities. We must be able to produce new, reliable information and train top experts. Furthermore, we must work closely with other actors in society. The success and growth of our country can only be built on expertise and knowledge. Our resources must correspond to these expectations.

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It is excellent that there is a parliamentary commitment to increase public funding for research, development and innovation. The aim is that by 2030 Finland spends four percent of its GDP on research and development (R&D), while currently the number is less than three percent. The increase in RDI funding is linked to universities in many ways.

To begin with, as research, development and innovation activities increase, the need for experts grows. Doctoral graduates are needed in business life. The new pilot project for doctoral training, which has just been launched, has been allocated funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture to train 1,000 doctors in universities with three-year contracts. At the University of Turku, we succeeded in this funding call beyond our expectations and will receive funding for a total of 136 new doctoral researchers. This represents 13.6 percent of the €255 million additional funding allocated to the universities.

The doctoral training pilot is one way for the universities to respond to the need for expertise. However, it has to be noted immediately that, in addition to the pilot, there is a clear and growing need for long-term funding spanning a longer period than three years in order to successfully reform doctoral training.

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There is still room for improvement in the connection between universities and business life, although companies have increasingly employed doctoral graduates in recent years, as is shown by a report of the Finnish Education Employers Sivista from last autumn. In Finland, a large number of businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises, where the threshold is still high for hiring a doctoral graduate, especially if they have an international background. However, there are only a few large international companies in Finland. Large companies will not locate to an area where they cannot find enough experts.

Our strategic corporate partners Bayer and Meyer are good examples of how the expertise offered by universities and higher education institutions also attracts international companies. Our third strategic partner, Wärtsilä, is looking for broad and high-level multidisciplinary expertise, which is offered comprehensively by our eight faculties. Businesses in general are interested in the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of our University: it is our clear strength in a changing world.

Boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of such contacts is key if we are to tackle the skills shortage and increase the number of doctoral graduates in industry. As a university, we can make improvements up to a certain point, for example in the supervision of doctoral researchers, but companies should also enable contacts with the professional life already during the doctoral training. We cannot create these contacts to businesses alone.

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To strengthen the link between universities and business life, I also hope that Finnish companies will be more ambitious in their RDI activities. Now that RDI funding is increasing, our ambitions should also grow further. In Finland, we have focused too much on incremental improvements to existing activities, while the increasing funding should be used to seeking and achieving major breakthroughs and genuine innovations, thus improving the competitiveness of the national economy. This is what the R&D funding act seeks to do. This is an important area for co-operation between businesses and universities.

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Alongside the industry’s severe shortage of top talent, we need to address the security of supply of knowledge and skills on a wider scale. In international comparisons, Finland’s share of young adults in higher education is below the OECD average. A national target has been set for 50 percent of young adults obtaining a higher education degree by 2030, whereas we are now stuck at around 41 percent.

However, it is not enough just to set a goal, as we have an obvious problem with the funding. More study places have been created in higher education, but the current funding is not enough to cover even these places – let alone the tens of thousands more that should be available. We have quite a problem on our hands. When the government plans to make new cuts in its spending limits discussion this spring, it would be a major mistake for the future of Finland if they were to be applied to education and research.

The R&D funding act was based on a report by the parliamentary RDI working group, which made it very clear that we need a long-term solution extending over the terms of different governments. A parliamentary working group is also needed to develop education. Finland cannot move forward without expertise capital, and a national higher education policy that spans government terms is needed to ensure this.

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At the University of Turku, we promise to continuously develop our operations to ensure that we are a reliable and competent partner for society as a whole, including business life. In order to make a real difference, we need to be internationally competitive – excellence and impact should be front and centre in our core missions of research and education, also by international standards. Our most important task is to ensure this.

We have strengthened our international activities and this is reflected in the increase in international funding over the last few years – especially in the funding we have received from the EU. Under the current Horizon Europe funding programme, which has been running for three years, we have received about €15 million annually for the last two years. Moreover, we have already received more funding in these three years than what we received in total during the previous seven-year funding programme.

It is important to consider and understand that the development, progress and international quality of the University of Turku will benefit the entire region. The stronger and more competitive the University of Turku is nationally and especially internationally, the greater the advantage to the region.

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After the Finnish presidential election, the busy election year continues.  The European Parliament elections will be held on 9 June, when the future of Europe and Finland will be decided in many ways. These exceptional geopolitical times and the many global problems we are facing call for an election result that forms a basis for building a sustainable and better future for us all. The European Parliament, including Finland’s 15 future MEPs, have considerable power in the EU, both in terms of legislation and the allocation of funds. Hopefully, the turnout in Finland will also increase from the 40 percent in the last EU elections.

European universities have wanted to create their own goals and actions for the future of Europe. The European University Association’s (EUA) vision ”Universities without walls” highlights diverse universities that actively participate in society and promote sustainability. To achieve this goal, we need long-term objectives and a framework for the European university policy. These plans and actions are detailed in the EUA’s UniFE report ”A renewed social contract for Europe and its universities”, which was published in January 2024.

We need to work together – the universities, policy-makers and society as a whole – to ensure that there is sufficient and predictable funding and investment for education, research and innovation, and create rules that enable rather than restrict. Now is the time to join forces at the European, national and regional levels – to ensure that Europe and Finland have an adequate knowledge base and security of supply in competence, and a clear and strong vision for proactive planning of the future. And not only in the European context, but also to promote and strengthen global responsibility and accountability.

Universities are and should be pioneers. Universities’ high-quality and effective research and education improve the sustainable competitiveness of the national economy and the well-being of citizens – in other words, Finland’s success even in a turbulent world.

Jukka Kola, Rector of the University of Turku

The text is based on Rector Kola’s opening speech at the Anniversary Celebration of the University on 28 February, 2024.