An international student dreaming of a Finnish degree will face increasing costs in the future. The financial requirements for students will be tightened by several hundred euros per month. Simultaneously, application fees for international students will be reinstated, tuition fees will be made to cover all costs, and scholarships will be reduced—all while Finland’s brand is about opportunities and equity.
The justification for these increased fees is diverse. The tightening of financial requirements is explained by the need for students to have financial resources equivalent to the minimum subsistence guaranteed for Finnish households. While ensuring students’ financial well-being is important, does this increase need to come at the expense of the students? The reintroduction of application fees is intended to reduce carelessly fabricated or bot-generated applications, but it also further limits opportunities for financially disadvantaged students to apply to study in Finland.
Full tuition fees must match the costs of education, which inevitably leads to higher fees. When tuition fees were first introduced in 2015, decision-makers promised that the level of fees would remain reasonable. In practice, however, fees are continually rising. Also, the government recently decided to discontinue the Finland Scholarship.
The idea behind the full tuition fees is to increase the attractiveness of Finnish universities. Higher tuition fees are seen as a positive factor for appeal. In reality, Finnish universities cannot compete internationally with high tuition fees. Finland’s competitiveness in the global higher education market is weakened by the limited international use of the Finnish language, high living costs, and poor post-graduation employment prospects. The strength of Finnish higher education lies in its affordability and equity: the opportunity for everyone to pursue higher education regardless of their background.
Students from outside the EU and EEA apply to Finnish universities due to the good balance between cost and quality. This balance is now being further disrupted. Many students decline their study offers because there are not enough scholarships for those in need. Although the number of applicants is high, very few accept a study place in the end. Making higher education even more expensive will not increase the number of students accepting places; instead, they will seek education opportunities elsewhere.
As all these reforms come into effect, concerns about the financial burden on international students grow. This could lead to a decline in international talent choosing Finland in the future. These changes contradict the government’s sustainable growth programme, which aims to raise employment and skill levels. Employment and skills are enhanced by improving international students’ opportunities to come to Finland smoothly and by fostering better integration into Finnish society during their studies.