The Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers (FUURT) demands that documents that significantly guide the activities of universities, such as the budget, university regulations, and the principles for using university facilities, should be approved by the university community’s own collegial decision-making bodies.
As a result of changes in the administrative structures of universities, the power has increasingly shifted to the upper management and boards of universities, while the role of the decision-making bodies representing the university community has narrowed. This development has reduced the opportunities for academic personnel and students to influence the university’s operations and decision-making. The changes are part of a broader social transition towards managerialism in which the emphasis of decision-making is focused, in particular, on efficiency, performance, and financial steering.
The development trend within universities is reflected in the fact that the former tripartite university democracy based on joint decision-making by university personnel, students, and administration has increasingly been replaced with a hierarchical model in which university rectors and boards are making the strategic decisions that are then being implemented by professional managers. University autonomy reports have repeatedly shown that the university community’s experience of its own possibilities for influence has been significantly reduced as a result of the concentration of power, and this development has increased the frustration of university personnel and reduced their willingness to participate in tasks related to university democracy.
The democratic deficit resulting from these structural changes is causing a number of practical problems within universities and hindering their resolution. For example, universities’ restrictions on the use of their physical and virtual facilities rose to the headlines over the past year, when the University of the Arts Helsinki banned the use of university e-mail lists to disseminate political petitions, and the University of Helsinki removed protesters from its central campus.
In both cases, the issue concerned attempts by the university community to influence the university’s internal activities. According to public information, the decisions were primarily made by the university rectors, and, for example, students or university personnel were not given any opportunity to influence these decisions. It is clear that the use of virtual and physical facilities must be regulated in some way, but the implementation of regulation through hierarchical decision-making undermines the legitimacy of decisions concerning the entire community. This is especially true, as it limits the freedom of members of the university community to endeavour to influence the university’s activities.
It is FUURT’s view that internal democracy within universities needs to be strengthened in order for universities to have self-government as intended by legislation. Collaborative decision-making bodies such as collegia, consistories, and faculty councils should have more genuine power when it comes to university affairs. The strengthening of self-government can be initiated immediately by giving collegial decision-making bodies the opportunity to decide on the documents that guide university decision-making and interpretations of those documents. Such documents include, for example, university regulations, budgets, action plans, principles for using university facilities, and rules concerning the use of data systems.
Universities are nothing without their communities, and the university cannot be managed like a fiscal quarter company if the purpose of the universities is still to promote free research and provide research-based tuition.
Further information:
Tero Karjalainen, President of the Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers
The e-mail address is in the form firstname.lastname(a)tieteentekijat.fi.
Hallberg, P., Pohjolainen, T., Letto-Vanamo, P., Peltola, M.S, & Kivistö, J. (2021). University autonomy. Ministry of Education and Culture. https://okm.fi/documents/1410845/4154572/Yliopistoautonomia+1.3.2021
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Poutanen, M., Tomperi, T., Kuusela, H., Kaleva, V., & Tervasmäki, T. (2022). From democracy to managerialism: foundation universities as the embodiment of Finnish university policies. Journal of Education Policy, 37(3), 419–442. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2020.1846080
Silvén, P. (2024). Transition towards managerialism: managerialism in the regulations of multidisciplinary universities governed by public law. Tiedepolitiikka, 48 (4), 18 – 32. (In Finnish) https://doi.org/10.58957/tp.135924