Browsing by Subject "korkeakoulutus"

This study describes the current situation and development areas of Finnish education export from experts’ point of view. The aim of the study was to research what Finnish education export includes and why it’s being carried out. The other aim was to research challenges and promoting factors of Finnish education export as well as how Finnish education export can be developed. In this study education export is viewed as a cross-border service or product. Education export comprehensively covers exporting of education system and education expertise that is carried out by higher education institutions as well as private companies. The development of education export has been influenced by globalisation and internationalization of education. The data collection method in this study was semi-structured interview. Interviewees were selected based on their positions within their respective organizations. Interviewees work or have worked in the field of education export. Interviews were carried out as five individual interviews and one pair interview. There were seven interviewees altogether. In the analysis of interview material and the interpretation of results a modified actantial model was used. The aim of the actantial model was to create a systematic scheme for data analysis which was used for collection and interpretation of results. Aided by the actantial model, actants, in other words various factors within in the data, were identified and their respective relations were formed. Actantial model describes the structure of education export field as well. Study results showed that Finnish education export includes various services and products and it is carried out in many ways, frequently in co-operation between different operators. Motives for education export are often commercial but they may also include desire to share good practices and make long lasting impact in the field of education. Results showed demoting and promoting factors of education export as well. In addition, following factors were identified as crucial components in the development of Finnish education export: improvement of co-operation between different agents, development of services and products, improvement of education export expertise, increase of research in the field of education export, quality maintenance and improvement of the Finnish education system and modification of university activities to better support education export.

The aim of this study was to analyse how applicants applying for faculty of law and participating in a preparatory course while preparing for the entrance examination speak about the competition connected to the applying. The study focuses on discourses that are built when talking about the competition. The aim was also to study constructed discourses when talking about possibilities of succeeding in the competition in law school admission. Previous studies show that capitals have impact on one's educational choices. One of my aims was to construct understanding of what kind of meanings the cultural, the social and the economic capital get in the process of applying to a law school and participating in a preparatory course. There has been only little research about the role of preparatory courses in admission to higher education. The goal of this study was to fill this research gap and produce researched information about the role of preparatory courses. The qualitative research data consist of interviews with six law school applicants who took part in preparatory courses. The data was collected with a semi-structured interview. One of the interviews was a pair interview and four were individual interviews. The data was analysed with critical discourse-analytical approach The higher education applicants aim to make reasonable education choices when participating in the competition over study positions. The applicants assessed their own position and possibilities to succeed in the competition in relation to the other applicants. The preparatory course was constructed as a trump card that applicants could use to succeed in the competition. It was also produced as something that is self-evidently part of applying to law school. On the other hand preparatory course was constructed as something one could use to decrease the uncertainty caused by the competition.Based on the reasonable educational choice -discourse, the self-evidence -discourse, the imaginary competitor -discourse and the trump card -discourse one can argue that cultural, social and economic capital are constructed as meaningful factors in the competition of higher education. They create possibilities and limitations when participating in the competition over study positions in higher education.

The importance of universities providing quality-assurance schemes has increased during the last two decades due to, among other things, an increased tendency in public administration to use evaluations as a tool to enhance efficiency and the changed nature of the state-university relationship. Moreover, we can witness an increased integration of European higher education. Also Finnish higher education has been exposed to these trends and external evaluation and quality assurance systems has become a recurring phenomenon. The objective of this research was to analyse organizational responses at universities to the demand of showing a QA-scheme, and to increase understanding on the role of audits in relation to national and supranational developments, from a perspective of organizational intuitionalism. In so doing, attention is put on what kinds of effects and practices a national form of evaluation has, if compared at the organizational level of two universities. The methodological approach builds on insights from qualitative methods, new-institutional theory and organizational institutionalism. The empirical materials used consisted of documents and half-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and analysed through the creation of reference codes in the program ATLAS TI. The reference codes were created according to logics of analytic coding. In the research, four core themes were witnessed. First, in implementing processes or reforms that might be perceived critically in universities, the role of commitment and semantics become of high importance, as does a degree of hierarchy. Second, responding to the demand of showing a quality assurance-scheme and succeeding in audits are not seen to be of high importance by university leadership in that only scarce resources were allocated to the exercise. Third, developing the QA-system was clearly accepted to be a response to European developments but this is hardly an instrument for governance that the Ministry of Education would value in comparison to other instruments. Finally, the recommendations made by the audit teams are not as neutral as they seem, in that they do define what the Universities should accomplish. However, the loosely coupled structure has in many ways lessened many of the impacts and recommendation gained from the audits.

In this thesis, I look at the subjectification of students of higher education in writings about students' mental health and wellbeing. My research is situated in feminist poststructuralist studies and aims to shift the focus of the discussion on students' mental health from the individual towards a more societal perspective. Informed by post-methodological theories of inquiry, my approach to both data and writing can be characterised as drifting. The data of the research consists of the "Stories" section of the website of Nyyti ry, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting student mental health and wellbeing. The section contains stories that students have written of their everyday life. This data is enhanced by autoethnographic elements since also I am a university student to whom matters of mental health and wellbeing come close to home. Neoliberal higher education and the psy-complex serve as the context of my research. Together, they shape the circumstances and provide the discourses that students draw from in order to grasp the possibilities and limits of their lives. I ask how the ideal student subject is constituted in the stories, how the psy-discourse functions together with neoliberalism, and how the students make use of the psy-discourse. I have read the data discursively with the concepts of power and subject, inspired by a Foucauldian power analytical approach and studies on governmentality. In the research, I have used the concepts of subjectification and subjectivity to inquire upon how the students make sense of the problems and solutions related to studying and how they make themselves comprehensible within and with the help of the psy-discourse. I looked at self-help as a form of neoliberal and psychological governance that guides subjects to work on themselves. In the stories of the students, I read the (re)production and questioning of the active and entrepreneurial employee citizen. The students did not accept the neoliberal ideal as a given. Some recognised the role of the society as the producer of these pressures and questioned performance-centric ideals. The ideal subject was challenged with tools provided by the psy-discourse and in this way the discourse was made to serve the needs and ends of the students themselves. However, the solutions mostly remained on an individual level. I conclude my thesis by asking how we could (re)build the study environment into one that would provide means for people with varying dis/abilities and needs to get by and even flourish. I suggest that this requires the critical questioning of our ideals as well as a reorganisation of societal and institutional circumstances.

Important transitions in life require a special ability to navigate in a changing environment. These transitions pose challenges for all people, but especially for people on the autism spectrum. Studies show that both the transition to higher education and from higher education to work pose certain difficulties for them. At the same time, the aim is to promote the diversity of higher education and a smoother work transition. The support of the universities has been found to promote both the progress of studies and skills important in studies. The purpose of this Master’s thesis was to look at speech related to support for students on the autism spectrum at universities. The research material consisted of six interviews in which two career services employees, two university teachers, and both current and graduate students on the autism spectrum were interviewed. The interviews were originally part of the Improving Employability of Autistic Graduates in Europe (IMAGE) project. The six interviews were selected for use in this thesis together with the researcher involved in the project. The research material was analyzed by discourse analysis. As a result of the analysis, three discourses were outlined, which were named similarization discourse, individualization discourse, and individualistic discourse. The subject positions of students on the autism spectrum transitioning to work, were outlined through substance- and special skills and without individualistic agency. These subject positions did not fully meet the individualistic expectations of employers, or the support formed based on these expectations.

This thesis examines the assumed impact of development cooperation projects, and the implementation of result-based management as well as the measurement of the achievements. In this thesis I analysis the theories of change and implemen-tation of result-based management in the project documents of the Higher Education Institutions Institutional Cooperation Instrument (HEI ICI) -programme. Result-based management came into the development field following the new public management in the 1990’s, and it became central within development cooperation as a critique towards failures to achieve sustainable results. The concept of theory of change was also introduced in the 1990’s, and it describes the process assumed to lead to desired outcomes. This is a qualitative research, and the methods used are narrative analysis and content analysis. The material is the project documents of HEI ICI -projects. The project documents and result frameworks are analyzed narratively examining their theories of change. The result frameworks are also examined through content analysis examining the result-based manage-ment and measurability of results. From the documents, four change-narrative types were created. The types are related on the role higher education has on promoting employment and entrepreneurship, how better targeted curriculums can respond to challenges in the society, the role of trained teachers and staff have on development, and how higher education can support sustainable development. The result frameworks were examined based on the four predefined result areas, focusing on measurability. Promoting the quality and relevance of higher education can have an impact on poverty reduction, promotion of human rights and achievement of sustainable development goals. Higher education is also important for economic growth. Through reform-ing curriculums and teaching education can be targeted to respond better to the needs of the society. Education also has a role in the societal change, and higher education is important in orientating the curriculums to be in line with sustainable develop-ment. Promoting higher education and by improving knowledge of sustainable land use and sustainable resources, sustaina-ble development and democracy can be improved. Each of the four result areas has its own indicators on how the results are achieved. The quantitative indicators include for example, the number of trained teachers, number of new curriculums and degree programmes, number of publications and number of course participants. Qualitative indicators can be linked to how curriculums are improved, how to improve teach-ing and research results, how facilities are improved and how attitudes towards education have changed. Each project’s result framework differs, but in the end the indicators and means to achieve results are very similar. The expected impacts of HEI ICI -projects are very diverse and the objectives are cross-cutting. Higher education has many different opportunities to affect the development of the society and create change. This thesis only examines the context of the HEI ICI -program, but it still shows the importance of higher education and different ways how higher education can support development.

Tavoitteet. Työn tavoitteena oli selvittää, millä tavoin korkeakoulutettujen työttömyydestä ja työllistymisestä mediateksteissä puhutaan. Työn lähtökohtana oli mediassa vuosien 2017-2018 vaihteessa käyty keskustelu työttömien aktiivimallista. Koska keskustelu painottui vahvasti ammatilliseen osaamiseen ja työssäoppimiseen, halusin tarkastella sitä, miten korkeakoulutetuista puhutaan tätä aiheeseen liittyen. Tutkimuskysymykset: 1. Korkeakoulutuksen suosion kasvu Suomessa vuosikymmenten varrella on johtanut koulutusinflaatioon. Miten käsitys koulutusinflaatiosta heijastuu työttömyyttä ja työllistymistä käsittelevissä teksteistä? 2. Koulutusjärjestelmää voidaan pitää meritokratian neutraalina mitta-asteikkona. Ajatellaanko Suomessa, että yksilön taidot, yrittäminen ja koulutus tuovat oikeutetusti mukanaan korkeamman statuksen ja tulot? 3. Taloudelliset intressit vaikuttavat useiden näkemysten mukaan yhä vahvemmin yksilöihin kohdistuviin koulutusvaatimuksiin. Millä tavoin tämä näkyy teksteissä korkeakoulutettujen työllistymisestä ja työttömyydestä puhuttaessa? Menetelmät. Analysoin korkeakoulutettujen työttömyyttä ja työllistymistä käsitteleviä Helsingin Sanomien uutistekstejä neljän kuukauden ajalta diskurssianalyysin keinoin. Pohjasin diskurssianalyysini suomalaisessa tutkimuskirjallisuudessa painotettuihin näkemyksiin diskurssianalyysin tekemisestä sekä Faircloughin kriittisen diskurssianalyysin lähtökohtiin. Aineistosta valikoitui yhteensä kuusi tekstiä analyysin kohteeksi. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Teksteistä nousi esiin kolme diskurssia: koulutusinflaation käsitystä torjuva diskurssi, meritokratiaa kyseenalaistava diskurssi sekä koulutuksen hyötyä ja taloudellisuutta korostava diskurssi. Aineistonkeruuaikana kirjoitettiin tutkimusaiheeseen liittyen kolmesta aihepiiristä: työttömien omaehtoisesta kouluttautumisesta, useamman korkeakoulututkinnon suorittamisesta ja tohtorien työllistymisestä. Toimittajien vahvana lähtöoletuksena kaikissa teksteissä oli, että koulutuksen tulee tuottaa konkreettista ja mitattavissa olevaa hyötyä ollakseen jollain tasolla hyväksyttävää. Käsitys koulutusinflaatiosta ja ymmärrys nykyajan kehityssuunnasta kouluttautua yhä enemmän ja korkeammalle puuttuivat pitkälti teksteistä. Myös meritokraattinen ajattelu joutui kyseenalaiseksi.

The purpose of this study is to describe, analyze, and map the ways through which teaching can positively affect research at the university and thus establish the foundation for the reinterpretation of the Humboldt’s Ideal in today’s university. The aim of the study was to create, for the first time, a structured and multi-perspective model of these ways. In previous research, the direction of the impact from teaching to research has received little attention, and no clear convention or structured model has been constructed to describe the phenomenon. The research question of this study, in what ways teaching positively affects research, arose in the co-creation workshop held as a pilot-study, where we asked where research should be directed to meet the needs of the scientific community. An answer to the research question was sought by interviewing 17 highly experienced scholars from the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry and the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences of the University of Helsinki. The data produced by the semi-structured interviews was analyzed by combining inductive and abductive content analysis. The main outcome of the study is a presentation that places 25 different ways in which teaching enhances research into five themes: 1) research process, 2) scholars’ well-being at work, 3) scholars’ scientific expertise, 4) scientific community, and 5) relationship between research and society. In addition, the results thoroughly describe the diverse properties of the individual links. The findings challenge the general perception of the one-way link from research to teaching and create common standards for classifying and describing the positive impacts teaching has on research in academic discourse. The results can be applied in the planning and development of both teaching and research, can have an impact on the incentive schemes in higher education, the well-being and expertise of academic staff, student inclusion and learning, disciplinary cultures, and the connection between research and society.

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, miten rasismista keskustellaan ja miten sitä käsitellään suomalaisessa korkeakoulukontekstissa ja erityisesti opettajankoulu-tuksessa aiemman tutkimuksen perusteella. Korkeakoulukontekstilla tutkimukses-sa perehdyttiin yleisesti suomalaiseen yliopistoinstituutioon ja kasvatustieteelli-seen tiedekuntaan. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin miten rasismia oli tutkittu ja käsitel-ty, miten rasismia tunnistettiin ja millaisin käsittein rasismista puhuttiin sekä minkä-laista koulutusta rasismiin liittyen oli annettu korkeakoulutuksen kentällä. Kasva-tustieteen parissa rasismia on tutkittu paljon alemmilla koulutustasoilla, kuten pe-ruskoulussa kun taas rasismin tutkimus korkeakoulutuksessa on jäänyt vähäisem-mälle huomiolle. Viime vuosina opiskelijat ja media ovat nostaneet esille kasvavis-sa määrissä esiin yliopiston toimintaympäristössä esiintyvää rasismia ja syrjiviä käytänteitä, joiden käsittely on ollut puutteellista. Rasismiin liittyvät kannanotot se-kä samalla tutkimusten vähäisyys kertovat aiheen ajankohtaisuudesta ja tärkey-destä. Tutkimuksessa tuodaan esiin korkeakoulutuksen parissa vallitsevia arkisia ja tieteellisiä käytänteitä, joita kasvatusalan ammattilaiset välittävät tulevan ammat-tinsa työympäristöihin. Tutkimus toteutettiin kuvailevana kirjallisuuskatsauksena ja tutkimusmetodiltaan katsaus on integroiva. Aineistoa tarkasteltiin sisällönanalyysin menetelmällä. Tut-kimuksella rakennettiin kattavaa kokonaiskuvaa siitä, millä tavoin rasismista puhu-taan korkeakoulutuksessa ja erityisesti opettajankoulutuksessa sekä kasvatustie-teellisellä tutkimuskentällä. Kirjallisuus keskittyi teemoiltaan rasismiin ja sen eri muotoihin, korkeakoulutukseen, opettajankoulutukseen, kolonialismin perintöön koulutusinstituutioissa, monikulttuurisuuteen ja antirasistisiin koulutuksiin. Tarkas-teltaviksi aineistoiksi tutkimusta varten valikoitui tutkimuskirjallisuutta, julkisia kan-nanottoja, ajankohtaisia kyselyitä sekä uutisia. Pääosin tutkimusaineistoina toimi-vat suomalaiseen kontekstiin sijoittuvat tutkimukset. Tulokset osoittivat, että rasismin ilmiötä tarkastelevissa tutkimuksissa nousi esiin pääteemoja, jotka toistuivat useissa aineistoissa. Rasismiin liittyvien tutkimusten määrä oli noussut kasvavissa määrin viime vuosikymmeninä. Tutkimusten määrän nousu liitettiin rasismin ilmiön uutuuteen, joka tuli esille rasismin ilmiön tutkimuk-sissa osana maahanmuuttajien määrän lisääntymisenä Suomessa. Kirjallisuudes-sa huomio rasismin suhteen kohdistettiin myös vähemmistöryhmien kokemiin so-siaaliseen syrjintään. Suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa yleisissä keskusteluissa, tie-teenkentällä ja korkeakoulutuksen toiminnassa huomio rasismin ilmiön suhteen tuotiin useimmiten esiin rasismia ja syrjintää eri muodoissa kokeneiden vähemmis-tönedustajien toimesta. Aineistojen perusteella yliopisto puuttui rasismiin liittyviin ongelmiin vasta kun ne oli tuotu esiin muiden toimijoiden toimesta. Yliopistojen ta-pa myös reagoida rasismin ilmenemiseen korkeakoulukontekstissa esittäytyi läh-tökohtaisesti ongelmallisena. Tulosten perusteella suomalaisessa opettajankoulutuksessa rasismia on käsitelty pääosin antirasistisen pedagogiikan, erilaisten antirasististen ja kulttuurienvälisten koulutusten, kulttuuritietoisuuden ja monikulttuurisuuden käsittelyn myötä tutki-muksissa. Tutkimuksissa ja erilaisissa koulutuksissa rasismista puhuttiin useimmi-ten vastaavilla korvaavilla termeillä kuten monikulttuurisuuden tai antirasismin kä-sitteiden kautta. Helsingin yliopiston kasvatustieteellisessä opiskelevat toivat esiin vuoden 2019 kyselyssä, että opettajankoulutuksessa käsitellään rasismia vähäi-sesti ja sitä tunnistetaan heikosti yliopiston toimesta. Kyselyssä tuli myös esille, että tiedekunnan kouluttajien puhetavoissa oli havaittavissa rasistisia piirteitä eikä yli-opistokoulutus antanut opettajille konkreettisia työkaluja rasismin käsittelemiseen opettajan ammatissa käytännöntasolla. Kasvatustieteellisessä tiedekunnassa oli herätty rasismin ilmiön käsittelyn suhteen kuitenkin jollain tasolla, koska kyselyn jälkeen tiedekuntaan oli palkattu tasa-arvo ja yhdenvertaisuuden asiantuntija sekä tiedekunnassa teetettiin taskuopas tasa-arvosta ja yhdenvertaisuudesta. Rasismin tunnistamiseen ja käsittelyyn liittyvät koulutukset eivät myöskään taanneet syrjivien käytänteiden muuttumista. Todelliseen muutokseen rasismin käsittelyn suhteen edellytettiin konkreettisia toimintatapoja niitä käsittelevissä ympäristöissä. Tärkeää on, että rasismin ilmiön tarkastelun tutkimusta kehitetään ja laajennetaan korkeakoulutuksessa sekä erityisesti kasvatustieteellisen tiedekunnan tiedeympä-ristössä. Tulevaisuuden kasvatusalan ammattilaiset sisäistävät koulutuksestaan normeja ja käytäntöjä, kuinka rasismia ymmärretään ja käsitellään arkisissa ympä-ristöissä, edes vieden nämä opitut normit koulumaailmaan ja esimerkillisesti lasten keskuuteen.

The conversation on the exhaustion and stress of higher education students is a common discussion. There is more emphasis on the individual's own responsibility, the pace of studying has become faster, and it is harder to use a degree to stand out in the job market. In this thesis, I examine the views University students have on their studies, and the wider social conditions these views indicate. The current ethos in our society highlights the responsibility of an individual. In this thesis, I describe this using a framework of neoliberalism and the Ethos of Vulnerability. The Ethos of Vulnerability considers possible structural problems to be caused by individuals' deficiencies. According to previous studies, the impact of the ethos has now reached the field of education. For this thesis, I have interviewed Finnish University students who are studying towards Bachelor's or Master's degrees in Educational Sciences. The interviews were conducted as two group interviews with 2 to 3 participants each. To analyse the empirical material and the impact of the ethos, I have applied discursive and discursive-deconstructive approaches. Based on my analysis, a degree did not guarantee a career or standing out from the crowd. Instead, students' additional actions and other factors were found to be more meaningful. It was highlighted that a degree prepares students for employability. Among students, it was rare to have holidays, and students felt that they were required to be constantly doing something. The responsibility for managing in and being enough for the job market fell on students' own shoulders. If students wanted to proceed in their studies to meet the desired goals, the quality of learning suffered. Most studies were performance-oriented, and health was considered secondary. Working alongside studying was hard timewise, but mandatory for some. Students needed to be proactive to progress in their studies. If the progress was not as desired, it was considered to be a fault in the individual's personal features. The Ethos of Vulnerability was visible in the data, but its effect on students' agency was not simple or straightforward. The students were also aware of the conditions that they were in, and some showed resistance, demanding structural change.