Browsing by Author "Väänänen, Oona"

Aims. A national reform of continuous learning is under way. The reform responds to the continuing need to develop and renew competence. The aim of the government program is to develop the higher education system as a platform for continuous learning, in which both degree students and learners without a place to study could flexibly complete their studies at the offer of all Finnish higher education institutions. The government program encourages the widest possible opening of educational offerings to non-degree students and the organization of teaching in co-operation with other higher education institutions. The University of Helsinki is responding to the national challenge with a project launched in 2019 to develop continuous learning. The main goal of the project is to expand the university's continuous learning offer. The aim of the dissertation is to find out how the faculties of the University of Helsinki justify the expansion or restriction of the open study offer. Underlying this is the theory of continuous learning, which I become familiar with through related concepts such as the concept of lifelong learning. Methods. Two deans of teaching and one head of study affairs from the faculties of the University of Helsinki participated in the study. The faculties studied were the Faculty of Educational Sciences, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Science. The material was obtained through a thematic interview and analyzed by argumentation analysis following Stephen Toulmin's argumentation model. Results and conclusions. In many cases the study offer can be opened. The main target groups to which studies can be opened were young people and those seeking to study, as well as people of working age. The reasons for expanding the study offer included financial resources, an open atmosphere and active teachers, as well as effective cooperation with the Open University. The restriction of the study offer was justified by the fact that there are courses or study units in the degree programs of the faculties that could not be open to everyone, for example due to the production of a qualification. The workload of teachers and the poor scalability of some courses to large numbers were also highlighted. In addition, teachers do not necessarily consider continuous learning as a curriculum activity. The conclusion about the development of continuous learning activities emerged in the interviews of the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Educational Sciences.