Press Release August 30, 2010

Students' language skills have deteriorated as a result of diminishing resources in the comprehensive and secondary school sectors. Swedish-speaking students don't know Finnish well enough, and a command of languages other than English is increasingly rare. During the 1990's the number of courses in Swedish (as a mother tongue) was reduced in Swedish-language upper secondary schools, leading to poorer matriculation exam results.

The Helsinki Alliance works to increase collaboration between Swedish-language higher education institutes in Helsinki. The steering committee of the Alliance has expressed its deep concern for the linguistic future of the country. At present, universities and other higher education institutes are wasting valuable resources on teaching their students elementary language skills. This task has become increasingly important as resources for language teaching dwindle in comprehensive and upper secondary schools. Finnish law requires university graduates to have a certain fluency in the second national language - Finnish for Swedish speakers and Swedish for Finnish speakers. Institutes for higher education have to give their students the opportunity to acquire this skill. Students must also be able to further their skills in their own language within their chosen area of expertise, as well as mastering the linguistic demands created by the increased internationalisation of the academic sector.

The aim of universities and other higher education institutes is to educate experts who can work in several languages in an international environment. The law decrees that to obtain a Finnish university degree, students have to pass language tests in the second national language as well as in one foreign language. Language studies at higher education institutes aim at teaching the students the necessary language and communicative skills for their studies and, consequently, their careers.

Higher education institutes in Finland wish to maintain the academic viability of both national languages as well as furthering linguistic diversity in Finnish society. However, the efforts of these institutes cannot alone change the current negative trend. Increased resources for language teaching of a sufficiently high quality in comprehensive and secondary schools are needed. Otherwise we could be faced with a future where our academically qualified work force lacks a sufficient professional vocabulary in their own language, has next to no language skills in the second national language and hardly any ability to communicate in foreign languages other than English.

Further information:

Helsinki Alliance Chair Per-Edvin Persson, Executive Director, Heureka, pelle(at)heureka.fi, tel. 040 9015200

Ulla-Maija Forsberg, Vice Rector, University of Helsinki, tel. (09) 191 23366, 050 415 5576, ulla-maija.forsberg(at)helsinki.fi

Henrik Hägglund, Rector, Swedish School of Social Science (SSKH), tel. (09) 191 28401, henrik.hagglund(at)helsinki.fi

Eva Liljeblom, Rector, Hanken, tel. (09) 431 33221, eva.liljeblom(at)hanken.fi

Henrik Wolff, Rector, Arcada, tel. 0207 699 600, henrik.wolff(at)arcada.fi