Editorial 3.10.2014
Restricted Resources
The waffling over
the core funding
of the Universities
was continued in
the Government's
budget negotiations
in August. This time, it was decided
that Universities are to be capitalized
in relationship to what they
have obtained as private donations.
In addition, the influence of
the halving of the index increment
will be compensated on a one-off
basis. Instead of a predictable and
stable financing, we have had to
grow accustomed to reading complex
lines of words concerning
various financing manoeuvres.
The cuts by the Government
on education during this term
have been nearly two billion euros.
Since the year 2010, Universities
are 200 million euros short of
what they should have received.
In a poor economic situation, the
Government has been forced to
make value choices. And so it has
done: the educational brand of
Finland has been neglected without
qualms.
The personnel cuts add up to 350
employees within one year. Leaving
the posts in teaching and research
without an incumbent is
especially alarming, and it has
been going on for years already.
The reason for this phenomenon is
not strategic choices, but the lack
of resources. Employer-employee
negotiations are not required when
posts are left without an incumbent,
although the consequences
of this are bound to have an effect
on education and research.
I wonder if we will end up in a
situation, where the current teaching
and supervising numbers settle
themselves into the so-called
zero level, when the the economy
begins to recover at some point? It
is crucial to observe that we are at
the moment functioning on gravely
undersized resources. The insufficient
funding allocated for the
unraveling of the gridlock of applicants
only dots the i's and crosses
the t's.
The resources will remain quite
limited in the near future, too.
Teaching cannot be made any more
efficient by reducing contact hours
per study point, not without significant
reductions to the content
matter in the study plans. At this
point, we encounter the demands
of working life concerning levels of
competence. What is more, interaction with the teacher is considered
an important indicator of the
quality of teaching in the student
feedback. Enforcing the Universities
into mutual competition does
not increase core funding, and neither
does the allocation of working
hours or any other kind of monitoring.
So, what to do?
It is common knowledge in Universities
that the personnel does not
always have time to concentrate
on their basic duties. Continuous
development, change and bureaucracy
burns off everybody's
personal resources. An organization
that consideres itself to be
progressive, should every now and
then stop and direct a critical gaze
towards its own operational culture.
We have to start turning essential
issues into priorities.
Teaching and research personnel
value for instance functional
administration and competent
procurement. A well-functioning
administration operates primarily
to diminish the amount
of bureaucracy. Making systems
procurements in a manner based
genuinely on the needs of the users
also belongs to the category of
good administration. When, for
instance, the tools for planning
teaching do not enable the construction
of unreasonably heavy
study periods, and when the compiling
of a the travel invoice does
not instigate the feeling of cluelessness,
we are beginning to save
time. Action towards the spreading
of the reporting industry is already
late. It is equally important
that the administration has time to
learn to understand teaching and
research duties. This would enable
our competent administration to
support this kind of work better
and to foreground the diminishing
of bureaucracy as its strategic
primary aim.
The personnel of one Department
was befuddled, because
unlike in other Departments, no
allocation of working hours was
demanded of them. When the administrator
of the Department was
approached with this issue, the
answer was that the allocation has
to be done, but the administration
does it on behalf of the teaching
and research personnel. Under
these kinds of circumstances, the
starting points for University work
are good.
Seppo sainio
Chair, The Union for
University Teachers and
Researchers in Finland
(YLL)
- Painetussa lehdessä sivu 2
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