Autonomy in the legislation in 2003: restricted to internal matters

The autonomy of AMKs in terms of internal matters is guaranteed in the Polytechnics Act (351/2003, Section 3). The legislation restricts the autonomy with the words

“internal matters”. Freedom in the teaching and research of AMKs is also guaranteed in the Polytechnics Act (351/2003, Section 16). The division into autonomy of internal matters and freedom of research and teaching is how the legislation classifi es the autonomy. The latest AMK legislation is new and interpretations on autonomy in AMKs and in their maintaining organisations are an ongoing process.

Internal matters

According to the Government bill (206/2002), the aim is to guarantee the same type of autonomy for the AMK institutions as higher education institutions usually have. In the higher education literature reviewed (see Chapter 3), certain approaches, dimensions and aspects in the autonomy of higher education institutions can be recognised. What can be regarded as usual contents of autonomy depends on the higher education system and on its legal, political and cultural contexts and also on an individual higher education institution in question (e.g. Neave 1998).

The authority to decide on institutions’ internal governance and administration, and organisation belongs to the institutions within the framework of the Polytechnics Act (351/2003) and Decree (352/2003). The following areas of autonomy can be drawn from the Polytechnics Act (351/2003):

– internal governance and administration (Sections 11-14) – student issues (Sections 22, 25 and 29)

– appointment of teachers (Section 29).

The tasks of the AMK board are defi ned in the Polytechnics Act (Section 12). Internal administration is strengthened by the establishment of internal regulations that are under the authority of AMKs (Section 13a). AMKs’ internal governance and administration may prepare matters that fall within the authority of the maintaining body. According to the Polytechnics Act, an AMK should prepare a proposal to its maintaining body on matters concerning budget and fi nancial plans and changes in the educational task of the institution and establishment of new study programmes.

Financial issues form a large area of matters without specifi cation in the provisions of the Polytechnics Act (351/2003). Among other things, it is laid down that AMKs have the authority to decide on foundations for the distribution of appropriations received by the institution.

The detailed content of the autonomy of AMKs is not defi ned in the legislation.

Accordingly, there are no exact or specifi c legal boundaries to their autonomy. There are few documents that explain what is meant by internal matters because the AMK institutions and the legislation are new. The Ministry of Education (2003b) has defi ned internal matters in the following way:

“The internal matters of AMKs are all those matters which are specifi ed or provided for in the Polytechnics Act or issued under the Polytechnics Act for the AMK institutions”.

“Ammattikorkeakoulun itsehallinnon piiriin kuuluvia asioita eli sisäisiä asioita ovat kaikki ne asiat, jotka ammattikorkeakoululaissa tai sen nojalla säädetään tai määrätään ammattikorkeakoulun tehtäväksi.”

According to this statement, internal matters are derivable from the specifi ed regulations.

There is also another explanation for internal matters suggested by the Ministry of Education and it is based on an antithesis: the AMK’s autonomy in internal matters is the opposite of matters that are under the authority of the maintaining body or the state (Rajakylä 2003, 5). The areas of autonomy can be found after defi ning in more details decision-making boundaries between the AMKs and the state and between the AMKs and the maintaining bodies.

When considering matters of higher education institutions two dimensionally, as internal and external matters, it seems that it is impossible to have autonomy in terms of external matters. This is because external matters belong to some external actor’s sphere and authority. Thus, an AMK’s autonomy can de facto comprise matters that are AMK matters or AMK’s internal matters. This is also what Rajakylä (2003) refers to above.

Teaching and research

AMKs have the authority to decide on their teaching and research arrangements. Freedom of teaching and research is the freedom of institutions according to the legislation. The institutions are entitled to exercise teaching in the way the institutions prefer, within given regulations. The Polytechnics Act (351/2003) prescribes the following:

1) teaching is to be provided on the basis of the requirements of the labour market for the purposes of professional expert work and so as to support an individual’s professional growth

2) applied research and development work has to serve the AMK’s education and the needs of labour markets and regional development and region’s economic structure 3) adult education has to maintain and consolidate the skills required by employees.

There are certain restrictions for the purposes of teaching, applied research, regional development and for adult education. In this way, the legislation emphasises close interaction between the AMKs and their environment.

Two main principles of the AMKs’ autonomy are specifi ed in the Government bill (206/2002):

1) the members of the AMK institutions are the appropriate actors to make decisions concerning the AMK’s teaching

2) the central task of the institutions is to infl uence regional development and to pro- mote business and other aspects of work life.

The above-mentioned Government bill also highlights that the co-operation between the business sector and other aspects of working life requires AMKs to be able to make decisions speedily and to be able to decide on necessary co-operative projects, for example.

The Government bill emphasises who the decision-makers concerning teaching are, what the central tasks of the AMKs are, what kind of decision-making AMKs should be enabled / entitled to make, and what the AMKs should have authority to make decisions about, when working in interaction with business and other aspects of work life. It is stated in the aforementioned Government bill that AMKs should have limited decision-making authority in co-operation with the environment. This could include, for example, research projects and regional development projects.

Legal interpretations of autonomy of AMKs

Few administrative cases have been brought in the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland. Decision-making on the organisational reform of an AMK run by a joint local authority falls within the authority of the joint council, and appealing against this

decision takes place according to the Local Government Act (Supreme Administrative Court 2007). The appeal authority for decisions taken by the rector of a joint local authority run AMK is the board of the joint local authority and not the Administrative Courts (Supreme Administrative Court 2006). There were also two other cases from 2002 and 2005. The cases dealt with specifying which authority is the appropriate one for processing appeals. This is to say, with which authority someone should lodge his/her complaint.

In Finland, there is no higher education act common to the entire higher education system. Hence, the autonomy of AMKs and of universities is guaranteed in different legislation. The legal basis of the autonomy of universities rests on the highest level of legislation, the Constitution of Finland (731/1999, Section 123), and on the Universities Act (645/1997, Section 2). The AMK institutions are not mentioned in the Constitution (731/1999). In addition, there is the following constitutional freedom for the universities: “The freedom of science, art and higher education is guaranteed”

(Constitution 731/1999, Section 16).

The Constitutional Law Committee (72/2002) paid attention to a relation between constitutional university autonomy and AMK autonomy. The statement of the Constitutional Law Committee was required in the fi rst place because of the constitutional self-government of the Finnish local authorities and of the strong need to co-ordinate AMKs’ autonomy within the context of the self-government of local authorities.

According to the Constitutional Law Committee (72/2002) the Government bill (206/2002) was not contrary to the constitutional self-government of the local authorities and the new Act was handled in the ordinary law process. The constitutional autonomy of universities was referred to as follows:

“The Committee believes that the principles of self-government cannot be totally left without any meaning when AMKs are developed as part of the Finnish higher education system. Thus, the AMK legislation based on autonomy of AMKs has to be accepted.”

“Valiokunnan mielestä itsehallinnon periaatteita ei toisaalta voida jättää vaille merkitystä kehitettäessä ammattikorkeakouluja maan korkeakoululaitoksen osaksi. Ammattikorkea-koulun itsehallinnon ajatukselle rakentuva lainsäädäntö on tämän vuoksi hyväksyttävä.”

There are no legal provisions described as ‘fi nancial autonomy’ either in the AMK legislation or in the university legislation.