Course arrangements

As we move on to discussing course arrangements, the consensus seems to be that there are many courses the students would like to participate in, but that are only arranged in Finnish.

One of the interviewees has an experience where the course was first set to be held in Finnish,

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but the language of instruction was changed to English so that international students could also participate. However, the switch from Finnish to English seemed to cause problems to some of the lecturers who were seemingly uncomfortable giving lectures in a foreign language. In my opinion, this could be considered as a direct impact of ELF, and to some extent, an illustration of what Jenkins mentioned in her conclusion about international universities and how universities may not be fully aware of the consequences and requirements of offering international curriculums (see Section 2.2).

The language issue generated further discussion on the need to have different languages present at the academic world – the struggle of preserving smaller languages whilst having to learn the world language in order to be contemporary at the international world. One of the students mentioned that in some cases, study material is actually provided in a different language than the language of instruction is supposed to be.

Speaker 3: Some things are in Finnish, some things are in English and people want to participate, but they can’t cause they don’t understand and well, Finnish students should have to write to have the classes in their own language, but then they should also practice for conferences and yeah, it’s a mess.

Relating to this topic, the participants discussed other instances where theoretical and practical languages of instruction cause ambiguities. Surprisingly many of the participants mentioned that they have to resort to online dictionaries, mainly Google Translate, in situations that I consider quite questionable to have to translate themselves.

Speaker 5: Actually, I’m also facing the same problems, but if I find something that seems important to me, then I go to Google and use translator.

Speaker 4: Google translator, yes! Best friend.

Speaker 5: That is not ok to find accurate translations, but I can get messages, what is the message of this whole thing. Most of the time we just search, face this problem and sometimes translation in the English texts disappeared. Many times, they also send messages and emails with translation. Whenever they send email about jobs and that sort of thing, most of the time they have a translation with it.

Speaker 4: But not… Yeah. Most of the time, for example when it comes to, I don’t know, these sort of applications for funding of what is an EU funded programmes for example, or “Horizon 2020” or something, I find it very often that the messages are often in Finnish, though they are EU programmes and they promote internationality. And then yet, the messages are in Finnish and those info sessions, they have like infosessions in Joensuu, Kuopio… And very rarely I think they are also provided in English, so then again it’s in Finnish, though they actually are, I don’t know, target groups are

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international researchers as well. And I think that’s maybe a bit tricky. Yeah, then you have to use Google Translator.

Me: I was talking to two other doctoral degree students from the Forestry degree programme, and they told me that they had instances where, for example if they go to a course and it’s held in English, the material that they get is still in Finnish.

Speaker 5: Actually, I sent an email for a professor. My supervisor told me to send an email to the supervisor. Because I wanted to use a software to [unclear part]. Then I sent him email and he replied saying the school set it in Finnish. So I just suggested him that

‘if you allow me, I will come to your class whenever you have a workshop. When I will feel any difficulty, I will just discuss it with you and you can suggest me to do it like this and this.’ He thought ‘Ok, but now this last class, the workshop is not going, you just download material from this site, maybe in English, then when course [unclear part]…

This is only a problem when the courses are in Finnish.

Speaker 4: But on the other hand I can understand teachers who, I don’t know from other departments, I mean of course English is used in conferences and they have to read articles in English, but should teachers always provide or teach a course from, the forestry department I don’t know or biology or chemistry, teach in English? […] I mean in general. Like this course, for example, what you mentioned earlier [pointing to Speaker 3], that there were some teachers sort of, in a way, they were forced to use English, even though they may not even be comfortable giving a 90 minute lecture in English and preparing the lecture slides and materials in English, so I think I can relate to that or in a way.

Speaker 3: I went to a conference about multiculturalism and multilingualism once and it was it was kind of hilarious, cause all the plenary talks they wanted to talk about some, let’s call that ‘serious issues’, but all the lectures they were practically stuck on the topic of what language should we use to communicate in academic context. Some people said

‘yes we should all speak English’, some people said ‘no, because that is harmful for other languages’, I don’t know. ‘So we should use other languages and all researchers should be really really multilingual as they used to be.’ And it went like that for the entire conference. And in the end we did not a have a conference there was no conclusion. So I don’t suppose that were gonna have some good solution to this solution any time soon, unfortunately.

During the discussion it became apparent that the question of language is not in the hands of the lecturers, some of whom are not fully comfortable in a teaching course entirely in a foreign language. The question of language choice might affect the supply of English materials (as is the case with e.g. the infosessions noted by Speaker 4), the possibility of international students participating in courses that are only arranged in Finnish (as Speaker 5 describes), and even the practical execution of a conference (as explained by Speaker 3).

53 4.2.4 Internationality at the UEF

When asked, what sort of aspects the UEF could possibly improve on as an international university, there were a few different perspectives on the matter. Language-wise, one of the interviewees thought that there are staff members who should improve their English language skills. The interviewee explained this statement further by saying that the problem is in the confidence of the staff members: “It was about confidence, they didn’t have the self-confidence to provide the others about their research and about their interests”. I would argue that according to the previous International Policy of the UEF, the staff members are in fact encouraged to be more active members of the international affairs. Hearing this comment made me wonder whether there are differences in the international approach at the level of faculties or schools. The student also mentioned that students also have a responsibility to have sufficient doctoral level English skills.

Speaker 6: I think there can be a kind of… All staffs at the university should improve their English language. […] I think because there are maybe foreign students from England studying in Finland, are going to get a kind of document from some staff in the university, and while maybe there is not really strong understanding of each other, this can cause problems and maybe some disappointments in the students while they want and you know… They want and get the suitable feedbacks. […] Also, some Finnish students, I don’t know if they are not interested in the language or if the university doesn’t provide those kind of courses that they can improve their language. This is not just related to the staff, but also to the students can improve their international language skills.

As an English language major, it is difficult for me to assess this notion. However, based on the discussions I have had with international students from different degree programmes, I have to admit that the language barriers seem to be among the biggest challenges that hinder the position of UEF as an international university. Problems seem to arise when there is a question of deciding that material is provided, in which languages and by whom. One interviewee had a negative view on the Finnish HE mentality, which might be one projection of the language issue.

Speaker 7: What the Finnish people can do, though… Unless the Finns lived abroad, I don’t know if they really understand what culture is. They can’t perceive their own culture. Finnish culture can be very arrogant. It’s like most of the rest of Scandinavia. In Scandinavia, many people think it’s the best place on the planet and they have the right to tell everybody else what to do. That is not very attractive, I have to say. That’s one feature of being a foreigner in Finland that’s tiresome. I think once you get out of Finland, people can begin to see that… to see how Finnish culture is more like a fluid process and that is has to go through many dynamic changes.

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Considering this statement, I agree that Finns do have a sense of pride for their education system and this may very well lead to occasional arrogance on the level of Finnish HE. If we compare these two opinions from Speaker 6 and Speaker 7, it could be concluded that this sort of HE arrogance leads to less interest for Finnish people to learn other languages – and especially to hone their English skills. Undoubtedly, this view cannot be generalized for all university staff and students. Nevertheless, I think there are certainly aspects in the Finnish education system that does not serve all students equally. However, one of the interviewees questioned whether it is the university’s responsibility to invest so heavily on the English language, and deliberated if the international students would also have to be expected to take the initiative to learn the local languages.

Speaker 4: And of course, this is an international university, but still we are in Finland and it’s, I mean there are not that many foreigners. I mean it’s still a very small university and mainly Finnish citizens and yeah. Sometimes I’m kind of torn apart should everything be international and should we, of course should make an effort to learn um one of the official languages, either maybe Finnish or Swedish. Of course we could also learn Swedish but um yeah…

Notably, as Swedish is not the official language of UEF, learning Swedish would not be as worthwhile as studying Finnish.

The discussion moved onto considering the language of the academia altogether – whether everything should be in English, or if there are situations where the native language would be sufficient. For instance, it was suggested that sometimes it is enough to publish research results only in one’s own mother tongue (other than English) if the scope is really restricted. However, some thought that all research could be useful in other parts of the world, even if initially the scope of the research is narrow. As a solution to the problem, it was suggested that these sort of academic texts could be translated by a professional translator rather than the researcher himself or herself in order to avoid the influence of ELFA. However, the interviewees wondered whether this solution would be too time-consuming and expensive to execute. In the end, English was regarded as the appropriate language of the academic world:

Speaker 1: For the sake of efficiency and, you know, time saving strategies and doing research, then in English a more appropriate. Even if there is also downside to it, because we’re not preserving our own language.

Speaker 6: Overall, I think the researcher, the academic researcher have to learn the specific words or phrases related to his own research in English I mean.

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One interviewee raised a question of the general interest and focus of the studies from the university’s side. As an international student, he perceives that the UEF has strong interest and emphasis on Russian studies, and thought that more people would be interested in studying at the UEF if the scope of the studies is set wider in the world. The topic also emerged with other interviewees, and it was agreed that international universities should be multidisciplinary in their approach and do co-operation with other departments, universities and countries.

Research, then, could be carried out not only on topics that are relevant on the location of the university, but also in a wider perspective. This could be established by doing case studies with foreign participants and international partners. Furthermore, the interviewees consider the town of Joensuu to be geographically somewhat distant (supposedly in relation to other international universities in Finland or in Central Europe), which is why the UEF could make an effort to narrow the gap by inviting more international conferences, encouraging more partnerships and moving their research and co-operation approach southwards instead of east, to some extent at least.

Overall, the idea of internationality and international universities seems to go around the idea of co-operation: people thinking collectively and national identification becoming sort of absent when doing international co-operation. There was also discussion on why internationality is such a valued feature in academia. One of the interviewees summarized the idea of internationality as follows:

Speaker 3: Bringing something from abroad makes things “better”, or it is perceived to be “better” if it made it all the way to your country. If people want to come here, there’s good about this university.

Considering these two notions on the scope of international studies and internationality, I strongly agree that carrying out international research with a wide range of partners across the globe enhances the university’s image as a valid international partner, but would also like to point out that in addition to Russia, there are also other parts of the world that are a part of the UEF’s international cooperation, such as Europe, North America, North-West Russia, China, India and Southern Africa. Also, I understand how it is natural for UEF (especially the Joensuu campus) to specialize in Russian studies due to its geographical location.

56 4.2.5 Tuition fees

Another view regarded the political idea of internationality, and especially funding. As I have explained in the Introduction of my study, a large portion of the university funding has been formed by international research. This is why I thought it would be relevant to discuss the upcoming policy of collecting tuition fees. By the time of the first three interviews, the Finnish parliament had presented the government with a proposal to ensure tuition fees for all students coming from outside the EU – with a suggested amount of €1,500 a year. (By the time I held my last interview, the proposal had been passed, and right before this thesis is published, the UEF announced their decision to set the tuition fees in the amount ranging from 8 000 euros to 20 000 euros.) We discussed the possible effects of setting tuition fees on the attractiveness of Finnish HE. Most of the interviewees thought that there would possibly be a decrease in the number of international students. However, the proposed amount of €1,500 per year was not deemed too high, especially since the tuition fee might mean that the home university would then be more lenient in giving a grant for their students since the education is no longer free.

Nevertheless, it was highlighted that the possible decrease would be dependent on the work market of the town in which the university is located. This means that if there is work available for the students to fund their studies abroad, the effects of the tuition fees might not be as severe.

One of the interviewees was concerned whether the income that the university gets from the tuition fees is going to benefit the students. If so, and the university could hire more employees and invite more students for instance, the tuition fees can only be regarded as fair.

Speaker 6: I think, for sure it would decrease. But fortunately, the suggested amount of money is not that much. […] So I think it can be the same as it goes now and without tuition fee.

Speaker 4: It would be so sad ‘cause I mean, Finland is so known for the good education system and um… people obviously from all over the world know that and Finland is very respected for the way it educates its people, small children also adults later on, I mean adult education. So I think it would be very sad […] from the students’ point of view…

Speaker 2: Yes, of course. I believe there will be drop in the international student admission of international students.

Speaker 3: [1500 euro] For whole year? Ok, that’s actually not that much when you think about the courses that you have to pay for. There might be a drop, maybe, but when I think about some…

Speaker 2: But if you don’t have grant, imagine that.

57 Speaker 3: Of course.

Speaker 2: Yes, then you pay for everything, that’s extra expense, right? If you have self-financing coming from your home country.

Speaker 3: In the invitation of the university was that they don’t provide like any extra funding ‘cause the university is free, so they believe that’s enough of… So I guess maybe if they had to introduce those fees then they will… give something back…

Speaker 2: Ensure grants… Yeah, then it’s nice.

Speaker 1: The question is, if they raise the fees, will they make the university accessible for more students? […] If there are fees, then it has to be more justified or the students will leave. Then the university can do more work to invite more students to participate.

That’s also… it generates more income for the university. It is fair. […] Per year is a very good amount, because… It’s a very good amount if the university is encouraging more students to come, if the university is doing more work and if the workload includes, for example, more employees that can proceed with the applications of students, more students are invited to come to the university. 1500 is very fair.

Speaker 7: On one hand, charging for education in the university can startle you to the core. But when it’s free, it’s being a secondary or not as valuable. But once you put a value on it and you start charging, then you have a comparison that people can work with internationally. […] Most probably you would have less people interested.

As we discussed university funding and tuition fees, it seemed that some of the interviewees

As we discussed university funding and tuition fees, it seemed that some of the interviewees