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Finns capitalize widely on education

Less and less Finns of working age do not have any post-basic education. Their share continues to drop as the large post-war age groups retire. In 1997, about one-third of 25-64-year-olds did not have post-basic education but ten years later their share had dropped below 20 per cent. During the same period, the OECD average value decreased from 37 per cent to 30 per cent.

Finns over 20 years of age attend education clearly more than young people in OECD countries on average. Of the 20-29 –year-olds, 43 per cent study either full-time or part-time - in OECD countries on average only one in four studies. From the point of view of the nation’s competence reserve, participation in education is a good thing but, at the same time, it entails later transition to labour market.

In 1995-2007, the education attendance rate of the 20-29-years age group in the OECD countries grew by 7 percentage points, in Finland by 15 percentage points. In 2007, the attendance rate of this age group in Finland (43 per cent) was the highest in the OECD countries. In the OECD countries, on average one-fourth of the 20-29-year-olds attended education. In Great Britain and the USA, this age group’s education attendance rate was lower than the OECD average value, similarly that of the 15-19-year-olds was below the OECD average value. The figures reveal the selectivity of the education systems in these countries.

In Belgium, Poland, Ireland, and in the Czech Republic, 90 per cent or more of the 15-19-year-olds attended education. In Finland, 88 per cent of the 15-19-year-olds attended education. In Finland, the attendance rate is reduced by the fact that part of the 19-year-old men are in the military service and that some of those who have completed secondary education take a year off or have not been accepted directly to further education.

According to the report’s information, the Finnish education system faces two challenges. On the one hand, there are young people under 20 with a risk of exclusion because of lack of education, and, on the other hand, 20-29-year-olds enter labour market later than young people in other countries.

At the same time, while in Finland the education attendance rate in the 20-29-years age group is high, of men aged 20-24 a larger share (8.3%) than the OECD average (7.3%) is outside education and unemployed. This reflects both a delay in transition from the secondary level to higher education and friction in transition to labour market after completion of secondary level education.

Big differences between higher education fees in different countries

The report compares fees that higher education students are charged in OECD countries. The comparison which concerns the 2006-2007 academic year encompasses for most countries public educational institutions only. At their highest term fees were on average over 3,900 euro in the United States (in private higher education institutions about 14,300 euro). In Japan, Korea and Great Britain, the term fees in public higher education institutions were around 3,000 euro but in these countries 2/3 of higher education students study in private institutions. In most European countries, public higher education institutions do not charge any term fees. Besides Finland these countries include among others Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Czech Republic. Foreign students are also charged different fees in many countries. In most countries foreign students are charged higher term fees than the citizens of the country. In Finland, free tuition concerns all students.

In many countries where the term fees are low or non-existent, it is discussed whether higher fees would motivate students to complete their studies in a shorter time. On the basis of the report’s information, it is not possible to prove any dependence between fees and completion of studies.

More and more students study abroad

On the basis of data by the OECD and Unesco, an estimate has been prepared of the long-term development of the numbers of those who study in a country other than their native country. In 1975, there were 800,000 higher education students in the whole world who studied outside their native country In 2007, the number was already three million. Of these 2.5 million studied in an OECD country. The United States had the largest number of foreign students, one-fifth of all those studying abroad. The second largest numbers of foreign students were in Great Britain, Germany and France.

In 2007, New Zealand and Australia received proportionally the largest numbers of foreign students, they accounted for more than 20 per cent of the first-degree students in higher education institutions. In Finland, their share was 3 per cent but on the other hand in 2000-2007 the number of foreign students almost doubled. In the traditionally popular target countries of higher education students, the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland, the increase has been clearly slighter.

In Great Britain, New Zealand and Switzerland, the share of foreign post-graduate students was over 40 per cent in 2007. In Finland, 8 per cent of post-graduate students were foreigners.
The most popular target country among Finnish students was Sweden, almost 40 per cent of those studying abroad studied in Sweden. Sweden was followed by Great Britain (18%), Germany (9%), the United States (6%) and Estonia (5%). Finland, in its turn, was an important target country for Estonian students. Of the Estonian students studying abroad, 14 per cent studied in Finland. Other countries of whose expatriate students more than one per cent studied in Finland included Sweden (4%), Russia (2.3%) and Hungary (1.3%).

Finland has the second least amount of classroom teaching among the OECD countries

According to the lesson hour distribution of a Finnish comprehensive school pupil, the minimum number of hours for 7-14-year-olds is generally less than 6,000 teaching hours while the OECD average number of teaching hours was almost 6,900 hours in 2007. Only in Estonia is the minimum number of teaching hours smaller. Among the OECD countries, Italy has the largest number of teaching hours, just over 8,000 hours. It is difficult to make international comparisons of the numbers of teaching hours in different subjects because the names and content of subjects vary from one country to another. In Finland, 12-14-year-olds are taught mathematics exactly as much as the OECD countries’ average value, foreign languages only slightly more than on average. Differences in mathematics teaching between countries are small, in languages teaching there is more variation. While in Australia 4 per cent and in Ireland 7 per cent of mandatory lessons are language teaching, in Luxemburg 20 per cent of lessons are devoted to languages. In Finland, their share is 14 per cent.

The average class size in basic education grades 1 to 6 was 19.8 pupils in Finland, while the OECD average was 21.4 pupils. The range in the OECD countries was from 15.8 pupils in Luxemburg to 31 in South Korea. In Finland, the average class size in basic education upper grades, 20.1, also came in among the countries with the smallest class sizes. The smallest class size was in Iceland, 19.8 pupils on average, the largest in South Korea, 35.6 pupils.
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For more information:
- Counsellor of Education Matti Kyrö (National Board of Education), tel. 040 348 7124
- Special Government Advisor Ville Heinonen (Ministry of Education), tel. (09) 160 77098
- www.oecd.org The publication Education at a Glance 2009 (ISBN 978-92-64-02475-5) can be ordered from Suomalainen kirjakauppa: anita.geitel@suomalainenkk.fi, tel. (09) 852 7907.