Studying in Finland

and France in the

midst of the Bologna

Process

Aurélie Mary

University of Tampere

aurelie.mary@uta.fi

OTUS

Opiskelun solmukohtia

Helsinki 7.3.2013

Introduction

• Paper based on a comparative empirical research between Finland and France, among Finnish and French female university students (aged 21 to 30) about to experience transition from university to working life

• 22 qualitative in-depth interviews – 11 interviews in each country – carried out in 2008

• Interview themes:

1. Young women’s evaluation of the university system

2. Integration in the labour market

3. Plans for family formation

4. Entering adulthood and perception of the concept of adulthood

• Today, going to tertiary education = logical

educational step, social and cultural norm

• Bologna Process’ purpose: standardised European

Higher Education Area (EHEA) to facilitate student

and staff international cooperation and academic

mobility

• Implies inner restructuring of the different European

higher education systems: harmonisation of

degrees into the 3-5-8 structure (three years to

complete a Bachelor degree, two for a Master, and

three for a Doctorate)

• But concretely, how is this possible?

DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, DIFFERENT

UNIVERSITY SYSTEMS

• Complex process: implies deep structural transformations

• Similarly to welfare regimes, advanced societies’ university

systems are based on different ideologies and models

Considerable variation in the background ideologies that

shape each education system in different societies

• Finnish and French students enter a very different

university system; the same applies to students coming

from other advanced societies

Incentives generated by the Bologna Process difficult to

follow; implies transformations of the entire structure of the

different university systems, including background

ideologies

Figure 1: The higher education systems in Finland and France, 2009.

IUP

MA 2

Work ing life IUP

MA 1

IUP

(BA)

Years

9

France

Bachelor

University of Applied

Sciences

Work

experience:

three years

minimum

Master

Finland

Bachelor

5

6

Doctorate

Bachelor

IUFM

(teacher

training)

Doctorate

Master 1 (M1)

(research or vocational)

Baccalaureate

DAEU

Preparatory

classes

STS

(Diploma

BTS)

IUT

(Diploma

DUT)

Vocational

Bachelor

University

Master 2 (M2)

Maste

r

Specialised schools

(Grandes Ecoles) :

(Engineering,

management, politic,

veterinary, architecture,

journalism institutions,

etc...)

Do

cto

rate

Lic

en

ce (

Bach

elo

r)

University

10

Matriculation Vocational qualifications

Master

7

8

1

2

3

4

BA: Bachelor

BTS: Brevet de Technicien Supérieur (Higher Level Technician Diplma)

DEAU: Diplôme d’Accès aux Etudes Universitaires (High School Equivalence Diploma)

DUT: Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie (Technological University Diploma)

IUFM: Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres (Training Institute for School Teachers)

IUP: Institut Universitaire Professionnalisé (Professional University Institute)

IUT: Institut Universitaire de Technologie (Technological University Institute)

MA: Master

STS: Section de Techniciens Supérieurs (Higher Level Technicians Section)

Sources: Ambassade de France en Irlande (2007); La France en Suisse (2009); Ministère de l’Education Nationale (2009);

Opetushallitus (2009); Opetusministeriö (2009); Site de Ressources et de Formation des Directeurs d’Ecole de la Marne (2008).

• Finnish higher education system:

- Dual system, divided into two streams: universities (academic degrees) and universities of applied sciences (vocational degrees)

- Undergraduate studies (includes Master): five years or longer at university, a bit shorter in the vocational path

- Entrance exams to get in

- No tuition fees (free higher education)

• French higher education system: divided in several streams

- University stream: no entrance exams, no tuition fees (just administration fees), includes teacher training (independent institution related to the university system)

- Vocational stream: provided by different institutions, part of the university system; different level of degrees in different fields; students selected upon grades; possible fees whether the institution is private or public

- Specialised schools (Grandes Ecoles): elite, prestigious and highly selective institutions, usually private institutions, tuition fees, two years of preparatory classes generally necessary to get ready for the selective entrance examinations that will lead to access into these institutions. Grandes Ecoles prepare students to elite positions for eg. in management, engineering, architecture, or politics.

• The Finnish and French higher education systems reflect the welfare regimes principles operating in the countries:

- Finnish system more egalitarian

- French system more hierarchical (Grandes Ecoles remain essentially the privileged institutions for young people from higher socio-economic groups)

SCHOOL TO WORK TRANSITION

• Present post-industrial context: life trajectories uncertain and no longer predictable; traditional strategies of integration into the labour market no longer appropriate

• Higher education qualifications do no longer guarantee direct integration on the labour market

• Too many graduates compared to the real number of jobs available

Increases competition

EVALUATING THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEMS

• Integration in the labour market closely

related to the structure of the university

systems – not only related to socio-

economic restructuring and unstability

• Finnish and French young women in my

study: opposite opinions regarding their own

university system

• In Finland: general satisfaction; high

appreciation of the system flexibility; system

perceived as comprehensive

• In France: general disappointment;

university perceived as a good place to

acquire knowledge, but not for preparing

students to integrate into the labour market

I’ll never regret to have been to uni. (…) I

think there’s really a great cultural profusion

[there]. (…) But then, concerning usefulness

for professional integration, I think it’s rather

limited, because the courses are extremely

theoretical, rather disconnected from reality.

(Sabrina, 23, France)

BRIDGES AND TOWERS

• Rather opposite school-to-work transition in Finland and France (in relation to the university system only, not vocational higher institutions or specialised schools)

• In Finland: students able to build their own degree; possibility to change major & take different minors

Informants used the system flexibility to adapt their degree (to some extent) to labour market possibilities and personal interests

• Most of them had taken gap years: gained working experience and got familiarised with the labour market

• Most students work alongside their studies; not necessarily in jobs related to their studies, but it helps them to have one foot in the labour market

Possibility to acquire both practical and theoretical knowledge

• The Finnish university system seems to work alongside the labour market and to guide students into working life.

University system as a bridge in the school-to-work process – but depends on study fields

• French informants rather critical towards the university system:

- Described it as obsolete, not responding to the current employability requirements, inapt to prepare students’ entry in the labour market

- University offers exclusively theoretical knowledge, and no practical and professional experience

System as a ‘knowledge tower’ leading students to accumulate theoretical knowledge, diplomas, and individual capital

- In contrast: vocational and technological institutions provide much more adapted qualifications and professional training

The university system and the labour market seem to operate independently of each other, as two separate entities, or two worlds.

To me, university is not a good up-to-date system, maybe it was before, but now, I think it’s a bit ‘out’, because (…) firms are looking for people that are operational, who know about organisations’ environment, (…) who already acquired experience. (…) Being in something both theoretical and practical with my work-based education, I often realise that theory is 100 000 miles away from what is really going on within companies.

(Alice, 23, France)

COMBINING STUDIES AND WORK: A STEP INTO THE LABOUR

MARKET

• Finnish informants satisfied about study schedules: system allowing

them to work (job related or not to studies) and even to start a family

(possibility to interrupt studies)

• Students not constrained by academic years; the total of credits is what

counts Possibility to arrange both study and working schedules. BUT

having a job simultaneously leads to extend one’s studies.

• French students constrained by academic years, must fulfil a certain

number of courses and pass biannual exams to be admitted into the

following academic year

Difficulties to combine studies and part-time work. Lack of flexibility from

both employers and the study schedule to be able to combine study and

work.

• The Finnish system partly bridges the gap between studies and

professional life by offering the possibility to combine study and work,

while the French system does not encourage such arrangement.

Figure 2: University students’ careers in 12 European countries (Kivinen and

Nurmi 2011).

• Higher education diplomas no longer guarantee direct access to the market: necessary to gain additional individual capital to stand out of the crowd

Extra competitive skills usually come from working experience

• In France; employers discriminate university graduates who lack professional competences

• In Great Britain, gap years increasingly considered as a new competitive tool on the labour market

Increases employability

• During gap years young people acquire life experience, professional experience, individual capital, maturity

• Integration on the labour market more difficult for university graduates in France, because they are new entrants

• Integration smoother and faster for Finnish graduates; longer and more chaotic for French graduates

UNIVERSITY: SCHOOL INSTITUTION, SERVICE, OR

BUSINESS?

• Finnish informants: university system = a service for mature

adults, not a school institution based on system flexibility

and freedom (choice of courses, building up own degree, no

restricted time to complete studies)

Implies self-monitoring, being responsible and mature

• French respondents: university = school

Critics towards rigid high-school-like teaching methods and

learning approaches, and grades being given considerable

weight

Grades determine access to the following academic year,

and access to Master programmes (Bachelor and Master

degrees not necessarily a continuity in France, unlike in

Finland)

• However, changing situation in Finland: system restructuring, following Bologna Process directives; controlling the flow of students and study time; system marketization; New Universities Act 2009

• Changes perceived as harmful, and taking the currently well-functioning university system into the wrong direction

Changes hinder the quality of the service university was initially designed to provide; transformation of the system into a business

I don’t like the direction [in which] it’s going to. (…) I always thought that universities [were] something more like a service than a business. (…) They are sort of directing it towards a business way of thinking.

(Päivi, 25, Finland)

‘The government will continue to

guarantee sufficient core funding tied to

the rise in costs for the universities. In

addition, the universities will be able to

apply for competed public funding and

use the revenue from their business

ventures, donations and bequeaths and

the return on their capital for financing

their operations’ (Minister Henna

Virkkunen (2009) The Universities Act).

CONCLUSION

• Two different roads of integration in the labour market in

Finland and France

• School-to-work transition longer in Finland but students

better prepared both individually and professionally when

accessing the labour market

• French students follow a shorter, more traditional and

straightforward school-to-work transition (first they study and

graduate, and then go to the labour market) but they struggle

more during their integration process because they are not

prepared enough – new entrants.

• Youth experts contest extension of study path; attempts to

control and reduce it (eg. suppression of gap years)

But is it the right solution?

• The contemporary labour market is increasingly competitive

and demanding in terms of working experience and extra-

curricular skills.

• Extending one’s studies in order to combine working and

studying provides tools for a better socio-economic

integration.

Reducing study time compromises students’ chances to gain

practical skills and thus to integrate on the labour market

soon after graduation.

• The rapid post-war ‘school-then-work’ transition model

seems to increasingly lead to failure of integration into

working life today.

Given the current socio-economic circumstances, a slightly

longer and more mixed ‘school-and-work’ model seems far

more appropriate.

More information on the Finnish and French university systems and school-to-work process in my book:

Aurélie Mary (2012) The Illusion of the Prolongation of Youth – Transition to Adulthood among Finnish and French Female University Students. Tampere University Press.

Electronic version:

http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-44-8927-3