The head of Finland¡¯s largest and oldest university has come out strongly against the country¡¯s austerity budget for higher education.

Earlier this year, the recently elected prime minister, Juha Sipil?, told the country¡¯s parliament that his coalition government had ¡°decided on a total of €4 billion [?2.8 billion] in cost savings in public finances during this parliamentary term¡±.

The ¡°strategic programme¡± for the nation included the ¡°freezing of index increases [for] universities and universities of applied sciences¡± and the end of special funding, worth €30 million, ¡°earmarked to the University of Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland [compensating for corporate tax paid on] their pharmacy business activities¡±.

In order to make ¡°the system of higher education institutions and research activities¡­more cost-effective¡±, the programme proposed shedding administrative staff, ¡°clustering of higher education institutions¡± and greater specialisation of their missions.

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Yet it also noted that universities were autonomous and retained ¡°the power of decision on how the savings will be put into effect¡±.

However, Helsinki rector Jukka Kola issued a statement saying he was ¡°shocked¡± by a cut of approximately €500 million to total university budgets, which came in the wake of €200 million shaved by the previous government that had led to Helsinki reducing staffing levels at by 500 posts.

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By 2020, Professor Kola went on, the university would ¡°face cuts amounting to more than €83 million due to decisions made by the previous and new government. This means that the university¡¯s basic funding will be cut by one sixth.¡±

¡°It is not sustainable or wise to weaken the future success factors and competitiveness of Finland via these big spending cuts on universities,¡± Professor Kola told Times Higher Education.

He said he found it particularly ¡°difficult to understand and accept the targeted extra cuts on the University of Helsinki¡±, given that it is Finland¡¯s highest ranked university (currently 103 in the THE World University Rankings),?as this would ¡°directly hurt our country¡¯s competitiveness and citizens¡¯ well-being¡±.

Asked for his comments, Tapio Kosunen, director general of the Finnish department for higher education and science policy, acknowledged that universities had ¡°reason to be worried about the money¡± but noted that a budget of €3.2 billion for higher education and science still represented a relatively high proportion of GDP. ?

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There were likely to be additional government funds for ¡°regional centres of excellence¡±, for commercialising research and for matching (and more than matching) money obtained from private sources, he said.

Universities had already shown themselves ¡°very active in thinking about new modes of cooperation¡± and in developing individual ¡°profiles¡±, he added, while constitutional factors meant that the specific issue of pharmacy payments was still under discussion.

matthew.reisz@tesglobal.com