Because education in Finland is mostly free. It is not expensive to go and study other profession or degree if you want and some people like to study all the levels of degree before going to work. Those are some explanations that I could come up with but obviously 2008 is very dated at this point.
This is partly to the fact that many educations still are connected to the universities in Finland. I.e in Sweden we have IHM that once was the marketing department of Göteborg’s University but today are an independent school “outside of the normal” university world. If you look a the statistics on education in a broader perspective the Nordic countries are more similar then this graph shows.
Admission to university in Finland can be really competitive, especially for more competitive programmes (medicine, law, business etc). Admission happens only once a year, same with entrance exams. There are many people taking multiple gap years to study for these exams, trying every year to get in.
Another reason for multiple gap years is the problem that many kids do not know what they want to do with their lives when they are in their last year of high school. This then often results in gap years, to give themselves some time to contemplate life choices.
Males also have to go to the army or do civil service (if they are not exempted) before they reach a certain age. Many do it before their university studies, some during. Few do it afterwards.
According to the Ministry of Education and Culture the average Finn is 24 years old when he/she begins his/her university studies. And as most people complete both bachelors and masters (5-6 years in total), it is not surprising that they graduate at 30 or older.
Because like a wise man wrote “Finland… the heart of Elvendom on earth.”
I was a science (technology) student. The most important reason for delayed studies in my field is working alongside studies. Finnish students are half-expected to find jobs during their studies and many do this simply because the government support is not enough to come by unless you want to be in debt when you graduate. When you get some money from your job and realize how much it increases your standard of living the incentive to study might disappear entirely. If studies continue at all, people slowly scrape their degree together and graduate at 30.
Anecdotal, but: I haven’t graduated yet, but I’m definitely 30 and older. The reason? I’ve been working for 15 years in the field I’m studying. I have little incentive to finish since education is free. Now that I have family, kids, and a full-time job, there’s not much reason to finish. And in my line of work, a CV is more important than your education. Yeah, it’s IT.
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Do we think what happens?
Because education in Finland is mostly free. It is not expensive to go and study other profession or degree if you want and some people like to study all the levels of degree before going to work. Those are some explanations that I could come up with but obviously 2008 is very dated at this point.
This is partly to the fact that many educations still are connected to the universities in Finland. I.e in Sweden we have IHM that once was the marketing department of Göteborg’s University but today are an independent school “outside of the normal” university world. If you look a the statistics on education in a broader perspective the Nordic countries are more similar then this graph shows.
Admission to university in Finland can be really competitive, especially for more competitive programmes (medicine, law, business etc). Admission happens only once a year, same with entrance exams. There are many people taking multiple gap years to study for these exams, trying every year to get in.
Another reason for multiple gap years is the problem that many kids do not know what they want to do with their lives when they are in their last year of high school. This then often results in gap years, to give themselves some time to contemplate life choices.
Males also have to go to the army or do civil service (if they are not exempted) before they reach a certain age. Many do it before their university studies, some during. Few do it afterwards.
According to the Ministry of Education and Culture the average Finn is 24 years old when he/she begins his/her university studies. And as most people complete both bachelors and masters (5-6 years in total), it is not surprising that they graduate at 30 or older.
Because like a wise man wrote “Finland… the heart of Elvendom on earth.”
I was a science (technology) student. The most important reason for delayed studies in my field is working alongside studies. Finnish students are half-expected to find jobs during their studies and many do this simply because the government support is not enough to come by unless you want to be in debt when you graduate. When you get some money from your job and realize how much it increases your standard of living the incentive to study might disappear entirely. If studies continue at all, people slowly scrape their degree together and graduate at 30.
Anecdotal, but: I haven’t graduated yet, but I’m definitely 30 and older. The reason? I’ve been working for 15 years in the field I’m studying. I have little incentive to finish since education is free. Now that I have family, kids, and a full-time job, there’s not much reason to finish. And in my line of work, a CV is more important than your education. Yeah, it’s IT.
”In Finland we call this ikiopiskelija”
No jobs.