The use of English has expanded at higher education institutions in Finland, according to the latest language policy review by the Institute for the Languages of Finland (Kotus).
The review considers language policy phenomena related to Finnish, Swedish, Sámi languages, Finnish and Finnish-Swedish sign language, and the Romani language, as highlighted by public debate.
The publication, compiled by Kotus language policy coordinator Matti Räsänen, is based on electronic material published online in 2023, including news, bulletins and various public administration texts.
More than half of the review's section on the Finnish language is devoted to the expanding use of English, particularly in education.
The report, published on Thursday, is based on data from 2023, when almost 90 percent of doctoral dissertations and 40 percent of master's theses in Finland were written in English.
Most want to study in own language
In a survey of nearly 2,000 university students carried out that year, 38 percent of Finnish-speaking respondents and 74 percent of Swedish-speaking respondents said they wanted more courses in their native language.
More than 80 percent of respondents said they would like to complete their programme in their own language if possible. About half of the respondents said they would prefer to write their thesis in Finnish or Swedish rather than English.
The study found that Aalto University in Espoo is the most English-speaking university in Finland. Almost all of its master's programmes have been in English since 2013.
In 2023, the Office of the Chancellor of Justice issued a decision on a third complaint filed about language policies at Aalto University. Some students argued that English had practically displaced Finnish as the language of study.
The university subsequently pledged to increase its offerings in Finnish, as well as in Swedish, the country’s second official language. It is the native tongue of some 5.5 percent of Finland’s population, mostly along the coast.
Swedish skills declining
Meanwhile, Swedish language proficiency at Finnish-language schools is declining, it says, citing a 2023 report by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre on B1 Swedish proficiency at the end of basic education.
According to the report, the Swedish language proficiency of students who have completed basic education is insufficient for upper secondary studies. The Swedish skills of ninth graders correspond to a school grade of 6 (on a scale of 1-10), while two-thirds received a maximum grade of 5 in writing skills.
Finland has one entirely Swedish-language multi-faculty university, Åbo Akademi in Turku, while the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki and Vaasa offers programmes in English and Swedish.
The report also notes that the number of foreign speakers in Finland increased 20-fold between 1990 and 2022, with the foreign-speaking population concentrated in the Uusimaa region, which includes Helsinki. In 2022, the city was home to more than 114,000 speakers of foreign languages, and that number is set to rise to some 155,000 by 2030.
