A History of Finnish Higher Education from the Middle Ages to the 21st Century by Jussi Välimaa

Author:Jussi Välimaa
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783030208080
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

8.5 Business Education and Its Development Towards University-Level Business Institutions

Among the practical-utilitarian disciplines, the development of business education into post-secondary institutes and, ultimately, into university-level institutions was the toughest. Partly this had to do with the difficulty of justifying the need for business education to the Fennomans, whose focus was on civilising and educating the nation and the people. The Fennomans saw Finland as a primarily agrarian country (which it was till the 1940s), and agrarian they wanted it to be. In this thinking, there was little room for the idea that universities or university-level institutions should teach technology, agrology, or business. Not even owners and managers of trading houses agreed on the necessity to base business education on science. The university likewise shunned the idea of technical and business education – or the education of utilitarian subjects – which it did not regard as true (or “pure”) science. In the eyes of the university, scientific knowledge was something abstract and/or theoretical and involved more than just “peddling” solutions to practical issues. At the same time, however, industry was developing at an accelerating pace, international business expanding, and customs and taxation practices were becoming increasingly complex. There was thus undeniably a growing need for practical knowledge and its applications, such as the management of industrial processes, supply-and-demand analyses, and accounting skills. As a result, from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, university-level institutions of technology and subsequently also of business were established in Europe and in German-speaking regions in particular (Michelsen 2001).

In the late-nineteenth century, Finland had eight business schools or institutes. These were located in Turku, Oulu, Pietarsaari, Kuopio, Vyborg, Pori, Tampere, Raahe, and Helsinki, and thus covered the whole country. Of these, the schools of Helsinki and Raahe were post-secondary level institutions, whose entry requirements were higher than those of the other schools. The schools and institutes were largely dependent on funding by merchants and businessmen but also received subsidies from the state. The education was mostly pragmatic. This was the situation till the 1880s. However, with the expansion of foreign trade, things started to change. Trading houses and industries had a constant lack of qualified employers, especially those in managerial positions, because schools of business mainly focussed on educating secretaries and bookkeepers. The issue was repeatedly taken up at meetings of merchants and even at the Diet in 1888. The Senate therefore instituted a committee to deliberate the matter. Headed by Wilhelm Rosenlew , a Finnish industrialist, the committee proposed a solution that had been turned down before, specifically that business education be transferred to the Polytechnic Institute. However, the committee did not specify how this was to be done. The issue was thus left open (Michelsen 2001) (See Map 7.​1).

The issue remained alive and continued to be discussed at the meetings of the merchants, some of whom were in favour of the initiation of university-level business education, whereas others were against it. A related concern was the location of the institute, because the business school of Raahe was a Swedish-speaking and the school of Helsinki a strongly pro-Finnish institute.

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