JYU is looking for means to facilitate immigrant students’ access to university studies
Developing the field of Finnish as a second language (S2) and getting immigrants to higher education are increasingly important in view of social equality. This is also a major goal for solving shortcomings in sustainability and the lack of skilled labour that threaten Finland.
A constantly growing group consists of those who have passed the matriculation exam for Finnish as a second language and literature. The annual number of these upper secondary school graduates is more than 2,000. In spring 2024, 423 of them applied for a study place at the Ģą˝Ö±˛Ą and 25 of the 32 admitted finally accepted the study place. At the same time, immigrants with prior higher education or eligibility for it are seeking routes for further education or complementing their qualifications in order to enter a desired work career.
The JYU Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences has taken action to streamline immigrants’ paths to university studies.
Research Coordinator Aija Virtanen from the Ģą˝Ö±˛Ą has researched the background and charted the issue not only on the basis of articles and statistics, but also by means of expert interviews.
Aija Virtanen has focused her background research mainly on education for social work. Social work students and practitioners with more diverse backgrounds would broaden viewpoints within the profession and field of science.
Immigrants would bring multiple backgrounds to social work
“The S2 development project and getting immigrants to higher education is Important for social work in particular,” says Professor of Social Work Marjo Kuronen.
“In social work practice, there is a need for experts coming from more diverse backgrounds, because also the service users in social work have highly diverse backgrounds, also in terms of languages and cultures.”
“Social work has for long had a shortage of labour force, especially for qualified experts of this field, and we cannot afford to lose good students,” Kuronen says.
She points out that we also need to look for solutions both for enhancing access to studies and for providing linguistic support during the studies.
Aija Virtanen thinks along the same lines. The current student admissions are exclusionary from immigrants’ point of view. She considers that the admission practices should be revised in collaboration with language experts.
“Would it be possible,” she asks, “to give additional time in entrance examinations and open up a specific channel to university.”
Integrating the Finnish language into field-specific syllabi
Students’ needs for linguistic support should be identified already at the beginning of studies. It is also important to pay attention to the competence of staff. There is especially a need for the development of language-aware teaching and guidance. It would support students coming from diverse backgrounds – regardless of their particular language background.
The education system should enable such study paths where Finnish language studies are integrated into field-specific syllabus. It should be possible for a student to achieve in parallel both necessary subject knowledge and the language skills required in expert work.
Researcher Maiju Strömmer from the Department of Language and Communication Studies has studied work-related language skills and language awareness in education. She says that in Finnish language courses it is good to link language learning to field-specific content and the training of academic skills, and on the other hand, in subject matter studies it is important to take the students’ varying language backgrounds into account.
“It is important that the teachers become informed about their students’ prior competences and language skills so that they can adjust their teaching and support the students appropriately."
“Immigrants may have field-specific competences and work experience acquired already in their home country or elsewhere outside Finland, which may facilitate their studies", Strömmer says.
“Recognising students’ prior competences, emphasising and demonstrating main things, well-rounded learning methods and group discussions support learning for all students.”
Versatile language skills are an advantage in working life
Studying in a second language is more arduous and time-consuming than studying in one’s first language, and therefore it is advisable to pay special attention to the pacing of studies and to the deadlines for learning assignments.
Language-aware education also includes recognises multilingualism as a strength. In learning the subject matter, learning assignments and group discussions, it is also recommendable to make use of languages other than Finnish. Versatile language skills are an advantage in working life as well.
“A teacher doesn’t need to master the students’ native languages,” Strömmer notes, “but the students can also be guided to search for information in other languages, which facilitates deeper understanding of the topic.
"Performance on written assignments can be supported, for example, by specific courses, writing clinics, or personal guidance.”
