Open University path is gaining credibility as an option for student admission
is a national development project for higher education, seeking to make the Open University path a more feasible option for student admission to tertiary education. The project is revising the Open University path in a student-oriented fashion while also developing the student and academic services of the universities in order to provide students with sufficient advice and guidance. In addition, the purpose is to increase general awareness both among applicants and universities about the possibilities of the Open University path for student admission.
“Project working has increased collaboration between universities and also understanding of the benefits of the Open University path. This path is demanding in view of student admission but it is also a good way for the student and university alike: it measures competence and motivation while also providing study credits”, says TRY Project Manager Paula Savela.
Aiming for real paths
The actual Open University path is revised in the project by piloting. The pilots provide models which universities can use in their student admission practices based on the applicant’s prior studies. A number of revised and also novel pilot paths, through which one can get admitted to university studies, will be opened in 2019 and 2020.
For example, registration for the pilot group in theology at the University of Eastern Finland starts already in July this year, and the Ģֱ opens a revised track pilot for business and economics studies. The University of Oulu is opening tracks to a number of study options, including technological fields, for instance. Depending on the university, the admission criteria for 2020 are announced in autumn 2019 at latest.
Views on student admission and lifelong learning
Besides an update of the project’s results so far, the seminar will also bring up young people’s views about student admission. For the panel discussion on student admission we have invited also representatives from various student associations. This spring the media has written a lot about upper secondary school students’ tactical solutions in their school subject selections in view of the credits yielded for certificate-based student admission.
The upper secondary school is meant to provide general education. When the Open University path becomes an established and credible option for student admission to universities, the teenagers can study at the upper secondary school what they want and still get admitted to the university studies of their preference”, Savela states.
The seminar programme also includes a lecture on continuous, lifelong learning by Ida Mielityinen, a leading expert of education and employment policy from Akava.
”The need for continuous learning during one’s work career is increasing also among higher education graduates. To meet this objective together with the goal of raising the level of education requires that the study places leading to a degree are reserved increasingly for those still lacking a higher education degree. For those already having a degree, we need to develop ambitiously an array of different ways to update their competences. An increasing part of this must take place with better interlacing with one’s work. This calls for a bold reform of higher education”, Mielityinen says.
(TRY, 2018–2020) is a development project on higher education. The project is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and involves 11 universities. Its work so far will be presented in an interim seminar in Jyväskylä on 13 June 2019, at 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. The whole programme of this seminar is available online at (in Finnish).