Institutional perspective on the transition of mature students to higher education – the Finnish open university gateway as a case

Author(s):

Nina Haltia(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 06 D, Inclusion and Diversity in Higher Education Settings

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

15:30-17:00

Room:

B019 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Colin McCaig

Contribution

Open university is a form of education in which anyone may participate and in which university-level credits can be earned. The Finnish open university education is a network-like organization where each university organizes open courses alongside degree education. One of the peculiarities of the Finnish open university education is that within this system, it is not possible to graduate with a degree. In order to take a degree, a student has to apply for a student place at one of the universities and be accepted as a regular degree student. This transition may occur either via normal student selection, i.e. taking the entrance examination together with other applicants, or through the so called open university gateway.

The gateway is meant to be open for mature students who have earned the required number of credits with sufficient marks. Successfully completed studies in open university are to be taken as a proof of ability and motivation to carry on the studies and finish the degree. However, this gateway has stayed narrow and the number of people transferred though this route has remained low. (Haltia, 2012.)

This presentation aims to depict and analyze the question why the gateway has remained such a narrow route to a degree despite the political initiatives to widen and reinforce it. The specific question the paper aims to answer is: What kinds of statements universities and other significant actors make concerning the open university gateway and how these arguments shape the idea of open university and the gateway? This has wider implications on how the universities react towards mature students in general and what is the position of adults in higher education.

The study aims to set the question of Finnish open university education and the gateway in the European context. The study draws from the concepts of transition and institutional habitus. Transition focused here is from a status of open university student to a status of degree student via the gateway. Open university student’s position exemplifies peripheral participation to university community, but as a degree student she attains a new identity as a proper student (see, O’Donnell & Tobbell, 2007).

The concept of transition is perceived from an institutional perspective. Universities and other actors set the framework which determines the possibilities and prospects existing for adults. Thus, successful transition is not only something that concerns the student; it also concerns the institution and its practices (Fragoso et al., 2013, p. 74; Bamber & Tett, 2000.) The notion of institutional habitus is useful here, incorporating the idea on how institutional practices shape the relations between individuals and groups. Institutional and individual habituses are typically reinforcing each other, since the student chooses an institution where she feels to ‘fit in’ and respectively, institutions tend to recruit students with certain kinds of qualities. (Reay, Grozier & Clayton, 2010.) Universities and their faculties/departments differ in their institutional habituses and take different positions in relation to adults (Thomas, 2002).

Method

The data consists of statements given to a recent report by a working group set by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. The working group dealt with different kinds of questions, open university gateway being one of the themes. In this report, the group stated among other things, that “[o]pen university education has not become a largely utilized, clear, foreseeable and target-oriented route to a degree student” (MoEC 2013:2, 40). Among the targets set by the working group were to enhance the supply of open university education and to truly enable degree-oriented study in open university. After its release, the report was circulated with a proposal for comments. The statements were given by e.g. higher education institutions, trade unions, student unions and different kinds of regional actors. These statements (N=74) comprise the data for the analysis. The focus of this paper is on the comments made of open university gateway and more widely, how adults are represented in these texts. Different actors seized on different issues, regarding their own positions towards the issue. Especially universities and student unions took their stands on the gateway. The texts are analyzed with thematic and discursive methods. The aim is to discover meanings attached to open university and assumptions made of open university students. What kinds of biases, prejudices and silences can be traced from the data and how the ‘truth’ of open university is produced in these texts? (See, Williams, 1997.) This study is part of a first phase in a research project which objectives are to study the preconditions of the open university gateway in the Finnish universities more thoroughly. In the forthcoming phases, case studies are made in some of the universities and their faculties by interviewing the members of the academic community and the actors being involved in the decisions on student selection. The wider aim of this study is to contribute to institutional change towards friendlier environment for mature students and those who make their entry through other than the ‘normal’ selection route.

Expected Outcomes

The universities are autonomous in their student selection policies and they determine the student intake in different programs, routes and quotas (Universities Act 2009). The universities control the size of the gateway not only by determining the number of students taken, but also by setting the specific requirements and by the supply of open university education. In many subjects, the gateway is vitiated by deficient supply of courses in open university (Kess et al., 2002). According to a previous study by the author of this paper (Haltia, 2012) the position of the open university system has always been in some way marginal in relation to the ‘core’ of university. During its whole history the position of open university has been under constant negotiation. It is expected that the similar kinds of tensions are also existent in the data analyzed here. The preliminary findings indicate that the views towards the open university gateway are somewhat negative. However, the statements differ in their views, arguments, and the ways they construct the idea of open university, the gateway and the students taking this route to degree studies. The statements are classified and analyzed in order to find those elements and discourses that are present in the discussions, framing the actual decisions being made on practices concerning student selection.

References

Bamber, J. & Tett, L. (2000) Transforming the learning experiences of non-traditional students: a perspective from higher education. Studies in Continuing Education 22 (1), 57–75. Fragoso, A., Gonçalves, T. Ribeiro, C. M., Monteiro, R., Quintas, H., Bago, J., Fonseca, H. & Santos, L. (2013) The transition of mature students to higher education: Challenging traditional concepts? Studies in the Education of Adults 45 (1), 67–81. Haltia, N. (2012) Yliopiston reunalla. Tutkimus suomalaisen avoimen yliopiston muotoutumisesta [On the edge of university. A study on the shaping of the Finnish open university system; in Finnish]. Annales Universitatis Turkuensis C 352. Kess, P., Hulkko, K., Jussila, M., Kallio, U., Larsen, S., Pohjolainen, T. & Seppälä, K. (2002) Suomen avoin yliopisto. Avoimen yliopisto-opetuksen arviointiraportti [Open university in Finland. The evaluation report of open university education; in Finnish]. Korkeakoulujen arvointineuvoston julkaisuja 6. Helsinki, Finland: Edita. MoEC 2013:2. Ei paikoillanne, vaan valmiit, hep! [Not steady, but ready, go!] Reports of the Ministry of Education and Culture. http://www.minedu.fi/export/sites/default/OPM/Julkaisut/2010/liitteet/tr11.pdf?lang=fi O’Donnell, V. & Tobbell, J. (2007) The transition of adult students to higher education: Legitimate peripheral participation in a community of practice? Adult Education Quarterly 57 (4), 312–328. Reay, D. (2010) ‘Fitting in’ or ‘standing out’: working-class students in UK higher education. British Educational Research Journal 36 (1), 107–124. Thomas, L. (2002) Student retention in higher educaton: the role of institutional habitus. Journal of Educational Policy 17 (4), 423–442. University Act 2009. http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/smur/2009/20090558 Williams, J. (1997) The discourse of access: the legitimation of selectivity. In J. Williams (ed.) Negotiating Access to Higher Education. The discourse of selectivity and equity. The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press, 24–46.

Author Information

Nina Haltia (presenting / submitting)

University of Turku

Department of Education