Features
Opportunities for foreign students
A recent news report said that Finland wants to attract more international experts by improving foreign students’ employment prospects after graduation.
According to the report, the plan is to make it easier for foreign students to seek work in Finland after they complete their studies.
A central objective of the Finnish education policy is to offer all citizens (and foreign students alike) equal opportunities to receive education and help build their future careers. And the structure of the educational system reflects these principles.
I think that for foreign students to have the opportunity and their employment prospects improved after graduation is something that should encourage those who want to further their education.
Study programmes
The Finnish educational system has often attracted admiration even from other highly advanced and well-known rich countries and it is regarded as one of the best in the world. As I keep saying, I admire the educational system very much.
According to the Study in Finland portal, Finnish higher education institutions currently offer over 500 bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes taught in English. There are also countless doctoral degree programmes.
Most of the Bachelor’s degree programmes taught in English are offered by universities of applied sciences (UAS), whereas most of the Master’s programmes taught in English are offered by universities (see www.studyinfinland.fi).
It is important to find the right programme for yourself.
Relevant subjects to study
It is always wise to study subjects that are relevant for the career path you want to pursue and, more importantly, for which there are likely to be favourable employment prospects.
According to another news report, the most popular English-language programme in recent years is the Bachelor of Health Care (Nursing) courses.
Others are Engineering and Technology; Business and Management; Computer Science and Information Technology (IT); Natural Sciences and Mathematics; and Education and Training.
Previous subjects studied
I also see the need for a foreign student to study subjects in the home country that can easily be pursued in further studies abroad.
That is, you have to choose carefully the subjects you study and have it in mind to obtain high marks or a good performance. The fact that Finland is encouraging or trying to attract foreign students does not mean it should be a dumping ground for any low level stuff (next time, I may write about the grades that can help with admission to a Finnish university).
For example, Sociology and Anthropology are quite popular subjects in Finnish universities, but as far as I know, Archaeology is not. Therefore, someone who studied archaeology may have to shift to either sociology or anthropology (which is closer to archaeology).
All in all, the subjects relating to health, technology and the natural sciences are likely to be favourable in terms of employment prospects after graduation.
Pathway Studies to Finland
Another opportunity is the UAS Pathway Studies to Finland programme, which I recently learned about and is provided by the Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in Finland (see www.uaspath.fi).
Such a programme offers applicants a convenient way to gain admission to degree programmes in Finland.
The UAS Pathway Studies are ideal for those interested in pursuing Bachelor’s degrees in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and International Business (IB).
One can apply to a study programme and start studying at home through online in English with experienced Finnish teachers. After the first year of study (and 60 ECTS credits), you will have the chance to join the programme in Finland and complete the Bachelor’s degree in 2-4 years.
The pathway studies are fully accredited as part of the student’s degree, and in practice it means that the student will be able to continue his or her studies in Finland as a second year student.
In addition, opportunities in numerous fields await the student after graduating. He or she can even take part in internship programmes and start building their future. I found such a programme very intriguing notwithstanding the fact that the programme attracts a tuition fee. Thank you.
The writer is a Ghanaian
lecturer at the University
of Helsinki, Finland
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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