Features
Seeking admission to Finnish universities
After a hiatus following a slip and injuring my wrist, I am back with something that I hope would be interesting to readers. It is about the Finnish educational system, which I admire very much.
So, today I write about an aspect of the process for foreign students seeking admission to Finnish universities. 
The Finnish educational system is regarded one of the best in the world. It has often attracted admiration even from other highly advanced and well-known rich countries.
And, there is the Study in Finland portal that gives some information or guidelines on the processes about how to seek admission to Finnish universities (see www.studyinfinland.fi/admissions).
Check admission information
According to the Study in Finland portal, once you’ve chosen your programme, the Admissions Services of the university you are planning to apply to can advise you on things like the eligibility criteria, application process and deadlines.
The applicant also needs to attach to his/her application any required documents as part of the application. Such documents may include your certificates, resume or curriculum vitae (CV), and a letter of motivation.
The applicant may later need to take an entrance exam, or some other kind of aptitude test. You must have a sufficient level of English, according to the Study in Finland portal.
Assessing applicants
Generally, the mode of assessing applicants is by checking the applicant’s eligibility based on the filled application form that he or she filled and the accompanying documents.
The applicant needs to apply before the deadline for applications.
From my experience as a student at a Finnish university and that of other Ghanaian or other African migrants in similar educational institutions, one can say that applications are strictly assessed by the university authorities based on the applicant’s quality of the application and accompanying documents.
Moreover, the applicant has to be very serious with everything connected to his/her application, such as giving correct information and writing in clear language.
There is need to go straight to the point; there is no room to dwell on unnecessary or unclear information. This is especially true with the letter of motivation (if the university you are applying to so requires one).
Usually, the universities here consider the letter of motivation one of the key points for a successful application. As I have mentioned already, the letter of motivation needs to go straight to the point.
Letter of motivation
It is a fact that every year, there are countless numbers of applications to Finnish universities, therefore, is always a high competition for admission.
A strong letter of motivation is likely to do the magic and result in a successful application.
Here, I offer a few points that I deem as something an applicant can consider in their letter of motivation.
First, the applicant would need to give his/her motivation to pursue studies in the programme being applied for (sometimes, even why the applicant is choosing the particular university counts). All such points need to be put in sound arguments or be very persuasive.
Again, the applicant may think about how the programme would impact on his/her (future) career.
One may also think about what the applicant’s strengths (abilities or competences) are that can help or enable him/her to pursue the programme.
As I wrote some time ago, 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. The structure of the education system reflects these principles.
Finally, for foreign students I think the goal of gaining an education that would eventually help them in their career especially back in their home countries should be a huge motivation also for the particular university. Thank you.
By Perpetual Crentsil
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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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
