Finnish language teachers: immigrants are needed in Finnish-taught higher education

University teachers of Finnish Tanja Seppälä and Liisa Väisänen argue that immigrants with academic and professional backgrounds should have clearer routes into Finnish-taught higher education. With the right support, they say, expert-level Finnish can develop during studies and open the way to work that matches people’s skills.

The idea that Finnish is exceptionally difficult to learn has narrowed the way higher education and working life respond to immigrants’ needs, say Tanja Seppälä and Liisa Väisänen, university teachers of Finnish. In their view, Finland lacks permanent study paths that would help immigrants with academic expertise enter Finnish-language degree programmes and build careers in their own fields.

Seppälä and Väisänen have piloted preparatory education for immigrants in the Towards University project run by the Universities of Oulu and Lapland. Their experience shows that academic Finnish can be learned when the study path is designed to support language development. Finnish-language higher education could therefore become an important route into Finnish-speaking expert work.

At present, insufficient Finnish skills and the limited recognition of foreign qualifications mean that many highly educated immigrants work in low-paid jobs outside their own field. At the same time, university admissions have become harder: applicants from abroad often lack a Finnish upper secondary school certificate and must apply through linguistically demanding entrance examinations.

The teachers believe these barriers can be reduced. Integration training usually leads to language level B1, which supports everyday communication but is not enough for university study. Applicants with broader skills, close to level B2, may still struggle with entrance examinations that require fast reading of academic texts and detailed written answers. Väisänen says small adjustments, such as extra time, could make the process fairer without lowering academic standards.

According to Seppälä and Väisänen, universities should make preparatory education in academic Finnish a permanent part of their work and use language-aware teaching during degree studies. They also urge employers and higher education institutions to review language requirements at the point of entry, as professional vocabulary and expert-level language continue to develop during studies and in the workplace.

“Criteria that are too strict cause employers and society as a whole to lose valuable potential,” Seppälä says.

Text: Juha-Pekka Honkanen

Created 4.9.2026 | Updated 4.9.2026