Several Student Unions and Student Associations in Culture and Arts propose that the Degree programmes in Media and Design are placed to the Group 2 of cost coefficients in the renewed funding model for universities in Finland.
Ministry of Education and Culture has proposed in their publication “Luovuutta, dynamiikkaa ja toimintamahdollisuuksia – ehdotus ammattikorkeakoulujen ja yliopistojen rahoitusmalleiksi vuodesta 2021 alkaen” (24 Oct 2018, in Finnish) that degree-based cost coefficients would be implemented to the funding models in higher education in Finland. These cost coefficients would take into account differences between study fields and degrees e.g. in human resources and equipment. According to the proposition, the degrees would be divided into three (3) groups: Group 1 (cost coefficient 1), Group 2 (cost coefficient 1,75) and Group 3 (cost coefficient 3).
In the proposition, Degree programmes in Media and Design are suggested to belong in Group 1. While we, the student union representatives, see the group division as a welcome change, we consider placing these degree programmes to Group 1 to be highly problematic.
Teaching in Degree programmes in Media and Design require expensive spaces and yearly investment, which raise the level of costs significantly. Furthermore, teaching and learning in media and design is based heavily on equipment, machinery, materials, special software and licences that require ongoing technical support and maintenance. In terms of human resources, the education requires measures of support, supervision and safety that are not included in the general range of services in the universities of applied sciences, which therefore increases the demand of human resources in all aforementioned sectors. The typical small group sizes in the media and design programmes require also a significant number of professional teaching staff.
These expenses should be taken into account when implementing the cost coefficients into the funding model. Based on this, the degree programmes in Media and Design should be placed in Group 2.
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