Reproducing Social Equality across the Generations: The Nordic Model of High Participation Higher Education in Finland

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed and extensive assessment of Finland’s high participation system (HPS) of higher education, in a historical perspective and with focus on Finland’s core values of equality and equity. The country case challenges some of the HPS propositions. The Nordic model is built upon a distinctive cultural tradition in which the state administers a social consensus based on solidarity, equality, and trust, and higher education is of high quality and has equal esteem. Since World War II equality of opportunity has been central in national policymaking. The chapter focuses especially on the nature of access to higher education and continuing binary diversity between the university sector and the Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS, the former polytechnics) .While there is continuing social competition for access to elite professional programmes, and cultural capital provides certain families with advantages, the Finnish HPS is less competitive and stratified than other HPS.