Three Measures to Safeguard Funding for Research and Education

Funding for research and education needs to be increased relative to the existing plans. This is difficult, given the state of the public finances. We propose three measures to solve the problem. 1. Industrial subsidies that do not support innovation activity should be reduced and the savings should be channelled to Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. 2. The government should sell shares in state-owned companies or transfer such shares to universities in order to rapidly strengthen universities’ capacity to improve research activity and education. 3. The universities and other higher education establishments should be allowed to charge moderate tuition fees to increase their resources on a permanent basis. The decisions on Tekes funding and transfer of resources to the universities should be taken by the government in its mid-term policy review in April. On the introduction of tuition fees the government should start preparatory work to allow a well-thought-through decision to be taken later.