This document summarizes a study comparing the university systems and transition to working life for female students in Finland and France. It finds that the Finnish system allows more flexibility in combining studies with work experience, acting as a bridge to employment. In contrast, the rigid French system focuses only on theoretical learning in isolated university "towers", making integration into the labor market more difficult. While reforms aim to standardize degrees across Europe, each country's system still reflects its unique welfare model, and changes risk weakening highly functioning systems like Finland's.

1. Studying in Finland
and France in the
midst of the Bologna
Process
Aurélie Mary
University of Tampere
aurelie.mary@uta.fi
OTUS
Opiskelun solmukohtia
Helsinki 7.3.2013

2. Introduction
• Paper based on a comparative empirical research
between Finland and France, among Finnish and
French female university students (aged 21 to 30)
about to experience transition from university to
working life
• 22 qualitative in-depth interviews – 11 interviews in
each country – carried out in 2008
• Interview themes:
1. Young women’s evaluation of the university system
2. Integration in the labour market
3. Plans for family formation
4. Entering adulthood and perception of the concept of
adulthood

3. • Today, going to tertiary education = logical
educational step, social and cultural norm
• Bologna Process’ purpose: standardised European
Higher Education Area (EHEA) to facilitate student
and staff international cooperation and academic
mobility
• Implies inner restructuring of the different European
higher education systems: harmonisation of
degrees into the 3-5-8 structure (three years to
complete a Bachelor degree, two for a Master, and
three for a Doctorate)
• But concretely, how is this possible?

4. DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, DIFFERENT
UNIVERSITY SYSTEMS
• Complex process: implies deep structural transformations
• Similarly to welfare regimes, advanced societies’ university
systems are based on different ideologies and models
Considerable variation in the background ideologies that
shape each education system in different societies
• Finnish and French students enter a very different
university system; the same applies to students coming
from other advanced societies
Incentives generated by the Bologna Process difficult to
follow; implies transformations of the entire structure of the
different university systems, including background
ideologies

5. Figure 1: The higher education systems in Finland and France, 2009.
IUP
MA 2
Working life IUP
MA 1
IUP
(BA)
Years
9
France
Bachelor
University of Applied
Sciences
Work
experience:
three years
minimum
Master
Finland
Bachelor
5
6
Doctorate
Bachelor
IUFM
(teacher
training)
Doctorate
Master 1 (M1)
(research or vocational)
Baccalaureate
DAEU
Preparatory
classes
STS
(Diploma
BTS)
IUT
(Diploma
DUT)
Vocational
Bachelor
University
Master 2 (M2)
Master
Specialised schools
(Grandes Ecoles):
(Engineering,
management, politic,
veterinary, architecture,
journalism institutions,
etc...)
DoctorateLicence(Bachelor)
University
10
Matriculation Vocational qualifications
Master
7
8
1
2
3
4
BA: Bachelor
BTS: Brevet de Technicien Supérieur (Higher Level Technician Diplma)
DEAU: Diplôme d’Accès aux Etudes Universitaires (High School Equivalence Diploma)
DUT: Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie (Technological University Diploma)
IUFM: Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres (Training Institute for School Teachers)
IUP: Institut Universitaire Professionnalisé (Professional University Institute)
IUT: Institut Universitaire de Technologie (Technological University Institute)
MA: Master
STS: Section de Techniciens Supérieurs (Higher Level Technicians Section)
Sources: Ambassade de France en Irlande (2007); La France en Suisse (2009); Ministère de l’Education Nationale (2009);
Opetushallitus (2009); Opetusministeriö (2009); Site de Ressources et de Formation des Directeurs d’Ecole de la Marne (2008).

6. • Finnish higher education system:
- Dual system, divided into two streams: universities (academic degrees) and
universities of applied sciences (vocational degrees)
- Undergraduate studies (includes Master): five years or longer at university, a bit
shorter in the vocational path
- Entrance exams to get in
- No tuition fees (free higher education)
• French higher education system: divided in several streams
- University stream: no entrance exams, no tuition fees (just administration fees),
includes teacher training (independent institution related to the university system)
- Vocational stream: provided by different institutions, part of the university system;
different level of degrees in different fields; students selected upon grades; possible
fees whether the institution is private or public
- Specialised schools (Grandes Ecoles): elite, prestigious and highly selective
institutions, usually private institutions, tuition fees, two years of preparatory classes
generally necessary to get ready for the selective entrance examinations that will lead
to access into these institutions. Grandes Ecoles prepare students to elite positions for
eg. in management, engineering, architecture, or politics.
• The Finnish and French higher education systems reflect the welfare regimes
principles operating in the countries:
- Finnish system more egalitarian
- French system more hierarchical (Grandes Ecoles remain essentially the privileged
institutions for young people from higher socio-economic groups)

7. SCHOOL TO WORK TRANSITION
• Present post-industrial context: life
trajectories uncertain and no longer
predictable; traditional strategies of
integration into the labour market no longer
appropriate
• Higher education qualifications do no longer
guarantee direct integration on the labour
market
• Too many graduates compared to the real
number of jobs available
 Increases competition

8. EVALUATING THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEMS
• Integration in the labour market closely
related to the structure of the university
systems – not only related to socio-
economic restructuring and unstability
• Finnish and French young women in my
study: opposite opinions regarding their own
university system
• In Finland: general satisfaction; high
appreciation of the system flexibility; system
perceived as comprehensive

9. • In France: general disappointment;
university perceived as a good place to
acquire knowledge, but not for preparing
students to integrate into the labour market
I’ll never regret to have been to uni. (…) I
think there’s really a great cultural profusion
[there]. (…) But then, concerning usefulness
for professional integration, I think it’s rather
limited, because the courses are extremely
theoretical, rather disconnected from reality.
(Sabrina, 23, France)

10. BRIDGES AND TOWERS
• Rather opposite school-to-work transition in Finland and France (in
relation to the university system only, not vocational higher
institutions or specialised schools)
• In Finland: students able to build their own degree; possibility to
change major & take different minors
 Informants used the system flexibility to adapt their degree (to
some extent) to labour market possibilities and personal interests
• Most of them had taken gap years: gained working experience and
got familiarised with the labour market
• Most students work alongside their studies; not necessarily in jobs
related to their studies, but it helps them to have one foot in the
labour market
 Possibility to acquire both practical and theoretical knowledge
• The Finnish university system seems to work alongside the labour
market and to guide students into working life.
 University system as a bridge in the school-to-work process – but
depends on study fields

11. • French informants rather critical towards the
university system:
- Described it as obsolete, not responding to the
current employability requirements, inapt to prepare
students’ entry in the labour market
- University offers exclusively theoretical knowledge,
and no practical and professional experience
 System as a ‘knowledge tower’ leading students to
accumulate theoretical knowledge, diplomas, and
individual capital
- In contrast: vocational and technological institutions
provide much more adapted qualifications and
professional training
The university system and the labour market seem to
operate independently of each other, as two separate
entities, or two worlds.

12. To me, university is not a good up-to-date
system, maybe it was before, but now, I think
it’s a bit ‘out’, because (…) firms are looking
for people that are operational, who know
about organisations’ environment, (…) who
already acquired experience. (…) Being in
something both theoretical and practical with
my work-based education, I often realise that
theory is 100 000 miles away from what is
really going on within companies.
(Alice, 23, France)

13. COMBINING STUDIES AND WORK: A STEP INTO THE LABOUR
MARKET
• Finnish informants satisfied about study schedules: system allowing
them to work (job related or not to studies) and even to start a family
(possibility to interrupt studies)
• Students not constrained by academic years; the total of credits is what
counts  Possibility to arrange both study and working schedules. BUT
having a job simultaneously leads to extend one’s studies.
• French students constrained by academic years, must fulfil a certain
number of courses and pass biannual exams to be admitted into the
following academic year
Difficulties to combine studies and part-time work. Lack of flexibility from
both employers and the study schedule to be able to combine study and
work.
• The Finnish system partly bridges the gap between studies and
professional life by offering the possibility to combine study and work,
while the French system does not encourage such arrangement.

14. Figure 2: University students’ careers in 12 European countries (Kivinen and
Nurmi 2011).

15. • Higher education diplomas no longer guarantee direct
access to the market: necessary to gain additional
individual capital to stand out of the crowd
 Extra competitive skills usually come from working
experience
• In France; employers discriminate university graduates
who lack professional competences
• In Great Britain, gap years increasingly considered as a
new competitive tool on the labour market
 Increases employability
• During gap years young people acquire life experience,
professional experience, individual capital, maturity
• Integration on the labour market more difficult for
university graduates in France, because they are new
entrants
• Integration smoother and faster for Finnish graduates;
longer and more chaotic for French graduates

16. UNIVERSITY: SCHOOL INSTITUTION, SERVICE, OR
BUSINESS?
• Finnish informants: university system = a service for mature
adults, not a school institution  based on system flexibility
and freedom (choice of courses, building up own degree, no
restricted time to complete studies)
Implies self-monitoring, being responsible and mature
• French respondents: university = school
Critics towards rigid high-school-like teaching methods and
learning approaches, and grades being given considerable
weight
Grades determine access to the following academic year,
and access to Master programmes (Bachelor and Master
degrees not necessarily a continuity in France, unlike in
Finland)

17. • However, changing situation in Finland: system
restructuring, following Bologna Process directives;
controlling the flow of students and study time;
system marketization; New Universities Act 2009
• Changes perceived as harmful, and taking the
currently well-functioning university system into the
wrong direction
 Changes hinder the quality of the service university
was initially designed to provide; transformation of
the system into a business
I don’t like the direction [in which] it’s going to. (…) I
always thought that universities [were] something more
like a service than a business. (…) They are sort of
directing it towards a business way of thinking.
(Päivi, 25, Finland)

18. ‘The government will continue to
guarantee sufficient core funding tied to
the rise in costs for the universities. In
addition, the universities will be able to
apply for competed public funding and
use the revenue from their business
ventures, donations and bequeaths and
the return on their capital for financing
their operations’ (Minister Henna
Virkkunen (2009) The Universities Act).

19. CONCLUSION
• Two different roads of integration in the labour market in
Finland and France
• School-to-work transition longer in Finland but students
better prepared both individually and professionally when
accessing the labour market
• French students follow a shorter, more traditional and
straightforward school-to-work transition (first they study and
graduate, and then go to the labour market) but they struggle
more during their integration process because they are not
prepared enough – new entrants.
• Youth experts contest extension of study path; attempts to
control and reduce it (eg. suppression of gap years)
But is it the right solution?

20. • The contemporary labour market is increasingly competitive
and demanding in terms of working experience and extra-
curricular skills.
• Extending one’s studies in order to combine working and
studying provides tools for a better socio-economic
integration.
Reducing study time compromises students’ chances to gain
practical skills and thus to integrate on the labour market
soon after graduation.
• The rapid post-war ‘school-then-work’ transition model
seems to increasingly lead to failure of integration into
working life today.
Given the current socio-economic circumstances, a slightly
longer and more mixed ‘school-and-work’ model seems far
more appropriate.

21. More information on the Finnish
and French university systems
and school-to-work process in
my book:
Aurélie Mary (2012) The Illusion
of the Prolongation of Youth –
Transition to Adulthood among
Finnish and French Female
University Students. Tampere
University Press.
Electronic version:
http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-44-
8927-3