THE FINNISH Academy of Fine Arts, the Sibelius Academy of Music, and Theatre Academy Helsinki will unite in 2012 to form a new arts university. The three institutes announced on 15 November that they have signed the contract for the amalgamation.

The three academies of which the new arts university will be comprised have equal standing in terms of both the level of instruction they provide, and their cultural prestige.

A quarter of students have experienced occasional bullying or worse.

Finnish universities are rather ineffective when it comes to stamping out bullying. Professor Maili Pörhölä of the University of Jyväskylä says that we have only recently woken up to the problem. This is why many universities still lack clear guidelines on matters such as who to report the bullying to and whose task it is to intervene.

The problem with universities is that bullying is not easy to detect there. According to Pörhölä, this is because studying is done fairly independently and teachers do not monitor their students regularly.

“First of all, you should go to your department to talk about the bullying – in other words the place where the bullying is taking place,” Pörhölä says.

The government wants to allocate a share of university places to students who are not already enrolled in any university. The purpose of this reform is to provide a higher number of first-time students with the opportunity to study. The idea is not, however, to prevent existing students from changing subjects. These students would have their own, separate application procedure.

The government will not dictate how many student places should be allocated to first-time students. This would be decided by the universities, and different subjects could have quotas of different sizes. The government hopes the reform will enter into force in 2013. It would be implemented gradually, however, so that students who enrolled in university before 2013 would be included in the quota of first-time students if they decided to change subjects.

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The latest EUROSTUDENT report throws light on the experience of tertiary students in Finland.

THE EUROSTUDENT project published its fourth tri-annual report this month. From its humble beginnings in 2000, with data from eight countries, it has expanded to cover 25 nations in its latest incarnation, EUROSTUDENT IV. Providing a comprehensive synopsis of indicators on the social and economic conditions of student life, it is an important database for decision makers developing the European Higher-Education Area, with important implications for the Bologna Process.

The University of Helsinki (HY) and the Student Union of the University of Helsinki (HYY) have been accused of excluding international students.

Earlier this month, the new members of HY’s faculty councils, departmental councils and its University Collegium were announced. Those HY students who were interested in the posts on offer had to send applications to HYY. As in previous years, HYY only provided complete information about the positions in Finnish and Swedish, and application forms were only available in these two languages.

I have become something of an expert in Finnish classes. Not by choice but because I have learnt Finnish so slowly that I have taken most courses on offer – twice. From the Open University to the University of Helsinki and Aikuisopisto – I’ve tried them all. What has come to interest me over the years are the criticisms levelled at those courses by many students.

Perhaps the most common criticism is that the course was all grammar and no conversation. Two years into my studies I knew all about the essiivi case but could barely order a coffee. I felt that what we really needed was discussion, and yet every week what we actually did was grammar.

A new service, designed to bring Finns and foreigners together, is due to be launched this month.

Trying to establish yourself in a new country can be daunting at the best of times, but settling into life in Finland can be absolutely terrifying for foreigners: the language is like no other, the people are very reserved and, if you are unfortunate enough to arrive in the dead of winter, the country can seem like a different planet. Despite the fact that there are people and organisations out there that are willing to help new arrivals, they can often be difficult to be found by those who do not know their way around.

LANGUAGE consultant Aino Piehl has received official recognition for her efforts to make bureaucrats’ Finnish more accessible. Trade organisation Akava Special Branches has awarded Piehl the Vuoden osaaja 2011 prize on 10 November in Turku. The present government programme contains a pledge to reform the style of language that is used in legislation, official communications, and other administrative areas.

According to Akava Special Branches, the pledge is the outcome of sustained campaigning by the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland (Kotus) and the Plain Language Centre (Selkokeskus). As a researcher at Kotus, Piehl has been instrumental in the success of the campaign. The prize includes an award of 1,000 euros.

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Minnaleena Toivola, who has studied the effects of foreign accents on the pronunciation of Finnish, successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic at the University of Helsinki on 26 October.

In the study, Toivola argues that the effects of an accent can be minimised if newcomers to Finland begin working on their pronunciation as soon as they start learning the language. Toivola focused on Finnish learners whose native language was Russian, the largest immigrant group in Finland.

Is learning Finnish really so difficult? A good number of foreigners would probably say “yes” and with good reason. With 15 cases, dozens upon dozens of word groups, and sentences where the subject is only revealed at the end of a lengthy participle, it’s not surprising that only a small amount of the people who try to learn Finnish ever become fluent.

At the same time, due to the language’s logicality, consistent rules of pronunciation and minimal amount of exceptions, it’s relatively easy to further improve your Finnish after a certain level of basic proficiency is attained.