“Five of Finland's 20 universities were ranked within the world's top 500 universities in the 2009 Academic Ranking of World Universities. As the Shanghai Jiao Tong ranking is based primarily on universities' research performance, the top institution was the University of Helsinki, which was placed 72nd in the world, 21st in Europe and 4th in Scandinavia.

Other Finnish 'contenders' were the universities of Oulu and Turku (ranked in the 303 - 401 band), and Jyväskylä and Kuopio (ranked 402 - 501). The Helsinki University of Technology, or HUT, fell out of the esteemed top 500 group in 2009…”

“The fact that HUT has disappeared from this year's ranking list will be disappointing for the university and the government. HUT is the senior partner in Aalto University, a merged university it is hoped will become Finland's 'world class' university. Perhaps Aalto will recover in forthcoming years as it is to receive more government subsidies than other Finnish universities in an effort to achieve the 'world class' aspiration.”

UNIVERSITY WORLD NEWS 15 November.
IAN R. DOBSON