Final Report of the Certificate Selection Project

Abstract

Student selection in universities and higher education institutions has undergone significant changes in recent years. Perhaps the most notable of these changes was the student selection reform implemented in 2020, which increased the proportion of students selected directly based on their certificates to over 50% (see Karhunen et al., 2022). As a result of the reform, universities increasingly base their student selection on the grades of the matriculation examination, which means that how different subject grades are weighted in student selection affects the selection of students.

In conjunction with the student selection reform, universities agreed on a common scoring system for matriculation examination grades. The scoring model is based on three factors: the number of high school curriculum courses, the weight of the subject in student selections, and any mathematical weighting. Together, the student selection reform and the scoring model of the matriculation examination grades have radically changed the significance of secondary school subject choices and matriculation grades from the applicants’ perspective. The scoring model has sparked considerable debate.

In this project, we have aimed to investigate the statistical relationship between the reforms and the scoring model used concerning secondary school subject choices and university student selection. The research is based on available registry data and student selections that took place from 2015 to 2021. The study examines statistical correlations because the research questions of the project are of such a nature that an experimental design enabling the identification of causal relationships could not be found.

Publication Information

Hakanen, M., Kalmbach, A., Kuuppelomäki, T., Lauronen, T., Suhonen, T., & Virkola, T. (2023), Todistusvalintahankkeen loppuraportti, VATT Muistiot 70.

• ISSN: 1798-0321 (Online)
• ISBN: 978-952-274-293-3 (Online)
• JEL: I23, I24