Interim Report of the Monitoring Study on the Student Selection Reform

Desription

This interim report presents descriptive statistics on changes in the application behavior of those applying to higher education institutions and the selection of higher education students from 2015 to 2020, using the student selection register from the Finnish National Agency for Education. The interim report is part of the monitoring study of the student selection reform, which aims to investigate whether the reform succeeded in accelerating transitions to higher education and improving the allocation of study places. According to the results of the interim report, the number of applied study places per applicant increased between 2017 and 2020, and this growth was most pronounced among the youngest applicants. At the same time, applications were also distributed across more fields and higher education institutions that are further from the applicant’s home municipality. The proportion of accepted applicants increased significantly in 2020, with this change being particularly strong for universities of applied sciences. However, the proportion of those who accepted a study place did not increase as strongly, as a larger proportion of applicants with study place offers chose not to accept the offer. The increase in the average age of those who accepted a study place, which had been ongoing for several years, halted between 2018 and 2020, and at the same time, the increase in the proportion of women also stalled. There do not appear to have been significant changes in the education level of the parents of selected students in 2020. However, this development obscures notable variation between fields of study. An examination of the students selected in 2020 shows that students selected via certificate and examination points come from different backgrounds on average. Students selected through certificate selection are significantly younger than those selected through examination. In universities, they are also more likely to be male and come from better-educated families. In the case of students in universities of applied sciences, those selected through certificate selection appear to have a greater likelihood of being female.

Publication Information

Karhunen, H., Pekkarinen, T., Suhonen, T. & Virkola, T. (2022), Opiskelijavalintauudistuksen seurantatutkimuksen väliraportti, VATT muistiot 62, Valtion taloudellinen tutkimuskeskus.

• ISSN: 1798-0321 (Online)
• ISBN: 978-952-274-272-8 (Online)