Finland advances plans to tighten foreign students' income requirements, language proficiency rules

Finland actually offered tons of scholarships in the past few years. A decent chunk of people from my batch are in Finland right now but Idk what they'll end up doing, it's hardly a strong market. Canada's universities are cash cows on the other hand. They cost a lot and there's no straightforward path to PR. Many people get a degree only to have to return home. I was interested in moving as a software dev through the points based system but they've decided to close the STEM draws altogether so even perfect English, engineering degree and years of experience doesn't help much.

I don’t hate this idea, either. This idea sounds really strict, but physically looking at young people waiting for canned food hurts more and that kind of desperation would create social chaos, eventually.

This does not concern EU students.

I think the idea here is to filter out people who just want to go to Finland for the experience, rather than as a possible long term living destination where they would be contributing to taxes and society, no? By making a language requirement it would likely limit the people coming who really want to be there and taking the time to learn the language would likely mean they have an interest in staying there.

The article dont specify that the required language is Finnish. I think a lot of the problem students dont know university level, or even basic, English that is required to pass the classes. It catches the ones that are just trying to get into the country and work for a semester with no intention to pass the classes.

Swedish is also an official language and is much easier. And on the other hand it can be used in Sweden too, also in Denmark and Norway.

It's for the students who come here in the promise of getting a job here, not learning the language, then complaing they don't get a job when they compete against finns who speak the language. Most companies still work completely in Finnish, except for the largest ones.

>The income requirements make complete sense, why should Finland pay for anything for a foreign student? Typically because the long-term value of investing in people early leads to stronger outcomes later on. People seem to take on a very mercenary view of foreign students: they're only there for themselves and we should therefore treat any relationship as strictly transaction. The reality is so much more messy than that. Sure, some people will come and be gone in a few years. Others will find themselves in relationships with Finns and are far more likely to stay long-term. You can say there's an argument to be had over whether that's worthwhile in aggregate, but there's definitely a case for why that's at least worth considering.

Yeah, one misconception that's relatively common is that if you're ready to "do any job", you'll be able to find something to get a bit of cash. Nope. There are hundreds of thousands unemployed, and anyone not fluent in Finnish is further down the line than those who are fluent. A vacancy for a job as a cleaner will get hundreds of applications.

When Finland starts doing the fucked up shit the U.S. is doing then come around and complain about Listnook.