Where Finnish people pride themselves in high standard of education, so do the Chinese. Beijing, a bustling city of 20 million people is the third largest in the world, but in technological education their Tsinghua University is ranked number one, unrivaled even by the famous MIT. And just as in any educational facility, they have a student union to improve the lives of their nearly 40 thousand students.

The cooperation between Tsinghua University’s Student Union SUTU with Finnish students started by chance in 2004, when two students and active members of their respective student unions met at a European Conference and decided to bring their worlds closer together. Since then the original party to cooperate with SUTU, the Student Union of the Helsinki University of Technology (TKY) has ceased to exist and merged with other student unions into AYY, Aalto-university Student Union. Despite this, both parties have worked ceaselessly to strengthen the bonds between them. A SUTU delegate visits Finland every year, and in return two of AYY’s boards travel to China every other year.

This year the visit of Chinese students fell upon mid-August. Knowing the Finnish summer AYY’s board members had been worried about the activities they had organised all summer, scared they might be foiled by fickle storms. As Monday came and the guests arrived, they were greeted by the oh so familiar summer drizzle. But they weren’t unprepared, and soon the bleak grey skies were obscured by umbrellas, one more colourful than the other.

First day in rainy Espoo.

The Chinese students’ flight had been long, so Monday’s programme was kept brief: a short introduction of both student unions’ functions, as well as a few ice breakers. A tour around the campus ended in the newly renovated Dipoli, where students met up with newly appointed President of Aalto, Ilkka Niemelä. The night ended on a high note as the company gathered at AYY’s Rantasauna, the seaside sauna. The guests were greeted by an old AYY spokesperson of 2013, Piia Kuosmanen, who had taken her turn visiting SUTU and who now works closely with Chinese businesses in the field of technology. With her lead the two groups talked about the similarities and differences in Finnish and Chinese cultures. Naturally the guests also got a first-hand experience of the Finnish culture, as they got to warm up in the sauna as well as take a dip into the cold, cold sea.

As Tuesday rolled around, so did the sun, finally gracing Helsinki with its warmth. The Chinese guests were given an extensive tour of our beautiful capital, its nature and architecture – most notably Kamppi’s Chapel of Silence, The Parliament House and its surroundings, as well as more industrial areas such as that around Nosturi.

The first company visit planned lead the delegation to Naisasialiito Unioni, the feminist non-governmental organization. Its Secretary General, Milla Pyykkönen, lead a conversation that interested both the Chinese and Finnish representatives. The parties got to hear about the development of gender equality in Finland, as well as Naisliitto Unioni’s project to increase gender sensitivity in early childhood education.

Board member Onni guiding the tour around the campus.

As the weather continued to surprise and delight, the visit continued with a trip to the national park of Nuuksio and its picturesque lakeside. As could be expected, the programme constisted of grilling, sauna and general wandering around the forest. As citizens of an industrial metropolis, the guests were most fascinated by blueberries, right there for their picking.

To balance out the relaxing day surrounded by nature, the next day was filled with excursions to Helsinki area’s businesses, starting with Metso Automation in Vantaa. The company’s Director of Technology, Jukka Borgman, walked the party through the workings of the organization, as well as the physical facilities. Highly automated valve and flow control device producing plant gave our guests interesting view of Finland’s advanced manufacturing industry. The tour ended in lunch in Metso’s own cafeteria.

Board member Pyry explaining the blueprints of Dipoli.

Obviously one excursion a day is not enough, so in the afternoon the delegation headed to Finnair’s headquarters, located at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. A general introduction was lead by Finnair’s VP Group Treasurer, Christine Rovelli, followed by a workshop on the development of Finnair’s services on the Chinese market, facilitated by the Project Lead in Corporate Development, Henrik Balkin. Afterwards Finnair kindly invited the students for snacks and a great view over the whole airport. And as if that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, the night ended with a headfirst dive into the culture of Finnish academic table parties, sitsit.

The Chinese guests’ last full day in Finland began together with the chair of board of Espoo City Council, Markku Markkula, who also serves as a chair of board in EU Committee of Regions. He walked the students through the development of the city. The afternoon was spent at Eteläranta which houses the headquarters of Elinkeinoelämän keskusliitto, Confederation of Finnish Industries. EK’s leading economist, Penna Urrila, told the delegation about how the Finnish economy is constructed and how it is going to develop in the future.

In the evening the guests had some time to pack up before meeting up for a dinner party that also served as Aalto’s former President Tuula Teeri’s farewell party. The party continued long into the night, but by 5 in the morning the Chinese part of the company had to leave for the airport, accompanied by a few sleepy-eyed members of AYY’s board.

The Finnish boards’ reciprocal visit to Beijing will have to wait until next year. But we are sure that the bonds we built will last and that our visit will be as much of a success as SUTU’s trip here – full of smiles, excitement and mutual appreciation. 再见 (zài jiàn) – it doesn’t mean goodbye, it means see you later!

Text: Noora Vänttinen/Katarina Vesikko

Photos: Petteri Heliste

Students from outside of the EU/EEA need to have a residency permit to start their studies in Finland, and having a private health insurance is one of the requirements for getting a residency permit. Degree students of all nationalities are entitled to a home municipality in Finland and can use public healthcare services. Students from EU member countries can use public health care services with a European Health Insurance Card. All university students who are members of any student union can also use the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS/YTHS). However, international students do not have access to KELA benefits (unless they work in Finland for a certain time period).

Aalto University Student Union (AYY) in cooperation with the Student Union of the University of Helsinki (HYY) has conducted a survey on the use of these healthcare services and health insurances among international students in Finland. The survey was produced by the research foundation Otus. The anonymous survey collected 475 answers from students in Aalto and Helsinki universities, 246 of which were degree or exchange students from Aalto University.

In the survey we wanted to find out how well international students know the health service providers, how do the health insurances work and what kind of channels are used to get information on these issues. In the next sections we will first go over receiving care, then health insurances and issues with these.

Receiving treatment

In this section we will present results on how well international students received treatment. One of the questions was how well international students received required health care services while staying in Finland. These results are covered in table 1.

Table 1. Have you received the required care or health services in Finland? (n= 303)

There is a clear difference between students who have come from EU/EAA countries and students from outside EU/EEA in attainment of health care services. Only 64% of non-EU/EEA students said they felt they got the required treatment always or on most occasions, whereas 81% of EU/EEA students report the same.

Out of the students from both EU/ETA and other countries those who did not always receive the care they needed brought up different reasons. These results are represented in table 2.

Table 2. If you have not always received required healthcare, how often did you receive care despite these reasons? (n= 475) (NB. there was an option to choose several reasons)

The main reason for not getting treatment among participants was not knowing what their insurance covered. 64% of the respondents felt that unawareness of these issues lead to them receiving required treatment sometimes, seldom, or never at all. The other major reasons were not being aware of available services and being deemed not eligible for aid by health care services.

Health insurances used by international students

In this section we will go over different health insurances used by international students and their experiences with applying for compensation and dealing with insurance companies. These questions were asked only from students from outside EU/ETA for whom the insurance is required.

There are several health insurance providers international students use. The insurance recommended by Finnish authorities and universities is SIP Insurances, according to a tendering process done in the early 2010s by a consortium of universities. SIP Insurances have a market share of 26% among the respondents. As seen in table 3, other popular insurances are Swisscare (27%) and International Student Insurance (13%).

Table 3. Health insurance provider (n=323) 

The respondents were also asked about the process of acquiring an insurance. Only 38% of the respondents felt they had received enough information regarding the contents of the insurance and the terms of compensation, as seen in table 4. Buying an insurance does not seem to be a difficult process for the respondents, but it seems that students just get the insurance for the sake of getting the residency permit – without really knowing how the insurance functions or what its coverage is.

Table 4. Opinions on getting the insurance among students with insurance (n= 323)

As seen in table 5, the biggest problem of getting insurance was not knowing what kind of insurance one should buy, which 35% of respondents found to be an issue. 30% felt it was difficult to find information on the different available options. According to the official report the most popular source of information were university pages (32%), Migri web pages (22%), friends (21%) and Study in Finland web pages (19%).

Some students (4%) found that their general health, such as pre-existing conditions made it hard to get an insurance. This is extremely worrisome and against the principle of equality.

Table 5. Issues when getting the insurance (n=323)

Table 6. shows the issues stated above as complied into different insurance providers. Note that in some of these the amount of answers was very low.

‘Table 6. Insurances as complied by different providers.

Conclusion

International students are required to have a private health insurance in order to commence their studies in Finland, but they are left alone with the problems they face with insurances. There is not enough information provided by the authorities, Study in Finland page or the universities, and when compared to similar pages in other European countries, the level of detail on Finnish pages is rather low.

Finnish authorities and universities only thinking about providing international students with degrees is unsustainable. A more holistic approach to internationalisation of universities is needed in Finland. Putting efforts into developing degrees and teaching is important, but if basic services like health care, banking or immigration services have grave problems, Finland is hardly a dream destination. What needs to be taken into account is the whole experience of integrating international students into the Finnish society, and problems with basic needs such as healthcare reflect negatively on the image of Finnish education.

International students have the right to a well-functioning, affordable and accessible insurance, as well as proper information on healthcare and health insurances. Issues with health care and adequate compensation for health care costs need to be taken very seriously. If Finland truly wants to welcome its international students, all parties involved need to step up their game. A new tendering process is needed, as the health insurance now recommended by the universities and authorities has the gravest problems and lowest customer satisfaction among students. Immigration authorities, universities and the National Agency for Education need to sit down together and start developing solutions.

Milla Ovaska, Specialist, International Affairs

Aalto University Student Union

contact: international(at)ayy.fi