Finland wants to raise its share of young people with a university degree to 60 per cent by 2040, up from the current 39 per cent, but sceptics say achieving the target has not been thought through.
The country was a leader in higher education attainment in the early 2000s, but now Finland’s proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds with a degree sits well below the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of 48 per cent.
Finland is one of only six OECD and partner countries to have experienced a decline in attainment in this age group, according to an OECD report in 2025.
The new target is part of a broader long-term “vision” published by the Finnish government setting out its goals for the sector over the next 14 years. It is the second initiative of its kind, following one published in 2017 that aimed for 50 per cent by 2030, which the country is still far from achieving.
Heikki Holopainen, executive director of the Council of Rectors of Finnish Universities (Unifi), who worked closely with the government to shape the vision, said he believed that the 60 per cent target was achievable with the right resources because universities have previously proved capable of ramping up their student intake. After the Covid-19 pandemic, the government invested millions in funding extra places over three years, and universities delivered. But the funding did not last.
