Gaining Access to Tertiary Education (GATE project)

The project explores the state of equality in higher education by mapping equal educational opportunities in Finland and the three reference countries (Sweden, Ireland, the United Kingdom). Concerning the reference countries, the focus is on the following questions: 1) What is the situation of equality in Finnish higher education when compared to the reference countries especially from the point of view of the European Higher Education Area? 2) What equality-driven strategies, objectives and legislation have been proposed and implemented in the reference countries, to which groups are they targeted and what is the impact of the set policies? Also, the project analyses the suitability of the means identified in reference countries in the Finnish higher education. The project is funded by the Finnish Government and will be implemented as a consortium of the universities of Turku and Tampere during 2020.

The Higher Education Group (HEG) is a group focusing on higher education research and teaching. In addition to our educational mission, we provide research, development and consultancy services to higher education sector and stakeholders.

Impact

The project enables to identify those potential group of students whose access to Finnish higher education is weaker than other groups. Therefore, the project provides research-based knowledge to both policymakers and higher education actors that supports, for example, the improvement of the student selection system. In addition, the analysis of the reference countries increases the data of accessibility and enables to use international examples of the equality goals and measures in the development of Finnish education.