Finland

Governance

Finland’s Parliament decides annually on the amount of core funding allocated by the Ministry of Education and Culture to the universities and universities of applied sciences. Under the Universities Act of 2011, universities are required to provide the Ministry with the data necessary for the evaluation, development, statistics and other supervision and steering of education and research.The collection of data on education and research activities is coordinated by CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd., a company partly owned by the state of Finland and the Finnish higher education institutions. As part of this process, the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV), a public non-profit organisation representing the Finnish scientific and research community, produces the national Publication Forum (JUFO) list of publication channels. 

Operation of the exercise

Focus of the assessment

The Finnish performance-based research funding component focuses on scholarly outputs, international and national competitive grants, and doctoral degrees obtained.

Unit of assessment and scope

In the financing model, the unit of assessment in the whole institution and the funding is allocated as a single entity, the internal distribution of which is decided freely by the universities.

Methods

The research performance component of the universities’ funding model accounts for 37% of total funding and is based on three indicators: PhD degrees (9%), publication counts (14%), and international and national competitive grants (14%). The publication indicator is based on information integrated from local current research information systems into Research.fi service, intended to ensure independence and transparency of the data. The funding formula uses publication counts from three previous years differentiated based on publication type, national Publication Forum (JUFO) list of journals and book publishers, and open access of publications. While the publication indicator is quantitative, the JUFO rating of publication channels is based on qualitative expert-assessment. The indicator covers universities’ publication outputs across disciplines, publication types and languages, including publications targeted to scientific, professional and general audiences.

For more information (in Finnish), see: https://okm.fi/documents/1410845/4392480/YO_rahoitusmalli%20vuodesta%202025%20alkaen.pdf

History, reviews and evaluations

In Finland, the financing models for higher education institutions are set for four-year agreement periods by the Ministry in dialogue with universities and universities of applied sciences The separate models for these two types of institutions are reviewed periodically by a dedicated working group appointed by the Ministry, with the rationale for proposed changes  provided in a report, and the draft of decree on the financing criteria made open for public consultation. Over the past decade, there have mainly been minor adjustments to the number of indicators and/or their weighing and relative share of the funding.   

The financing models have been both analysed and evaluated recently in three international reports. According to the expert who provided the information on Finnish performance-based research funding model, Janne Pölönen, ‘Overall, the three reports indicate that the  universities’ financing model in Finland is in international comparison strongly performance-oriented. According to critics, it incentivises institutions, through a high-stakes zero-sum-game, to prioritize uniformity over unique profiles. While the steering by results is considered to limit the institutional autonomy, it seems that from the university management’s perspective the Finnish performance-based system is valued for the predictability and transparency of funding allocation. It remains to be seen to what extent such practical considerations may outweigh, in the era of responsible research assessment movement, concerns about the use of quantitative and venue-based publication indicators’.

References:

• The future of Finland’s funding model for higher education institutions, OECD, 2023: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2023/09/the-future-of-finland-s-funding-model-for-higher-education-institutions_c2e89e78/3d256b59-en.pdf 
• Evaluation of the governance and funding practices used by the Ministry of Education and Culture for steering Finnish Higher Education Institutions: Final report, Technopolis, 2023: https://www.technopolis-group.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Evaluation-of-the-governance-and-funding-practices-used-by-the-Ministry-of-Education-and-Culture-for-steering-Finnish-Higher-Education-Institutions_2023.pdf 
• Final report of the study on the state and effectiveness of national funding systems of higher education to support the European universities initiative. Volume I, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023: https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/885757 

Last updated: April 2026

Acknowledgement: Information provided by Janne Pölönen.