University of Helsinki To Lay Off a Thousand People (yle.fi)

jones_supa writes: University of Helsinki, the place where Linus Torvalds got his degree as well, will reduce staff by 980 people, with 570 being laid off by the end of 2017. In addition, the university will reorganize and incorporate certain divisions including continuing education. Professors, teachers and researchers are criticizing the cuts, which coincide with the university's administrative and educational overhaul. The staff cuts reflect the government's drastic funding cuts to education, which plays one part in the effort of trying to help the difficult economic situation of today's Finland. The university estimates that of the 980 positions, terminations during this coming spring will account for 570 positions. Of the employees to be made redundant, 75 are teaching and research staff and 495 other staff. The rest of the cuts will be spread over the coming years.

Comments

Refugees

[Anonymous Coward]

Well they need money to pay for all those refugees. Population replacement is not cheap!

Re:Refugees

[tnk1]

Actually, Syria has a lot of Russian and Soviet weaponry. So does Iraq.

Strictly speaking, we didn't cause ISIS, we entered the country in a war, and then left it before we should have, but ISIS was created and abetted by those who have funded it and given it support.

Certainly the occupation of Iraq and the Syrian Civil War have given ISIS an opportunity to prosper, but you needed people willing to be ISIS for that to happen. It doesn't just happen automatically when you invade a country or when you leave it. We could have left in complete disorder and there didn't have to be an ISIS at the end of it. Let's put blame where blame belongs. The US and Soviet/Russian governments provided opportunities for ISIS, but ISIS is nothing without sympathizers in those countries and in the greater Muslim world who support them.

Re:Refugees

[swb]

yes, it can be a burden to integrate newcomers into society, no one's denying it. In the long term, though, these people become strong contributors to society, at least if we allow them.

I think that's the rub, though, and in particular with Muslim immigrants. They hang onto a religiously-driven cultural conservatism and reject the more liberal cultural values of their host country, self-sorting into ghettos. There's an expectation the country to which they have immigrated needs to change its norms and laws to accommodate their religious and cultural preferences. They see the host country's lack of willingness to change for their sake as discrimination. This leads to unemployment, poverty and lately, a tendency to be attracted to radicalization.

Your process would work more like you expect with immigrants who were either willing to abandon their cultural and religious practices that were incompatible with their host country or already had a culture and values similar to the host country. Even then I recognize that it's not easy, but at least you obtain a relatively rapid integration that results in the economic gains.

But even then what you're arguing for is that Scandinavia needs and wants is economic expansion via labor pool expansion, not that there's something missing from it socially and culturally that the contributions of conservative Islam. By and large those qualities tend to result in conflict and social schisms which are counter-productive to economic growth and social stability.

Re:Refugees

[swb]

Yeah, they are just not like us, with their murky skin and garlic-breath, is that what you are saying? Why would they have to abandon their identity? That is an absurd and shameful thing to demand, and it is designed solely to ensure that muslims understand that you think they are somehow lower than you. We in the West would hardly feel it was reasonable to have to abandon our culture and identity in a similar situation. You are simply being mean and rather despicable.

No, it's their wholesale repression of women, genital mutilation, honor killings, repression of homosexuals, lack of belief in separation of church and state, the use of amputation and execution for the punishment of religious crimes.

On those subjects, you're absolutely right -- anyone who believes women are second class citizens, essentially property, I do believe is lower than me. Those are medieval beliefs.

I also value the separation of religion and state and believe that religion has NO role in the operation of the state, and I hold anyone who would believe that fantasy beliefs in a mystical being should play a role in governance to be lower than me, especially when said beliefs are to be backed with the killing authority of the state. Again, this is a medieval mindset, a primitive outlook on par with gladiatorial contests, crucifixion and human sacrifice which has NO PLACE in the modern world.

Those are the beliefs and attitudes I expect to be abandoned when adopting citizenship in the modern, liberal west.

Re:This would n'er happen to a government-run coll

[sectokia]

Unlike most western countries, at least they understand that these non productive jobs are part of the problem. They need to cut these jobs and cut the taxes used top pay for them. This will allow for extra demand and new jobs in productive fields that service that demand. NZ dis the same thing long ago, with gigantic cuts. Make work jobs like park rangers were cut from 20,000 to literally single digit numbers. They have had a massive economic turn around.

Citizens come last

[zapadnik]

In 2015 Finland accepted 15,000 more asylum seekers at a cost of EU 15,000 per head. That works out to EU 225 million *more* in 2015 due to some legitimate asylum seekers mixed in with a lot of opportunistic economic migrants:
http://sputniknews.com/europe/...

Imagine if a portion of that money had gone to existing citizens instead - and the asylum seekers kept closer to their point of origin while receiving the other portion for their care - it's cheaper to help them closer to their point of origin, like in a neighboring country.

Too bad the politicians and bureaucrats in the West always consider their own citizens and tax payers last when deciding where to spend money taken from those very same tax payers.

Re:Citizens come last

[Jack Griffin]

Imagine if a portion of that money had gone to existing citizens instead - and the asylum seekers kept closer to their point of origin while receiving the other portion for their care - it's cheaper to help them closer to their point of origin, like in a neighboring country.

It's a little more complicated than that. The point of foreign aid is not just to feel good about helping others, it's a National Security prevention measure. You can let other humans rot, and all they will do is find a way to kill you and take your stuff. Or you can try and help them out of a hole and hopefully they'll leave you alone, or even better become prosperous enough to buy your products and boost your economy.
There is no cheap option, you either lots of money, or a lot more.

If this is the middle class

[AHuxley]

What is happening at the lower ends of society?
Why is the EU allowing itself to be flooded with people with few or no skills that will need long term generational support if it cant even look after its own best and brightest?
If a nation is so 'poor' why accept more poor people in who will need funds from a government who cant their own fund higher education?
Time for some national interest and ensuring educational funding is placed above EU policy.
Finland was able to keep the Soviet Union out, time to look after its own funding again and stop wasting limited funds on the EU's rapid population growth projects.

Muslim Syiran Migrants Are More Important

[jdwolfe]

Let's lay off 1,000 Finnish Professors and Academic staff but let in millions of Muslim Syrian migrants that are going to immediately be placed in publicly funded houses and food provided by the Finnish Citizens. What's more important, the working class and Finnish educators or Muslim opportunists posing as Syrian refugees?

Euro

[Anonymous Coward]

As in Greece, Spain, Italy, etc etc., the inability of the economy to recover is the consequence of adopting a currency that is run to benefit Germany instead of your own country.

Re:No way this is even possible

[Jack Griffin]

I have it on good authority - years of reading Slashdot posts - that European countries are enlightened, problem-free utopias.

You mustn't read so good. That's not your fault though, it's the relatively poor education system you have.

Re:how is this relevant to /.

[Kiuas]

the world isn't free. If you want an education, figure out how to pay for it. Maybe lots of loans for that basket weaving class.

Wow, americans straw manning universal education/health care arguments by the age old 'nothings free' -argument. How surprising.

We are already paying for it, dumb ass. We've just decided that it should be collectively and publicly funded because one needs not to look very far to understand that limiting education chances based on the income of the person/their family is not a solution.

I want my fellow citizens to be able to get higher education and health care and other base necessities of modern day life regardless of whether or not they were born to a rich family. And I want people to continue to graduate without student debt weighing them down so they can actually spend the money they make and thus help the economy. This system works, and has worked in here and across Europe for decades. it's never been free, but it's still cheaper, per person, than any of the privatized university models.

I'm paying for my past education and the education of the coming generations by paying across the board higher taxes than most people in say, the US- And I'm completely alright with that, as are most of the people here, so shut the fuck up.