Various Portraits of Finnish Open University Students

Abstract

This article describes and analyses the background and goals of students at the Finnish open university in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The material consists of statistics based on the student records of the Finnish open university in 2000 (n59080) and of the stories, educational autobiographies written by the adult learners (n5106) at the open university. As a result of the quantitative analysis a ''typical'' student at the open university is female, age 25-30, unmarried, childless, working in a service occupation with rather low income, a secondary school graduate and living in a town in the south of Finland. On the basis of the autobiographies the students were classified into four types: (1) career orientated, (2) graduate orientated, (3) seekers of change, and (4) studying as a way of living (students). The quantitative and qualitative results have been synthesised and the results concern the purposes and functions of the open university and the meaning of lifelong learning in a risk society.

Financial Life Skills of Finnish College Students: A Pilot Study on Credit Cards and Budgets

“…Only four percent of the respondents were married, and only four students had children. This contradicts prior research that found a significant number (33%) of Finnish college students were married (Jauhiainen, et al 2007). Most students worked while attending school (70%).…”

“…In our sample, females outnumbered males 56% to 44%. Previous studies found Finnish college students were over 75% female (Jauhiainen, et al, 2007;Kivinen & Hedman, 2000). The group consisted of primarily traditional students with an average age of 21.93 years.…”

“…Most students worked while attending school (70%). Prior studies found that the majority (57%) of Finnish college students were employed (Jauhiainen, et al, 2007, andLudlum, Hongell, &Tigerstedt, 2013). Part time work while in college is common despite socioeconomic background (Asplund, Abdelkarim, and Skalli, 2009).…”

Students' Attitude towards Distance Learning at Al-Quds Open University/ Tulkarem Educational Region

“…To test the second hypothesis," There were no statistical significant differences at (α =0.05) in students' attitude towards distance learning due to specialization." The researcher used one way (ANOVA) test as shown in tables (6,7). Table 7 reveals that the significance is .24>0.05 which means that there were no significance differences in students' attitude towards distance learning at AL-Quds Open University due to specialization .…”

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“…Open universities and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide numerous opportunities for society in this regard. However, earlier research reported some concerns about the purposes and functions of open universities, highlighting the risks to lifelong learning (Jauhiainen et al, 2007). Top universities are offering MOOCs to anyone in the world to provide them with a high-quality education.…”