Talk:Åbo Akademi University

Discrimination?

Upon further consideration, I'm not entirely happy leaving the discrimination issue in the article. 84.248.203.220 added the part about discrimination to the article in the first place (twice, no less), and worded it thus:
The university has a policy, that non-Swedish speaking applicants from Nordic countries have to pass a Swedish language test, this is said to check the ability of the students to succesfully study in a Swedish environment. However, applicants from other countries can choose between Swedish or English language tests. Thus this policy is occasionally discussed as language-based discrimination against native Finnish speaking students.
I tried rewording it a bit, but to be honest now I'm not entirely sure what he/she is trying to say. Is it discrimination:

• in the sense that the Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian and Danish) are mutually intelligible, whereas Finnish has no relation to Swedish other than geographical proximity, it is discrimination against the Finnophones because they would have more difficulty completing a Swedish test than other Nordic students? And then a number of issues not addressed pops up, such as:
  • Quotas of foreign students, that is, are Danes and Finns competing for the same seats?
  • Åbo Akademi University policy of having a certain percentage of accepted students being Finnophones
  • Danes and Norwegians may not necessarily be able to write proper Swedish, even if they can understand it
  • "Pakkoruotsi", that is compulsory Swedish in Finnish schools; how does the matriculation exam factor in?
• because Finnish language universities have no similar language test/requirement in Finnish?
• because of some other reason I'm not thinking of at the moment?

From the way it was originally worded, I got the impression he/she meant the first option, but I realize now I may have read more into it than what was actually written. It should be a bit more clear why exactly this policy is considered discrimination for it remain in the article.
Also, given that charges of discrimination are fairly serious, it would also be a good idea to provide some sources.
So, if 84.248.203.220 could kindly clarify and elaborate upon this addition to the article, it could perhaps then be re-added to the article. I'm removing it from the article altogether for the time being. NordicStorm 19:52, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Young Finnophones are usually more fluent in English than in Swedish. Probably 84.248.203.220 meant that they should be allowed to pass as foreign students. Yes, this is the "pakkoruotsi" issue. There is no quota for Finnish-speaking students; those who pass the language test are accepted as Swedish-speaking. And yes, the test is a significant barrier for Finnish-speaking applicants. I have not seen the tests, but suppose the English one may be easier.

Anyway the discrimination point is moot (which does't mean it doesn't pop up). There is no reason for a subjective right to study at ÅA, other than for the Swedish-speaking population in Finland. Foreign students are accepted because the university (and the country) benefits from them. Nordic students are accepted because Nordic cooperation is seen as important. Finnish-speaking students are accepted partly because they - if fluent in Swedish - are indistinguishable from Swedish-speaking people having had their education in Finnish, partly because it is very important for the bilingual system that there are Finnish-speaking people with good connections to the Swedish-speaking Finland.

Having more Finnish-speaking students (now about 25 %), less fluent in Swedish, would risk the Swedish-speaking environment. This means that the language test may be more difficult than what is required for successfull studies, and if so can be regarded as discrimination compared to Finnish universities without language tests. But what should be compared is how easy it is to get to a university in general as Finnish-speaking or Swedish-speaking. Such comparitions are done, but the results depend on what should be regarded as comparable educations (e.g. more Swedish-speaking study business, while it is impossible to study medicin without being fluent in Finnish).

--LPfi (talk) 08:33, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

"Swedish name"

Åbo is not the Swedish name of Turku; it's the other way around. Like most cities in Finland, Åbo was founded by Swedish-speaking people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.212.5.142 (talk) 14:00, 13 July 2008 (UTC)