Universities need the best international experts

Text päivi brink image aalto-yliopisto / aleksi poutanen English translation Marko Saajanaho

Aalto University is investing in international recruitment. They have more foreign staff than any other Finnish university: 51 percent of teaching and research staff, and 16 percent of other staff. 17 percent of all students and 40 percent of postgraduate students are foreigners.

“At Aalto University, the number of international experts has doubled in ten years. Comparing degrees in universities is easy from an international point of view because we do not have tasks requiring official recognition of a degree. Administration positions and support have fewer foreign workers because most tasks require Finnish”, says Aalto University Chief Human Resources Officer Riitta Silvennoinen.

Scientific recruitments are international, and so are the recruitment channels. Aalto University has developed and improved expertise related to international recruitment.

“Universities want the best employees from an international comparison standpoint, and not all of the best can be Finnish. A diverse work community also brings new ideas and innovations. One country only has a limited number of available jobs for researchers. That is why the searches are global, so the best expert can be found for each position”, Silvennoinen says.

Finnish universities cannot compete internationally on salaries alone. That is why Aalto University tells applicants during recruitment what else Finland can offer.

Finnish universities cannot compete internationally on salaries alone. That is why Aalto University tells applicants during recruitment what else Finland can offer. 

“This is a safe country with a high standard of living for research and teaching staff. Nordic work culture is equal. Aalto University offers multidisciplinary co-operation, and our research data and infrastructure are top of the line.”

According to Silvennoinen, the most significant challenges faced by many international university workers relate to the lack of an everyday support network and local work networks, as well as adapting to the independent work culture. “Without existing contacts, it is more difficult to find support for daily life and work. In addition, the autonomous work culture can surprise especially younger researchers early on if they come from a more guided environment. We support them in these challenges by providing detailed orientation, language training, different networking opportunities, and manager support for autonomous work.”

Families also considered

Aalto University co-operates with the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa to try to ensure international experts stay in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

“Our goal is to find work for the spouses of our international employees as well, and we offer job application training for them. We have also created networks for spouses, and we help families find schools for their children. When we get top experts as our employees, we want to keep them for a long time”, Silvennoinen says.

The Competence Centre for Highly Educated Immigrants (KOSKE), developed with the City of Espoo, assists with employment.

English is the language of science

According to the report on Finnish higher education institutions in 2025, 31 percent of university teaching and research staff consisted of foreign nationals in 2024. The majority was from Europe and Asia. Relatively, the most foreign nationals worked in ICT (48 percent), technical (45 percent) and natural sciences (37 percent). Only 8 percent of university support service personnel were non-Finnish citizens.

“These days, English is usually the language of science, and university work culture is already traditionally very international. In general, universities have succeeded at recruiting international experts and helping them commit”, says Finnish Education Employers (FEE) CEO Jenni Järvelä.   

According to a review by FEE, representative organisation for private employers in the education and higher education sector, 72 percent of assistants and part-time teachers at Finnish universities were foreign nationals. 18 percent of professors were foreigners, but this number was only 13 percent for lecturers and senior assistants. There were very few foreign citizens in management roles in the education and higher education sector.

“The open responses highlight the fact work can often be temporary for international staff. At universities of applied sciences, the work is often project-oriented. On the other hand, the open responses indicate that international workers may be more committed because the threshold for finding a new job may be higher”, Järvelä states. 

The feeling is that international workers have adapted to the work community very well.

”It is very pleasing to see that international workers have adapted well to the education sector, and the work community has adapted to them accordingly.”

Increasing internationality

The number of foreign citizens working in the education sector has nearly doubled between 2014 and 2023. A report published in early 2026 (International staff in the education sector) investigated the number of international staff, their different positions, and their adaptation to work communities.

In the report, an “international worker” can be a foreign speaker, of a foreign background, an immigrant, or recruited directly from abroad.

“8.7 percent of all workers in the education sector are international experts, and they comprise 6.5 percent of the entire workforce in Finland. They are employed particularly in early childhood education positions and also at universities. More than half of the foreign nationals working in the education sector lives in Uusimaa, which has many work opportunities”, Järvelä says.  

In the report, an “international worker” can be a foreign speaker, of a foreign background, an immigrant, or recruited directly from abroad.

Nearly all education sector employers responded that the sector needed international experts. Personnel diversity is considered useful for the organisation’s core function. According to the report, the most significant obstacles to foreign nationals’ employment in the education sector are language and education requirements and a sufficient supply of domestic workers.

“Private employers employ slightly more foreign nationals than public employers. One reason for this is reduced language skill requirements, which help higher education institution requirement. At lower levels of education, especially primary schools, the requirements are strict in both the public and private sectors. The language skill requirements could be loosened”, Järvelä states.

Sources:
Finnish Education Employers report: International staff in the education sector

Kannisto, E., Hynninen, A., Jaatinen, J.;
Suomen korkeakoulut 2025 -raportti (Finnish Higher Education Institutions 2025 Report),
Finnish Institute for Educational Research (FIER),
University of Jyväskylä.