Finland's higher education institutions "still have much work to do" in promoting equality for teaching and research staff belonging to minority groups, according to a fresh report from the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Commissioned by the ministry, the authors of the report looked how higher education institutions promote and improve gender equality, non-discrimination and diversity.
The report provided new information about ethnic background-related discrimination within higher education, according to the ministry.
The project consortium's director, Julia Jousilahti, said that research on ethnic equality in such academic settings is "scarce" and that not enough is known about the topic.
"So far, the debate has focused on gender equality in Finland," Jousilahti said.
"Finland and its higher education institutions are becoming increasingly international in scope. Finland desperately needs international talent, so we must be more mindful of ethnic equality in higher education institutions,” she continued.
The ministry's director general, Atte Jääskeläinen, said equality and non-discrimination are important values that should be promoted.
"They are also the way to healthy workplace communities and to better research results and educational outcomes. That is why we wanted to produce research-based knowledge on experiences of discrimination. This gives higher education communities tools to tackle problems with determination," Jääskeläinen said.
Recommendations and gender equality issues
The authors behind the report suggested a four-pronged approach to promoting gender equality, non-discrimination and diversity.
The recommendations include improving the monitoring and implementation of equality and non-discrimination plans; increase national support for such efforts; the introduction of mandatory training in those subjects among managers and recruitment staff; and provide resources for collecting and researching data on gender equality and diversity in those institutions.
The report also revealed new findings about gender equality, according to the ministry. It found that gender ratios in research groups were more balanced and were more female-dominated when they were led by women than those led by their male counterparts.
The study also found that women experienced discrimination within higher education slightly more often than men.