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APN Podcast: The human cost of Finland's 'education export'

All Points North finds out what happened to Kenyan students who came to Finland to get a degree but ended up in debt while cleaning and scavenging for empty bottles to buy food.

Two Kenyan students standing in a park in Finland, with the All Points North logo in the corner.
A story about Kenyan students garnered a lot of attention, and a good deal of sympathy, when reports first emerged about the consequences of the education export programme. Image: Yle
  • Ronan Browne
  • Zena Iovino

It has been a year since All Points North covered the plight of Kenyan students who arrived to study for a degree in Tampere — before realising that their programme wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Yle investigative unit MOT's story of the Kenyan students garnered a lot of attention, and a good deal of sympathy, when reports first emerged about the consequences of this education export programme — which included being described as "human trafficking in the name of education tourism from Kenya to Finland".

"I've been working as a journalist for over 30 years and I've never experienced this kind of reaction and so much will to help as after this programme," MOT journalist Minna Knus-Galán told APN about her report.

Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

The human cost of Finland's 'education export'

This week's show also wraps up the rest of the week's news from Finland as well as providing a tip for what to stream on Yle Areena.

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Ronan Browne and Zena Iovino presented this episode of All Points North. The sound engineer was Tuomas Vauhkonen.

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