Opening the Open: The Experience of Evaluating the Finnish Open University

‘Opening the Open’ is a description of the National Open University Evaluation that the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council carried out in 2001–02. At the millennium, the Open Universities were facing fundamental changes in quantity, quality and context. The increase in the number of young people in the Open University brought its student composition closer to that of the ‘traditional’ university.

The approach of the peer review was tailored to the working culture of the Open University. After the self-study, the universities carried out a limited benchmarking exercise. Instead of traditional site-visits to individual universities, national hearings were organised, where the different universities and their stakeholders shared their views.

The expert panel reported that there is a need to sharpen the Open University profile of each university. Prerequisites for participation do not and should not exist, but open access has been more important than educational equality in the working practices of the Open University structure. Academic quality is assured by curriculum approval systems and extensive development work.

The panel recommended that the universities should devise a national strategy and network their activities into a Finnish Open University. While the universities should organise themselves in favour of the adult student, enhancing equality should direct all the activities. Opportunities to take a degree after Open University studies should be widened. Quality enhancement should be systematic and networked, and the funding system should support quality and concentrations of expertise.

The project was a mixture of tailoring, communication and embedding. The methods were adapted to the particular context of the Finnish Open University system. The project challenged the principle of independence and made practical use of practitioners. The evaluation project was closely linked to the strategic processes of the university system.

After the evaluation, a national strategy process utilised the results of the project. Also, the Rectors' Council nominated a working group to deal with the questions of adult education in the universities. The Ministry of Education decided to incorporate a quality factor in the resource allocation.