What Makes A University

Yesterday was my last meeting on the board of the University of Helsinki. In January I will start my fellowship at Johns Hopkins. Here´s where I am in understanding a university.

Recently renovated main building of the University of Helsinki.

I have always had an emotional relationship with the idea of a university and University of Helsinki specifically. Starting my political science studies in 1999 in Helsinki was a life changing moment.

I would be a completely different person without this institution — its impact reaching way beyond the acquired academic qualifications and knowledge. The university provided me with an opportunity to join a group of people who were just as passionate about democracy, elections, power and equality. The university community offered a possibility to redefine who I am and what I am interested in. In the beginning of my studies I finally had the courage to come out of the closet as a gay man. Years in the student union taught me that people with power are only people too, which has been fundamental for my career. Years in the student union were a brilliant exercise in understanding how the field you study influences the way you think and what you perceive as reliable or credible information and insight. We social scientists look at the world from a different perspective than veterinarians or lawyers.

This transformational experience is why my answer was an immediate yes when I was asked five years ago whether I would be willing to consider to be a candidate for the university board as one of the external members required by the University Act.

It has been an incredibly honor to serve this institution and community for the last four years. I also had the privilege to represent my university in a group of visionaries defining the values of UnaEuropa, a coalition of eight European universities, defining what is the shared value base between universities in Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Finland.

In January I will start my two-year fellowship at Johns Hopkins University´s newly established Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation in Baltimore. Johns Hopkins ranks as number one in spending on higher education research in the United States (National Science Foundation) and is a world leader in fields like public health and medicine.

Here´s where I am in understanding what makes a great university:

1. Infrastructure. Science does not happen without infrastructure. In order to do top-level research, you need the latest equipment and conditions to focus, write, experiment and think. That means libraries, research stations, hospitals, offices and laboratories. This is why science costs money. As it should.
2. People. University´s are really about giving skillful and motivated people the conditions to explore things that fascinate them. This is not in contradiction with helping others understand your work, partnering with public and private organizations, founding startups or building bridges to societal impact. In universities talent attracts talent. In order to attract the best people, universities do need to work much harder in creating recruiting and student selection practices that tackle unconscious and conscious bias.
3. Excellence. The scientific method is about allowing others to see and criticize your process. Universities need to talk openly about quality standards, world-class work and excellence. Putting things in order and competition are a fundamental part of the research world. Achieving top research results require that promising things are giving more resources.
4. Daring to foster and nurture, not control. Universities are incredibly difficult to lead. To run a university requires tenacity and resilience. Dissent and criticism and in the nature of this institution. In university leadership you need to create the right conditions to the right people and trust that incredible things happen. Leadership cannot order top-level research or teaching but can create conditions for it — or can prevent it from happening. Universities need to be managed largely in a similar manner than artistic organizations — by focusing on infrastructure, ethical standards, sense of community, transparency and the right people.
5. Freedom and Agency. New discoveries do not happen if researchers do not feel a sense of agency and sense of freedom. Many researchers and teachers feel that they are drowning under reporting and administering. This needs to be taken seriously. Top-level research requires that you feel that you are able to make a detour, explore new paths, make multiple repetitions and spend incredible amount of time leading to a dead end.
6. Time. Research requires time. So does learning. If students feel an incredible pressure to graduate and execute, real progress does not happen. An academic identity strong enough to graduate requires time — and doing also other things that sitting in class.
7. Assets. In order for universities and the people in them to be sufficiently independent, universities need assets. The people managing these assets need to understand that a quarter should be more like 25 years, not three months. They need to respect the history and make sure the institution outlives them. The assets need to be managed and invested in a manner that is in line with the university´s values. This is a field where the University of Helsinki has been a pioneer.
8. Managed community. A university is a meritocracy. This creates risks for exploitation of power. A fairly and equitable community is not a laissez-faire community. Universities need to have a clear value base and tough policies to address inappropriate behavior. Excellence in research is no justification for unethical or discriminatory behavior. However, universities also need to be clear in defending freedom of thought, freedom of speech and dissent.
9. Translation for societal impact. Universities need help in making science matter. Often the dialogue of research and the rest of the world needs translators. The logic of research is different than the logic of consultancy or the logic of bureaucracy — as it should be. Universities rely on the cities they operate in — and vice versa. I am very happy that the City of Helsinki states in its strategy the research are invited into all its main development projects.
10. Research-based teaching. Universities are only universities if their learning and teaching methods build on research — both in terms of content and methodology. I have been incredibly impressed by the way the University of Helsinki invests in understanding learning and competence building of its teaching staff. A world-class expert is not automatically a world-class teacher.
11. Science education. I am the first in my family to go to a university. When I entered the university I did not really know what a university is or how you ought to carry yourself. I have also seen in my family how taking part in a science camp changes children´s understanding of how amazing science is and what their future could look like. You cannot build a road to a place you don´t even know exists. Universities need to invest much more on science education especially in under-represented groups. This means working with children and youth but also doing citizen science projects.