Kim Wallin: The Act on the Academy may undermine the academic standing of Academy Professorships

(26 Aug 09)

I have watched with some concern how the new Act on the Academy of Finland now being drafted may, if passed, detract from the standing and equal status of Academy Professorships.

If it is the case that, in future, Academy Professors are in an employment relationship with the university they work at, the university will be able to apply its own salary and employment terms to the Professors. In my view, this may well lead to a decline in the academic standing of Academy Professorships. Top researchers would no longer be interested in Academy research posts. 

Today, Academy Professorships enjoy a high standing in the research sector and reasonable salaries. Even internationally successful researchers active abroad are willing to seize on funding from the Academy of Finland and come to Finland to do research. It is unquestionably one of the strengths of the present system that successful applicants are selected for Academy Professorships purely on their own skill and merits, regardless of what their background organisation is. It is important that an Academy Professor is not a representative of a specific organisation. All Academy Professors are on the same, equal footing as regards employment terms and salaries. Each of them is also free to pursue research on a topic that they themselves have proposed to the Academy, rather than one their organisation pressured them to do. I consider this an enormous advantage of the present system.

Under the new Act, there would be an odd sort of administrative relationship between the Academy Professor and the employer, in which the employer would not be entitled (as is normally the case) to require the employee to perform specific tasks or administrative routines, nor would the employer be able to make decisions on matters such as when annual holiday is taken. If the Act is interpreted to mean that the employer organisation is entitled to exercise an influence over the work of an Academy Professor, the post in question would lose the value that it has at present. We are drifting into a strange situation where academic freedom is at risk.

Why is that freedom so important? In order to maximise the potential for creativity. The most important thing about an Academy Professorship is that it frees someone up to do his or her own research. They are then able to focus completely on whatever takes priority in their thinking at that moment. It is vital for the creative process that you have the opportunity to ponder and process an idea whenever it emerges. If there is no time for ideas, inventions may fail to emerge.

I also consider it possible that the new Act on the Academy may boost unhealthy competition between universities, something that has not occurred before. Under the new system, it will become a much greater merit for universities to get Academy Professorships. Each university would lobby for their own applicant, because it would be important for the university to demonstrate its own merits to potential sources of funding in industry. The personal merits of the professor would then become secondary, as universities would take some of the professor’s standing for themselves.

I worry that this legislative amendment will lead to a growing emphasis on economic interests at the expense of academic freedom. It is possible that, for instance, sectoral research institutes will see Academy Professorships as an additional source of funding for their own research. There is then a risk that a highly merited researcher is instructed to apply for an Academy Professorship focused on a subject that a specific institute considers important, rather than being able to apply for whatever the researcher finds most interesting. In the long run, this would undermine free and independent research. If that happens we may as well shut down the Academy of Finland and give all responsibility for funding decisions to Tekes. Let’s hope there is no such plan afoot in Finland.

Kim Wallin
Academy Professor
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland