Varsities to accept more students to check youth unemployment

The universities in the country are preparing to increase number of seats for admission and accept more students during the ongoing application period, reported National broadcaster Yle.

The Universities have taken the initiative following an appeal from Jari Gustafsson, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment during Yle's A-studio discussion show on Tuesday.

The number of unemployed youths has increased from 30,000 to 40,000 in the country due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Gustafsson urged the higher educational institutions to join a community effort and accept more applicants because of the coronavirus crisis with the view to help the unemployed youths.

Although 10,000 young people normally work in summer jobs, this year the employers did not hire them due to the abnormal situation, he said.

Keijo Hämäläinen, chair of UniFi, the organisation representing universities in Finland, said that higher education institutions want to discharge their responsibility to society. He noted that there was in any case an intention to significantly increase study places during the 2021 admissions campaign, the Yle report added.