Statement: Students Need Better Financial Conditions, Not Further Education Regarding our Fertility

Dear Finnish Student Health Service and Ministry of Social Affairs and Health,

Students Need Better Financial Conditions, Not Further Education Regarding our Fertility.

The Student Union of Åbo Akademi University (ÅAS) strongly criticises the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health’s decision to grant €250,000 to the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) for a project aimed at increasing students’ awareness of fertility and encouraging them to start families earlier. ÅAS considers the initiative tone-deaf, out of touch with reality, and a clear example of how decision-makers choose to turn a blind eye to the structural problems that shape students’ everyday lives.

The problem is not that students lack an understanding of their fertility. The problem is that society does not provide them with the conditions necessary to support the children they may wish to have.

Allocating a quarter of a million euros to a project encouraging students to have children earlier, particularly in the current economic climate, demonstrates a remarkable lack of understanding of students’ living conditions. While students are expected to manage increasingly strained finances, cope with uncertain future prospects, and navigate the pressures of student life, they are now also expected to take responsibility for declining birth rates.

Placing the responsibility for declining birth rates on individuals’ knowledge and decisions is a convenient way of avoiding the far more difficult questions surrounding financial insecurity, inadequate support structures, and the lack of opportunities to combine education with family life. This is not merely a misguided priority. It is an insult to a group already struggling to make ends meet.

Students Need Financial Security

ÅAS encounters students struggling financially on a daily basis. For many, paying rent, buying food, and covering other essential living expenses is a challenge. Suggesting that information about fertility would encourage students to start families is both simplistic and disconnected from reality.

How is a student who can barely afford to support themselves expected to provide for a child? How can students feel confident about planning a family when their financial future is marked by uncertainty? And why is the focus placed on students’ individual choices rather than on the political decisions and societal structures that limit their opportunities?

It is considerably easier to inform students about their biological clocks than to take political responsibility for the economic conditions that make starting a family difficult. ÅAS refuses to accept that students’ life choices are being called into question while their living conditions are ignored. If decision-makers genuinely want to enable young adults to start families, they must begin by ensuring adequate financial support, access to affordable family housing, and a secure future.

Universities Must Safeguard the Rights of Students with Children Before Encouraging Family Formation

The disconnect from reality becomes particularly evident when examining how higher education institutions treat students who already have children. An article published by Åbo Underrättelser highlights a case in which a student was denied the opportunity to reschedule a resit examination that coincided with her expected due date. This absurdly unfair situation illustrates a fundamental contradiction: while society seeks to encourage students to have children earlier, sufficiently clear and consistent structures to support those who actually do so are lacking.

Students with children should not have to depend on individual teachers’ goodwill, personal understanding, or willingness to make exceptions. Flexibility should not be a privilege granted arbitrarily, but a fundamental part of an accessible and equitable education system.

Åbo Akademi University is currently updating its guidelines on equality, equal treatment, inclusion, and accessibility. ÅAS has been given the opportunity to comment on these plans, and we expect our feedback and proposals for improving flexibility to be taken into account, ensuring that students in different life situations have a realistic opportunity to complete their studies.

A Quarter of a Million Euros for Fertility Awareness While Students Wait in lines for Healthcare

ÅAS strongly questions the priorities behind this initiative. While students struggle to access even basic healthcare, FSHS has been granted €250,000 for a project aimed at encouraging earlier family formation. Why is encouraging students to have children considered a political priority, while ensuring that their existing healthcare needs are met appears to be less urgent? Students need access to functioning healthcare and mental health services within a reasonable timeframe. These needs are neither hypothetical nor something for the future. They exist here and now.

Why do decision-makers choose to fund initiatives such as this when there is an evident need to strengthen the ability of student healthcare services to fulfil their core responsibilities? Ultimately, this is a question of political priorities and whose needs are considered worth listening to.

Action Instead of Symbolic Politics

If the government and higher education institutions genuinely want to improve students’ opportunities to start families, the answer is not to address a perceived lack of information. Instead, it requires taking responsibility and acting to remove the real barriers. One example is Åbo Akademi University’s ongoing work on its equality guidelines, which should examine the need for flexibility among students in different life situations and lead to concrete improvements for students with children.

Students do not need yet another campaign telling them how they should live their lives. We need a society that gives us the opportunity to make our own choices.

Svea Välimäki
Chair of the Board
The Student Union of Åbo Akademi University