GLOBAL AND LOCAL PRIORITIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION POLICIES: A HEADACHE AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL?

In November 2001 the Finnish Ministry of Education published a working group report on the internationalisation strategy for higher education, and shortly after another report concentrating on the local dimensions and effects of higher education. In the era of internationalisation and globalisation, local concerns seem to be so great that the Ministry has added a third mission in the University Act along with the traditional quests of research and teaching. Thus, in the future, Finnish universities are obliged to act in collaboration with their local environment. This paper analyses the proposals and argumentation of the two reports, aiming, in particular, at discovering the intersections and contact surfaces of the global and local. Finnish developments and discussion will be analysed against the ideas of 'glonacal agency heuristic' presented by Marginson and Rhoades.