Balancing between accountability and autonomy : the impact and relevance of public steering mechanisms within higher education

Purpose This article studies the tensions between universities' accountability and autonomy in response to the demands of public steering mechanisms coordinating higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach Demonstrating the tension between accountability and autonomy, the impact and relevance of public steering mechanisms coordinating higher education are studied via a survey with selected representative Finnish universities. The response rate was an exceptionally high 94%. In addition to the statistical analysis of the survey, open-ended questions were also analyzed to give a more in-depth understanding of the findings. The study uses paradox theory and institutional complexity as its theoretical lenses. Findings The empirical analysis of this study shows a considerable gap between the experienced impact and the experienced relevance of the steering mechanisms in higher education. The authors’ further analysis of the open-ended data shows that indicator-based funding allocation has undermined the perceived university autonomy. The authors highlight the paradoxical tensions of university autonomy and higher education institutions' steering mechanisms' requirement for accountability. Finding an acceptable balance between accountability and institutional autonomy plays an important role in designing higher education policies. Originality/value The authors found that even if a steering mechanism is experienced as impactful, it is not necessarily considered relevant. One of the key aspects in understanding the reasons behind this mismatch is related to university autonomy. Most impactful steering mechanisms become considered less relevant because they also endanger institutional autonomy. In this sense, it could be expected that steering mechanisms should better balance accountability and autonomy.© Tomi J. Kallio, Kirsi-Mari Kallio, Mira Huusko, Riitta Pyykkö and Jussi Kivistö. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode.The authors would like to thank FINEEC for providing the data for this study.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Perspectives of oncology nurses on peer support for patients with cancer

Purpose: To understand the perspectives of oncology nurses on peer support for patients with cancer and the role of oncology nurses in its provision. Method: Thematic semi-structured interviews of 10 oncology nurses working in a single university hospital were conducted. The data were analysed using content analysis. Results: Oncology nurses thought that peer support promotes the psychosocial wellbeing of patients with cancer by increasing their social contact and strengthening their emotional resources. In their daily work, oncology nurses engaged in several activities that promote the interactions between patients with cancer and informal forms of peer support. However, directing patients with cancer to formal peer support services outside specialised health care was not an established practice. Oncology nurses expressed several concerns about the availability of support and the coping ability of peer supporters and expressed scepticism about the reliability of information shared in peer support groups. Conclusions: The awareness of oncology nurses regarding formal peer support services appears rather limited. This knowledge gap should be reduced, such as through closer collaboration between hospitals and third sector cancer organisations, which does not appear effective at present based on the results. In addition, patients with cancer should be systematically informed about peer support.Peer reviewe

Talvivaaran nikkelikaivoksen jätevesipäästöjen vaikutukset kaloihin : Loppuraportti

Riista- ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitos (RKTL, 1.1.2015 lähtien Luonnonvarakeskus Luke) ja Elintarviketurvallisuusvirasto Evira toteuttivat maa- ja metsätalousministeriöstä (MMM) saadun toimeksiannon mukaisesti tutkimuksen, jossa oli tavoitteena selvittää Talvivaaran kaivosalueelta vesistöihin päässeiden jätevesien mahdollisesti aiheuttamat kudosmuutokset kaloissa sekä kudoksiin kertyneet raskasmetallipitoisuudet. Näytteenotto (viisi kierrosta 15.11.2012-17.07.2015 välisenä aikana) keskitettiin kaivoksen vaikutusalueella Kivijärvelle ja Laakajärvelle (Vuoksen vesistö) sekä Oulujoen vesistöalueella Kalliojärvelle, Kolmisoppeen ja Jormasjärvelle. Lisäksi mukana oli neljä vertailujärveä. Tulosten perusteella pyrittiin arvioimaan Talvivaaran kaivoksen päästöjen vaikutuksia kaloihin sekä kalojen käyttökelpoisuutta elintarvikkeena. Talvivaaran kaivoksen vaikutukset kuormitusalueen kalojen raskasmetallipitoisuuksiin näkyivät pääosin yksittäisinä kohonneina arvoina. Mitatut arseenin, kromin, lyijyn, nikkelin ja uraanin sekä hivenaineiden kuparin, raudan, seleenin ja sinkin pitoisuudet olivat pieniä, usein alle määritysrajojen. Kuitenkin kohonneita, sallitun enimmäispitoisuusrajan ylittäviä yksittäisiä kadmiumpitoisuuksia esiintyi kuormitus-alueella etenkin ensimmäisillä näytteenottokierroksilla. Näitä ylityksiä havaittiin Jormasjärven ja Kolmisopen särkinäytteistä vielä kolmannella kierroksella. Seurannan jatkuessa niin kadmiumpitoisuudet kuin alkuaineista mangaanipitoisuudet pienenivät, mutta elohopean osalta rajaarvojen ylityksiä esiintyi kaikilla tutkimuskierroksella. Ahvenen elohopeapitoisuudet ylittivät Talvivaaran kuormitusalueella yleisesti sallitun lainsäädännöllisen enimmäismäärän ja olivat korkeammat kuin kolmella vertailujärvellä (Kivesjärvi, Teerijärvi, Kiantajärvi). Raja-arvon ylityksiä oli etenkin kooltaan yli 100 gramman ahvenissa. Marraskuussa 2012 tapahtuneen kipsisakka-altaan vuodon jälkeen Kainuun maakunta - kuntayhtymä (nyk. Kainuun sote -kuntayhtymä/ympäristöterveydenhuolto) sekä Kainuun Ely-keskus antoivat käyttösuosituksensa Talvivaaran kaivoksen läheisille vesialueille (Kalliojärvi, Kolmisoppi ja Kivijärvi). Suositusten mukaisesti em. vesistöistä pyydettyä kalaa ei nk. varovaisuusperiaatteen mukaisesti suositeltu syötäväksi. Viiden kalastuskierroksen tulokset osoittavat raskasmetallipitoisuuksien kaloissa laskeneen. Annettua suositusta ei ole kuitenkaan purettu. Kaivosalueen lähijärvien pohjasedimenttiin varastoituneet raskasmetallit muodostavat edelleen riskin niiden kertymisestä kaloihin näillä alueilla, ja kalojen metallipitoisuuden seurantaa tuleekin jatkaa mm. tarkkailuohjelman mukaisesti.201

Balancing between accountability and autonomy: the impact and relevance of public steering mechanisms within higher education

PurposeThis article studies the tensions between universities' accountability and autonomy in response to the demands of public steering mechanisms coordinating higher education institutions.Design/methodology/approachDemonstrating the tension between accountability and autonomy, the impact and relevance of public steering mechanisms coordinating higher education are studied via a survey with selected representative Finnish universities. The response rate was an exceptionally high 94%. In addition to the statistical analysis of the survey, open-ended questions were also analyzed to give a more in-depth understanding of the findings. The study uses paradox theory and institutional complexity as its theoretical lenses.FindingsThe empirical analysis of this study shows a considerable gap between the experienced impact and the experienced relevance of the steering mechanisms in higher education. The authors’ further analysis of the open-ended data shows that indicator-based funding allocation has undermined the perceived university autonomy. The authors highlight the paradoxical tensions of university autonomy and higher education institutions' steering mechanisms' requirement for accountability. Finding an acceptable balance between accountability and institutional autonomy plays an important role in designing higher education policies.Originality/valueThe authors found that even if a steering mechanism is experienced as impactful, it is not necessarily considered relevant. One of the key aspects in understanding the reasons behind this mismatch is related to university autonomy. Most impactful steering mechanisms become considered less relevant because they also endanger institutional autonomy. In this sense, it could be expected that steering mechanisms should better balance accountability and autonomy.DetailsJournal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, Type: Research ArticleDOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBAFM-10-2020-0177ISSN: 1096-3367KeywordsHigher education developmentSteering mechanismsParadox theoryInstitutional complexityPublic funding</ul

Songs and Writings : Oral and Literary Cultures in Early-Modern Finland

Laulut ja kirjoitukset: suullinen ja kirjallinen kulttuuri uuden ajan alun Suomessa (Songs and writings: oral and literary culture in early-modern Finland) has been written at the crossroads of historical and folkloristic studies. Our purpose is to study the interface of literary and oral cultures in early modern Finland, focusing on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The book renews the understanding of exchange between the learned culture of clergymen and the culture of commoners, or “folk”. What happened when the Reformation changed the position of the vernacular language to literary and ecclesiastical, and when folk beliefs seem to have become an object for more intensive surveillance and correction? How did clergymen understand and use the versatile labels of popular belief, paganism, superstition and Catholic fermentation? Why did they choose particular song languages, poetic modes and melodies for their Lutheran hymns and literary poems, and why did they avoid oral poetics in certain contexts while accentuating it in others? How were the hagiographical traditions representing the international medieval literary or “great” tradition adapted to “small” folk traditions, and how did they persist and change after the Reformation? What happened to the cult of the Virgin Mary in local oral traditions? This book studies the relations and mutual influences of oral and literary cultures in Finland during the long period stretching from late Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. The Reformation, the process of turning vernacular languages into literary ones, the rise of new early-modern territorial principalities, and the reorganisation of the whole Baltic Sea area in the sixteenth century and after all affected both people’s everyday lives and the spheres of the sacred. The learned elites became interested in folk beliefs and practices as they started to argue about and order their own religious practices in a new way. Lutheran congregational singing spread from the German area to the northern Baltic Sea regions. The first Finnish sixteenth-century reformers admired the new Germanic models and avoided the Finnic vernacular Kalevala-metre idiom, while their successors picked up many vernacular traits, most notably alliteration, in their ecclesiastical poetry and hymns. Over the following centuries, the new features introduced via new Lutheran hymns such as accentual metres, end-rhymes and strophic structures were infusing into oral folk poetry, although this took place also via secular oral and literary routes. On the other hand, seventeenth-century scholars cultivated a new academic interest in what they understood as “ancient Finnish poetry”. The main source materials studied in this book are from the Reformation period and immediately after, when Finnish clergymen wrote their first comments and depictions of folk beliefs and worked to create Lutheran hymns in Finnish, and also largely from the nineteenth century, when most Finnish folk poetry and older oral traditions were collected. These later folklore materials are used here to shed light on the transformations of folk beliefs and poetic forms during the centuries that followed the Reformation. The emphasis is on the areas which formed the old medieval diocese of Turku (Swedish Åbo) or what the Swedish rulers called the province of Österland (Lat. Osterlandia, later Finlandia) west from the border of Nöteborg (Finnish Pähkinäsaari) between Sweden and the Grand Duchy of Novgorod in 1323. In addition, some other sources, especially from the Finnic and Scandinavian areas, are used as comparative material.Peer reviewe

Laulut ja kirjoitukset: Suullinen ja kirjallinen kulttuuri uuden ajan alun Suomessa

"Songs and writings: oral and literary cultures in early-modern Finland renews the understanding of exchange between the learned culture of clergymen and the culture of commoners, or “folk”. What happened when the Reformation changed the position of the oral vernacular language to literary and ecclesiastical, and when folk beliefs seem to have become an object for more intensive surveillance and correction? How did clergymen understand and use the versatile labels of popular belief, paganism, superstition and Catholic fermentation? Why did they choose particular song languages, poetic modes and melodies for their Lutheran hymns and literary poems, and why did they avoid oral poetics in certain contexts while accentuating it in others? How were the hagiographical traditions representing the international medieval literary or “great” tradition adapted to “small” folk traditions, and how did they persist and change after the Reformation? What happened to the cult of the Virgin Mary in local oral traditions? The first Finnish 16th-century reformers admired the new Germanic models of Lutheran congregational hymns and avoided the Finnic vernacular Kalevala-metre idiom, while their successors picked up many vernacular traits, most notably alliteration, in their ecclesiastical poetry and hymns. Over the following centuries, the new features introduced via new Lutheran hymns such as accentual metres, end-rhymes and strophic structures were infusing into oral folk poetry, although this took place also via secular oral and literary routes. On the other hand, seventeenth-century scholars cultivated a new academic interest in what they understood as “ancient Finnish poetry”. The book has an extensive English Summary for the international readership.

No Association Between Ljungan Virus Seropositivity and the Beta-cell Damaging Process in the Finnish Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention Study Cohort

Background: Ljungan virus (LV) has not confirmed to associate with any human disease, but a possible connection with type 1 diabetes has been suggested. LV is a rodent-borne picornavirus that induces a diabetes-like condition in rodents. Approximately 30% of adults and 60% of children are seropositive in Finland. The Finnish Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention study enabled the use of very well characterized sample panels from children seroconverted to positivity for multiple islet autoantibodies during their prospective observation from birth; in addition, samples from age, sex, human leukocyte antigen (HLA), and residence area matched control children. Methods: We analyzed LV IgG seroprevalence in 102 case children (65 had also developed type 1 diabetes), in addition to nondiabetic control children. LV and human parechovirus (HPeV) immunofluorescence assays were used to analyze LV and HPeV-specific IgG from 102 plasma samples taken at the time of islet autoantibody appearance and from 204 samples from the matched control children. Results: Altogether 46.1% of the case and 50.7% of the control children were positive for LV IgG (odds ratio 0.8; 95% confidence interval, 0.47-1.36; P = 0.416) and 67.6% versus 79.8% were positive for HPeV IgG, respectively (odds ratio 0.49, 0.27-0.9, P = 0.023). Conclusions: Thus, no risk associations between LV or HPeV-specific IgG and islet autoimmunity were observed. However, a trend for significantly higher prevalence of HPeV antibodies in control children (P = 0.023) suggests a possible protective association of this virus with islet autoimmunity.Peer reviewe

12. Pääsuunnittelijakoulutuksen tutkielmat

Pääsuunnittelijakoulutus on suunnittelun ja johtamisen koulutusohjelma, jonka tavoitteena on tukea pääsuunnittelutehtävissä toimivien asiantuntijoiden edellytyksiä ja valmiuksia vastata tulevaisuuden osaamisvaatimuksiin. Julkaisu sisältää 12. pääsuunnittelijakoulutuksen tutkielmat: (1) Renni Haroma: Arkkitehdin vaikutusmahdollisuudet pääsuunnittelijana KVR-urakassa; tehtävät ja vastuut, sekä onnistuneen lopputuloksen varmistaminen (2) Pontus Högström: Rakennuttajan ja pääsuunnittelijan vastuut pienrakennushankkeessa (3) Outi Jääskeläinen: Pääsuunnittelija kunnallisessa rakennusinvestointihankkeessa (4) Tuomo Kallio: Tietomalli pääsuunnittelijan työkaluna - Muuttuvat ohjeet ja määräykset (5) Sami Karvinen: Rakennesuunnittelija pääsuunnittelijana - Tehtävän erityispiirteet (6) Pauli Koivisto: Pääsuunnittelijan tehtäviä korjausrakentamiskohteissa (7) Mika Kurth: Pääsuunnittelu tietomallihankkeessa - Pääsuunnittelijan, arkkitehdin ja tietomallikoordinaattorin roolit (8) Niklas Mahlberg: Kokemuksia yhteispohjoismaisesta rakennushankkeesta - Case: Teatteri- ja konserttitalo Kilden, Kristiansand, Norja (9) Joni Räisänen: Tietomallintaminen; haasteet ja mahdollisuudet - Tietomallintaminen pääsuunnittelijavetoisessa hankkeessa - Case: Alberga Business Park (10) Sebastian Rönnblad: Pääsuunnittelu tilaajan näkökulmasta (11) Esa Sallinen: Sosiaalinen toimilupa toimitilahankkeessa - vaikutukset pääsuunnittelijan rooliin (12) Kimmo Severinkangas: Pääsuunnittelijan ja rakentamiseen ryhtyvän tehtävä- ja vastuujako vesivoimalaitoksen rakennushankkeessa - Case: Suunnitteilla oleva Sierilän vesivoimalaitoshanke (13) Erki Valdre: Pääsuunnittelun riskienhallinta - Laatujärjestelmä riskienhallintavälineenä (14) Riitta Vesala: Verkostojohtamis- ja esimiestaidot pääsuunnittelijan tehtävässä