University students coming to Finland from outside the EU expect to receive education that serves as a bridge to meaningful work and to a better standard of living and a better life. The expectations are intertwined with neo-liberal ideals of a “good immigrant” who studies and works. The expectations both support students and appear as dehumanising demands to work more, better and harder while the life imagined keeps slipping further away.
The ideals also make university education look like a tool for entering the workforce and present working as the only way to be part of and participate in society.
This was found in a recent study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland, which examined the career expectations and identity construction of tuition fee-paying students in Finnish universities from the perspective of cruel optimism. Cruel optimism refers to a state in which the pursuit of a better life turns into an obstacle to success and well-being. The interview study examined how students perceive the ideals associated with university education and what they expect from their education and career.
The analysis highlighted students’ stress, frustration and strain caused by unmet expectations and the longer-than-expected struggle phase, as well as the interviewees’ need to be seen as fully-fledged individuals.
Career counselling at universities in a challenging position
Previous studies have shown that university students from outside the EU encounter a highly conflicting social reality in Finland. University policies perceive them as “VIP customers” and political debate portrays them as “good immigrants” and desired workforce after graduation. Previous research has shown how universities market the smooth transition to Finnish working life as a successful educational outcome.
At the same time, structural racism and other discrimination in the labour market, strict economic and time-related conditions for studying and residence permit bureaucracy make it more difficult to find a job that matches one’s education. This also poses a challenge to the practices and ethics of career counselling at universities: while the educational policy objective of career counselling is to streamline transitions to work, as a practice, it should also examine these conflicts and inequalities critically.
“In Finnish political debate, we cannot decide whether the internationalisation of education is a solution to the challenges in ageing Finland or not. On one hand, internationalisation is a stated political objective aimed at bringing skilled labour to the Finnish labour market. On the other, the immigration discussion and policies are becoming stricter, the conditions for staying in the country are being tightened, and structural discrimination in the labour market is making it more difficult to achieve this objective,” says Doctoral Researcher Jarkko Immonen , the lead author of the study.
This leads to a situation where higher education institutions attract new students to Finland in the global education market to the best of their ability, but politics and the labour market push them out.
Dissertation path appears as an attractive choice
The study also identified the phenomenon of “doctoral funnel”, which means that the dissertation path starts to appear as a sensible choice toward employment for many tuition fee-paying students at some point of their studies.
When all other doors to the labour market seem to remain closed, writing a doctoral dissertation may seem like the only way to stay in Finland, even if doing research would not otherwise seem like the natural choice.
“Writing a dissertation also increases the pressure on academic success at the master’s stage, which is already a high-pressure phase of life for tuition fee-paying students. There is a limited number of spots available for doctoral students and even fewer for paid positions.”
Writing a dissertation is also a very demanding project. If the student has no genuine interest in doing it, they may struggle with motivation or coping at a later stage.
Cruel optimism – a useful tool for research
The study draws on the concept of cruel optimism. It provides a useful tool for career counselling research and professional practices to identify how career-related neo-liberal ideals are normalised, what they hide from sight, how they are resisted and what tensions are built between these ideals and the lived experiences of individuals.
For the study, the researchers interviewed fifteen tuition fee-paying master’s students at the universities of Helsinki and Eastern Finland. The interviewees’ ages, family and life situations, work experiences and fields of study varied greatly.
Nordic Journal of Transitions Careers and Guidance
Cruel Optimism and the Career-Related Identity Construction of Non-EU Students in Finnish Universities
13-Oct-2026