Response to interpellation 2025/26:498 on the future of the Finnish language at Umeå University
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the future of the Finnish language at Umeå University. L argues that the universities' autonomy is an important principle and that the government should not govern which educations are provided 1 2 3. L emphasizes that minority languages have a special status and that the universities themselves must decide their orientation regarding both education and research 1 2 3 4. L believes it would be wrong to regulate more universities as it could affect academic freedom 2 3. S argues that the government can influence the allocation of funds in the budget to maintain educations 5. S emphasizes that educations in Finnish are necessary for bilingual staff 6 7. S believes that the government needs to start respecting consultations with minority groups 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Mirja Räihä has asked me if I intend to take any measures to ensure that education in Finnish can continue at Umeå University.
The national minorities and the national minority languages have existed in Sweden for a long time, and the minorities' languages and culture constitute an important part of our common cultural heritage.
Four universities and colleges in Sweden therefore have specific commitments in the regulatory letters to offer education in the various minority languages. Stockholm University has a specific commitment to offer education in the minority language Finnish. The commitment involves, among other things, a mandate to carry out development work and education on a scientific basis, including with a view towards teacher training. However, there are several educational institutions that offer education in the minority language Finnish without a specific commitment at the base, and this applies, for example, to Umeå University.
When it comes to how the activities of universities and colleges are to be organized and how resources are to be used, the autonomy of the institutions is an important principle issue. It is therefore a fundamental principle that it is not the government that governs which educations are to be provided at different institutions, but it is the universities and colleges themselves that have responsibility for the dimensioning based on the students' demand and the labor market's needs. Despite this principle, the government has given special assignments to selected institutions to ensure access to the national minority languages.
For this government, quality in education and research is central. It is important that higher education programs with few students, especially in language subjects, can also achieve high quality and be economically viable. Therefore, the government tasked the Swedish Council for Higher Education with mapping and analyzing the conditions for conducting small-scale programs, particularly in minority languages. The assignment was reported on March 31, 2026, and several recommendations were given to the government, which are now being prepared within the Government Offices.
At the current stage, the government does not intend to take any measures, but we are, of course, following the developments closely.
Mirja Räihä (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister Edholm!
I am of course certain that the answer contains what the government can do in this situation or what the government cannot do in this situation. It was perhaps an answer that I also expected. But at the same time, it is like this: One might not be able to do anything now, but one can actually do things when one prepares the state budget. One can influence the allocation of funds so that one can maintain education programs.
I myself was alerted to the issue after an article in Hufvudstadsbladet. This means that media in Finland have noticed this issue. One perhaps cannot say that it has been noticed in Swedish media.
I remember that I debated mother tongue instruction with the Minister of the Interior during the 2023/24 parliamentary session. Furthermore, I debated the cancellation of Jarmo Laino's inquiry on mother tongue instruction with the Minister for Education during this parliamentary session. Both of those interpellations are connected to this interpellation, at least in my opinion.
Thus the minister replied in one of the earlier interpellation debates:
"The national minority languages have a special status in Sweden. I believe it should remain so. The national minorities have rights that go beyond the rights for other groups who have languages other than Swedish as their mother tongue. I also think it should remain so."
Madam Speaker! In the same debate, this was said:
"I also want to point out that when it comes to the national minority languages in Sweden, the right to read these languages has even been strengthened over the past year. One should be able to read a national minority language without having prior knowledge, which was previously required. In that regard, the government has actually strengthened the possibility."
The latest is probably almost the only thing that has been implemented from the Lainiou investigation. The rest has been written off without any consultation whatsoever with the minority groups.
But at the same time, it is clear that there is a shortage of teachers in minority languages, and that is where Umeå University comes in – obviously together with other universities and colleges. Now, Umeå University has responded to the Swedish-Finnish delegation by stating that they will have consultations regarding teaching in Finnish at the university. But until now, these consultations have probably not really been perceived as consultations by the minority groups. They have rather been perceived as one-way information to the minority groups, and then the meeting is over.
Madam Speaker! The Swedish-Finnish delegation has submitted the following observations regarding the risk that education in Finnish will disappear at Umeå University – it is still a risk and no decision has been made:
Sweden needs language-proficient experts in Finnish. The need exists within schools, mother tongue teaching, translation, interpretation, elderly care, the cultural sector, media, research, civil society, public administration, and language and minority policy. Finnish is one of Sweden's five national minority languages, and Sweden has both national obligations and international commitments to protect and promote the language. These commitments cannot be fulfilled without long-term academic competence, teacher training, research, and higher education in Finnish.
Furthermore, the government has hindered the national organizations' opportunities to participate in the consultations by significantly reducing the support to the national organizations. The Swedish-Finnish delegation received 833,000 in 2022. Now they receive 140,000. This hinders the opportunities.
If Umeå University now closes the education in Finnish, it will become even more difficult to produce teachers in minority languages. The question remains: How will the government ensure that there are enough higher education institutions to produce teachers in minority languages?
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! This interpellation actually concerns two important matters – partly the position of minority languages in Sweden, and partly how we govern universities and colleges in Sweden.
The position of minority languages in Sweden is strong. We have five minority languages that have a special status. Certain educational institutions have specific mandates in the regulatory letters to ensure that those languages exist, are living, and so on. There are four educational institutions. It is Umeå University that is responsible for Sami and Meänkieli. It is Stockholm University that is responsible for Finnish. It is Södertörn University that is responsible for Romani Chib. And it is Lund University that is responsible for Yiddish. These are special mandates that exist in the regulatory letters.
When it comes to the large amount of education beyond this, the educational institutions manage it themselves, based on, for example, the demand for a subject. I mean that it should remain so. It is clear that we could regulate much more; we could regulate quantities of different subjects in Sweden and say that certain educational institutions have a special responsibility. I think, however, that it would be wrong from an idea of academic freedom. The universities must, to a very large extent, be able to decide on their education and their research.
This situation will therefore certainly arise on more occasions, and it has naturally already arisen. Then universities and educational institutions will likely also change based on the demand that exists. I do, however, think it is important to concentrate this – to ensure that these assignments remain at the educational institutions where they are located. If we were to broaden the assignment and say that, for example, Umeå University should also have the assignment, and perhaps Gothenburg and Uppsala Universities, we risk having rather small subjects spread over a large part of the country, and it is not certain that it is the most sensible thing to do in this situation.
I am, of course, following the developments closely, but the government will not further regulate this in the form of a new regulatory letter. This must instead be up to the educational institutions. At the same time, I think it is incredibly important that the minority languages have a special status and that these four educational institutions have the very important mission of ensuring that these languages still live and flourish in Sweden.
Mirja Räihä (S)
Madam Speaker! I believe that almost all minority languages in Sweden today are affected by language death in the third generation. I believe I have said that before.
I have three sons who all speak fluent Finnish and read and write Finnish. But they did not come home with Finnish girls to marry, but rather it was girls who cannot speak Finnish. Consequently, Swedish becomes the language spoken at home, and there what the preschool and the school can offer comes into a completely different light when it comes to revitalizing the language and making it stay. It is more and more generations that no longer speak the minority languages.
One can look at the Sámi languages. We have five different Sámi languages, some of which are larger and some very small. I understand, of course, that it is very difficult to regulate and provide that type of education, but Finnish is a major language. Approximately 700,000 people in Sweden have Finnish roots and want to read Finnish. The teacher training programs in minority languages will be extremely important for future opportunities to preserve the languages. In that regard, Umeå University has actually fulfilled a function. It has been an important part of a functioning infrastructure when it comes to the revitalization of minority languages, and in Umeå, that is about Finnish.
It is good that there is now permanent funding for the language centers, which can obviously also do a job when it comes to revitalization. The resource libraries do their part – adults come to the resource library in Stockholm and say: "I want to learn to read Finnish, but I must have books at an Alfons Åberg level!" It is about being able to increase reading speed and comprehension. My own son says that the Finnish words are so long that it becomes difficult to read for their small children. The educations that exist at the universities are, so to speak, the foundation for the rest of the language revitalization work when it comes to minority languages.
Other activities also require that the staff be bilingual. This concerns what falls within the municipalities' administration, such as preschools. We must be able to have preschool teachers who have been trained in Finnish, and we must be able to have elderly care staff who have been trained in Finnish. Stockholm has the only elderly care home in the country that is entirely Finnish-speaking, and there they say it is starting to become very difficult to find bilingual staff. Bilingualism is obviously a requirement when one is caring for elderly people.
What has happened and what is about to happen will override the minority law we have, Madam Speaker. Even though both Minister Edholm and I think that this is important, things have happened that have made it significantly more difficult to belong to the national minorities.
The government makes collective decisions, I have learned during my years in the Riksdag, and the government's collective decisions have meant that funds for the financing of minority groups have been reduced. In that case, something more obviously needs to be done in the next budget. That is why I say that we must see the risk of closing the training programs. If the training programs in Umeå are closed, it needs to be seen in the light of other decisions that have been made regarding minority policy. This concerns, for example, the support for the national organizations, where the funds from the county administrative boards have decreased. However, that is not the Minister's area, and now it is Umeå University we are talking about.
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I fully share Mirja Räihäs ambitions and commitment when it comes to the minority languages. They are part of our common cultural heritage, and it is important to do what we can to preserve them.
Finnish is probably one of the minority languages that has the fewest problems, given how many there actually are in Sweden who master the Finnish language. That is why the special assignments regarding the Finnish language that Stockholm University has are important. There are also other assignments in other areas that educational institutions have in their regulatory letters.
At the same time, it is a matter of principle: How much should we regulate our universities' education and research? I mean that the free universities' and institutions' ability to govern their own activities has benefited Sweden's development. I also mean that we cannot step in and govern in just exactly this area – and I am also not sure that Mirja Räihä even thinks I should do so.
On the other hand, one can naturally have a dialogue, and just as Mirja says, no decisions have been made regarding this, as far as I know. It may, however, happen that there are well-considered arguments for this decision – one might, for example, have a shortage of teachers, a lack of research, or whatever it may be. There are plenty of reasons why educational institutions choose different paths when they decide which educations they shall provide.
The government will not be managing this any further in this case, but we consider it incredibly important with the assignments that actually exist. There, an important assignment regarding the Finnish language goes to Stockholm University.
Mirja Räihä (S)
Madam Speaker! It is clear that no decisions have been made, but that is precisely why it is important to raise the question now – before the decisions are made. It is surely worse to have an interpellation debate when the training programs are already gone. At least that is what I think.
I still want to convey to the Minister that Umeå's educational programs are also important in the work of reclaiming and revitalizing languages. It is about producing preschool teachers and teachers who are bilingual. Even though the universities are free in their practice and in choosing which programs they should offer, the universities must also follow the minority legislation in Sweden, and therefore we really need to have proper consultations regarding this.
Now, a consultation has been promised, but what I have heard about the consultations is unfortunately that two hours are booked, that a state secretary holds the floor for three quarters of an hour, and then there is a quarter of an hour left to take in comments. Regardless of whether one is Minister for Higher Education, Minister for Education, Minister for Civil Affairs, or whatever, the government really needs to start respecting the consultations with the minority groups. I am afraid that this consultation will be just like the consultations I have heard about so far, where the participants have not really listened to one another. We need to reach a point where we have a dialogue instead of one-way communication.
I hope that Finnish gets to remain at Umeå University, because I am convinced that it is needed.
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I think, as I have said, that the minority languages in Sweden are important, and I think that the institutions' missions are important. But the principle is that the institutions themselves must decide their orientation, both when it comes to education and when it comes to research.
All educations in Sweden are important, and it is important that there is a variety of different educations in a variety of different areas. Sometimes one must provide the type of assignment that, for example, Stockholm University has for the Finnish language. I mean, however, both as Minister for Education and Research and as a liberal, that what benefits us most are free, strong universities and colleges that primarily decide on their own activities themselves.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.