Efficacy of Language requirements in Higher Education Institutions in Finland: Decolonisation through University Admission Criteria

This paper analyses the English language proficiency requirement in Finnish universities on the basis of efficacy and neocolonialism. The paper further explores the level of understanding of the admission staff in Finland, on the significance of English language in the admission process in Finland. The paper illuminates hidden fallacies through foreign language requirement for English-speaking African immigrants from British-colonised countries where English is used as an official language and medium of facilitating learning, and deconstructs the efficacy and paradoxes reflected through the language requirements in Finnish universities for international students from nine British-colonised countries in Africa. There is a research gap created by conflicting findings about the efficacy of language proficiency testing as an admission requirement in universities in Finland viz-a-viz the institutionalised neocolonialism. This paper uses empirical ethnography approach and qualitative methods to empirically analyse the 2022/2023 language requirement as an admission criteria in eight Finnish Universities and its efficacy for international students from nine British-colonised English-speaking countries. This paper invokes policy-level conversations on the application of English language requirement in Finnish universities. This paper uses primary and secondary data from the universities’ websites and email communications with the eight Finnish universities’ admission offices. The theory of race and ethnicity is used to question the application of English language proficiency requirement in Finland for selected nationalities. The Finnish universities should find alternative approaches for evaluating the language requirement for all students equally.