Education
Schooling is free and compulsory in Finland between the ages of 7 and 16. Virtually no illiteracy exists. In addition to regular primary and secondary schools, Finland has an extensive adult education program consisting of folk high schools, folk academies, and workers' institutes. The adult education schools are operated privately or by municipalities or provinces and receive state subsidies.
Education is state-supported in Finland. Schooling is required from ages 7 to 15 and is free. Instruction for all students is standard. Virtually 100 percent of the people are literate. The University of Helsinki, founded in Turku in 1640 and transferred to Helsinki in 1828, is the principal university of the nation's 20 institutions of higher education.
Elementary and Secondary Schools
Compulsory education consists of six years of primary schooling and three years of secondary schooling. In 1991 about 394,300 children annually attended some 4230 primary schools, and about 315,700 students went to approximately 1100 general secondary schools. Finland also maintains a system of secondary vocational education with schools of commerce, arts and crafts, domestic science, trade, agriculture, and technology; yearly enrollment totaled some 123,296 students in 1991.
Universities and Colleges
The Finnish institutes of higher learning, which include 13 universities and several colleges and teacher-training schools, had a total annual enrollment of some 175,000 students in 1991. The largest of the universities is the University of Helsinki. Originally established at Turku in 1640, the university was moved to Helsinki in 1828. Among the other major institutions of higher learning are the University of Turku (1919), the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration (1911), the University of Tampere (1966), and the University of Oulu (1958).
EconomyFinland has a highly industrialized modern economy with a per capita output in par with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and Italy. The main economic sector is services, but manufacturing and technology is the key export sector, centering around the wood, metals, engineering, telecommunications, and electronics industries.
Similarly to its Nordic neighbors, Finland has achieved an excellent standard of living through the so called Nordic model, which stresses a model of education, lifelong learning, and research for economic growth purposes.
Finland constantly ranks high in terms of measures ranking countries global competitiveness, with World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report ranking Finland 2nd out of 125 countries for 2006-2007.
Climate
In Finland the weather can vary greatly during one day, first sunshine, then rain. Rapid changes in the weather are a characteristic feature from one day to the next. In the winter troughs of low pressure that have formed over the North Atlantic bring mild, cloudy and wet weather on southerly and southwesterly winds. The hottest weather in the summer, on the other hand, generally comes from the southeast, bringing thunderstorms and heavy rain showers.
As far as tourism in Finland is concerned, the weather both in summer and winter has its own exotic attraction. Autumn and spring are short and the weather in those seasons has its own beautiful features reflected by the natural surroundings. The striking tints on the leaves in Lapland in September are particularly splendid. The rich colours of the autumn last a week or two, their timing varying from year to year. Leaves obtain their colourful tints after a few nights of frost. Once these colours fade away in the north, they reappear quickly in southern Lapland. Elsewhere in Finland the period of autumn foliage occurs during September and October. In March and April the spring snow in Lapland glistens under the plentiful sunlight, a magnificent time for a winter holiday.
List of Universities in FINLAND
North America
North America
GRE
