3.2 FINEEC
The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC) is an independent governmental agency responsible for the evaluation of education in Finland. FINEEC carries out evaluations related to education including the operations of education providers from early childhood education to higher education.
Provisions on the duties and organisation of FINEEC are laid down in the Act 1295/2013 and Government decree 1317/2013. The legislation concerning FINEEC allows the agency to operate across borders and provide also fee-based services to education organisations operating nationally or internationally, as well as to its other customers. Fee-based services are provided based on commissions, orders, requests or competitive tendering.
The key documents guiding the activities of FINEEC are the FINEEC strategy 2024–2027 and the National Education Evaluation Plan 2024–2027 (FINEEC 2024). FINEEC draws up its strategy and the national evaluation plans for four-year periods. The evaluation plan is drawn up in a participatory process in which stakeholders, FINEEC staff and FINEEC’s decision-making bodies are strongly involved. The plan is approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the document steers the evaluation activities of the agency.
According to the current strategy of FINEEC (2024–2027), FINEEC's objectives are
- Raising competence and education levels
- Fostering social, ecological and economic sustainable development
- Continuous improvement of the quality of education and early childhood education and care.
Following its strategic principles, FINEEC carries out impactful, trustworthy and independent evaluation activities. The agency aims at evaluation results that create impact and are used in making important societal decisions as well as decisions at the national and the local level. FINEEC’s results are based on reliably produced information and evaluations are free from external influence. The agency is committed to following the ethical principles concerning evaluation in all its’ activities. FINEEC also adheres to Finnish National Board of Research Integrity TENK principles on Responsible Conduct of Research.
Organisation
FINEEC operates as a separate unit within the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) with complete independence in terms of its operations. FINEEC has the duties and decision-making powers of an independent authority. EDUFI provides FINEEC some administrative and support services, such as HR, financial, legal, procurement and data management services.
FINEEC comprises the Evaluation Council, the Higher Education Evaluation Committee and four units: Higher Education and Liberal Adult Education Unit, General Education Unit, Vocational Education and Training and Early Childhood Education and Care Unit and Development Services Unit. FINEEC has approximately 40 staff members of which 7 are engaged in evaluations of higher education. The main office and most of the staff are in Helsinki, and some staff are based in Jyväskylä.
The Evaluation Council is the strategic decision-making body of FINEEC. The Government Decree (1317/2013) on FINEEC prescribes the composition, tasks and decision-making powers of the Council.
The mandate of the current Council is ending in May 2026 (10 June 2022–31 May 2026). The new Council is expected to be appointed by the Government in June 2026. For tasks of the Council, please see FINEEC’s SAR of ENQA Review 2021-2022 (FINEEC, 2021).
Higher Education Evaluation Committee is the decision-making body for higher education evaluations and consists of nine members of which three must also be members of the Evaluation Council. According to the Government Decree, the Evaluation Council proposes members for the Higher Education Evaluation Committee, and the Ministry of Education and Culture appoints them. The Council makes its selection from the candidates put forward by the higher education institutions and other stakeholders. The members must be experts in the evaluation of higher education. The Evaluation Committee decides on:
- Project plans as well as the compositions of planning and evaluation teams for evaluations of higher education institutions
- Outcomes of audits of higher education institutions.
Composition of the Higher Education Evaluation Committee for the period 1 December 2022–30 November 2026 is available on the FINEEC website.