In its meeting on 24 February, the Government decided to impose more stringent measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and to transition to tier 2 of prevention measures.

The Constitution safeguards the autonomy of universities and the Universities Act secures the general administrative framework in universities. The working group that carried out the assessment of administrative autonomy in Finnish universities deemed it unnecessary for legislation at the level of an act of Parliament to be more specific than it currently is. The working group considers that many of the challenges and problems that university administration faces can be solved by means of the universities’ rules under their own decision-making power, and by enhancing management and changing procedures and practices.

A study on the effects of diminished proceeds from gambling activities has been completed. The study examines four options for developing the Finnish gambling system. The working group sets as its primary option a comprehensive overhaul that would place gambling proceeds within the scope of universal coverage in central government revenue and existing beneficiaries would be under the spending limits procedure. The report was published on 26 February.

The objective of the student admissions reform is to streamline the transition to higher education and to improve the allocation of student places. In the monitoring study commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Culture, researchers from the Labour Institute for Economic Research (PT) and the VATT Institute for Economic Research examined whether the reform succeeded in its objectives. The study will be completed in spring 2022. This interim report presents provisional data on the study.