Shortage of Russian language students

As much as 30 percent of new students of the Russian language at Finnish universities speak it as their mother tongue. The share of native Russian speakers has grown, since there are not enough Finnish students who want to study Russian. An international group led by the Finnish academy examining the problem says that the teaching of Russian and Baltic languages should be strengthened, because the likelihood of these countries joining the EU increases the need for people who have a command of their languages. In addition, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Latvian and Lithuanian are studied more as secondary rather than major studies. That is problematic for universities, because financing is based on the examinations completed.