Between 1991 and 1992 I led a project to evaluate the examination system used in the humanities. The project involved preparing for the changes brought on by the new degree ordinance. The 1994 changes to the examination system in were considerable: we scrapped the degree programmes introduced in 1980, started to grade basic, intermediate and advanced studies separately once more, brought back the BA degree in the humanities, and removed compulsory general studies. Many of these changes anticipated the Bologna Process, which came some years later.

I was the vice chairman of the University Council between 1993 and 1995, when Reijo Vihko served as chairman. It was a turbulent term, not least because of the economic depression. The department head, Markku Linna, had blunt instructions for the nascent council: “your task is to overhaul the institution of Finnish higher education.” We prepared almost a hundred proposals, only a few of which were ever put into effect. Out of the blue, in February 1993 the Ministry of Education asked the Council to prepare a presentation for appointing about ten Centres of Excellence in Research. The preparation was chaotic, with photocopiers glowing red at every university. After several rounds of voting, the Council managed to choose the first Centre of Excellence in the country. I believe this was the beginning of the much inflated hype around these Centres.

Between 1996 and 1999 I was a member of the first evaluation board of institutes of higher education. I had to participate in many different kinds of evaluations, from the handling of charter applications by the first polytechnics to the foreign language programmes at universities and polytechnics. I was also involved in the weeklong evaluation of the University of Vaasa. The start of the evaluation was inauspicious. I found a thick folder on the desk in my hotel room. On the first page was a note from the university’s Faculty of Arts, declaring my unsuitability to evaluate their faculty.