This article examines the perceptions of early-career, fixed-term researchers in Finnish universities towards changing careers. It maps out the reasons this group has considered the change and where they see themselves in five years. As a theoretical framework, a synthesisation of variables related to career change, created by Ryan et al. (2011), was used. The results show that the most common reasons for early-career researchers to change careers are job-security related stress, job-related dissatisfaction, and salary. Over half of the respondents would like to work at a university in five years; however, half of the respondents would also be happy to work in industry. Further examination of the responses highlighted the polarisation of those academics who were optimistic about their future employment opportunities in academia and those with highly pessimistic outlooks. The results of the study bear crucial importance when addressing the current discussion and issues related to the career paths of early-career researchers in Europe.

This paper discusses strategic instruments that are used to enhance the competitiveness of Finnish universities in the context of globalisation, internationalisation and commercialisation of research and education.The Finnish higher education system is currently undergoing a major policy reform, which aims to enhance the competitiveness of Finnish universities through structural development. This article focuses specifically on three themes of structural development: institutional cooperation and mergers between universities; stratification and differentiation; and changes in governance and leadership. Three ongoing projects are used as illustrations. Structural development and competitivenessIn the era of globalisation, universities are seen as key institutions for producing knowledge and workforce for the needs of modern society; universities are considered instruments of social and economic change. Universities are also expected to play a central part in the innovation system, economic development, knowledge-based economy and the competitiveness of nation-states. Technological and innovation policies, research financing and commercialisation of science advances differentiation of universities. At the same time, research environments and the production of knowledge are changing and collaboration with industry and the private sector has increased (Gibbons et al.

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