Students protesting in the University of Helsinki main building on 3 December 2025. Photo: Students for Palestine Finland
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More than 700 students and staff at the University of Helsinki walked out of classes on Wednesday to protest academic cooperation with Israeli universities. Similar demonstrations took place at universities in Tampere, Turku, Kuopio, Jyväskylä, Oulu and Rovaniemi.
The protests were organised by the Students for Palestine movement. The group is demanding that all Finnish universities end institutional ties with Israeli institutions, particularly through EU-funded research projects under the Horizon Europe programme.
Protesters gathered at the University of Helsinki’s main building at 13:00. Participants included students from all of the university’s campuses, as well as from Aalto University and the University of the Arts Helsinki. At least 20 people walked out at Aalto and 40 at the University of the Arts. An estimated 250 joined the protest in Tampere and 50 in Kuopio.
In a statement, Aatu Karjalainen, a spokesperson for Students for Palestine, said the mobilisation across multiple campuses reflected growing frustration among students and staff.
“We are here because university leadership continues to ignore its ethical responsibility. We demand that all ties with Israeli universities be cut as long as they are involved in the occupation and apartheid policies targeting Palestinians,” Karjalainen said.
At the centre of the protest is the University of Helsinki’s involvement in 15 Horizon Europe research projects that include Israeli institutions as partners. Protesters called on the university to withdraw from these projects.
The University of Helsinki’s Director of Administration, Esa Hämäläinen, told Yle that participation in EU research projects is a matter of academic freedom. He added that researchers can choose not to work with Israeli institutions but that the university does not enforce institutional bans.
The group said their boycott campaign does not target individual researchers and does not seek to limit academic freedom. Instead, it aims to end financial and institutional cooperation with Israeli universities, which they argue legitimise state policies that violate Palestinian rights.
Inkeri Tuikkanen, another member of the movement, criticised the university’s leadership for invoking academic freedom while Israeli military actions have damaged Palestinian educational infrastructure. “It is unacceptable to speak of Finnish researchers’ academic freedom while Gaza’s education system is being destroyed,” she said.
Student and staff groups at the university have also backed the boycott call. The University of Helsinki Student Union and the university’s largest academic staff organisation, the Helsinki University Researchers’ Association, have both expressed support for cutting cooperation with Israeli institutions.
Despite this, no institutional action has been taken. A similar protest in May led to the suspension of a student exchange programme with Israeli universities. No further terminations have been announced since then.
The protests are part of a broader effort by Students for Palestine Finland, a national movement promoting an academic boycott of Israel. The group said it will continue its campaign until universities in Finland stop collaborating with institutions linked to the Israeli state.
HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
