Research concerned with university students and the student culture in Finland has shown that students place particular emphasis on gaining their degree as quickly as possible and finding themselves a good job which correlates with their own interests. There is a tendency for students to adopt a more instrumental attitude towards knowledge and study. University studies have come to be arranged more in the form of fixed courses and the burden on students has increased. This has in turn generated greater pressures in terms of performance and led students to be guided to an escalating degree by the hidden curriculum. The above- mentioned tendencies of crisis are reflected not only by the students but also to the teachers and researchers of the university.
Teaching is considered a marginal activity at the university.
The changes in teaching require cooperation in the whole department as well as the active participation of the students in the development of teaching. Naturally, one may ask if it is even possible for a student in this kind of situation to take any other attitude than an instrumental one towards knowledge and studies. The same question may also be asked from the point of view of a university teacher. As the opposite of instrumental studying , the developmental attitude towards studying and studies has often been offered. If a person does not experience conflict, dissonance, situations and crises, which are difficult to handle, the person will not develop.