Anticipatory governance in government: the case of Finnish higher education

In response to uncertain times, liberal democracies aspire to develop anticipatory practices that usher in changes in policies and governance. These practices include creating visions and implementing roadmaps, which seek to address, and ultimately preempt, future challenges (Anderson, 2010). While such practices are increasingly implemented today in decision-making in Nordic countries and around the world (Dreyer & Stang, 2013; Beckert & Bronk, 2018; Beerten & Kranke, 2022), their implications are seldom studied, especially in the context of higher education. This article addresses this gap in current research by analyzing the case of the future governance of Finnish higher education. The analysis focuses on the creation of visions and roadmaps, as well as reports anticipating the future needs of higher education. The article investigates how the anticipation of higher education needs has developed and how it is related to current visions. Moreover, it examines the consequences of anticipatory practices in the development of policy and governance and investigates the policy future that will be enacted through these anticipatory practices. The findings show that the anticipation of higher education needs underpins the strategic choices affecting the allocation of resources and the population’s educational levels in the long term, while visions draw actors into the coproduction of future imagining and instigate widespread reforms. Visions and other practices underpin anticipatory governance in higher education, where goals for the long term are established through the negotiation of normative preferences based on a human capital view of the future.