The Student Capitalists

University students are sober, dedicated, enterprising, business-minded. Wrong? No, quite right--in Finland.

"When news from the outside world seemed to be of mayhem in the universities, we decided to do something other than riot," says Lauri Noreila, president of the student union at Helsinki's School of Economics. What he and his fellows did was organize a floating exhibition of Finnish products on a 10,000-ton ferry, then anchor it last fall beneath London's Tower Bridge. More than 100 firms participated in the "Finn-focus" exhibit, which produced $5,000,000 in export orders.

Such projects are not unusual for Finnish students, who are more concerned about profits than protests. The three "unions" to which most of Finland's 45,000 university students belong are among the country's biggest business enterprises. Using membership dues and bank loans, the students have bought a driving school, bookstores, a book publishing company, majority interest in a fertilizer plant, and a 25% share in Amer-Tupakka, a cigarette manufacturer that has annual sales of $11 million. The bulk of the unions' annual income of $7,500,000 comes from their real estate, worth at least $25 million. It consists mainly of dormitories, which the students built themselves and which they turn into tourist hotels during summer vacations.

Commando Tactics. Last week visitors were filling up the student-owned "summer hotels" and patronizing their restaurants. In Helsinki, converted dormitories provide 1,000 modern rooms for low-budget tourists, adding 70% to the city's available hotel space. Another 1,000 rooms are for rent in the provinces; single rooms go from $3 to $8.

The student union of Helsinki's Technical University set the pattern for student capitalism after World War II. It built dormitories, even using bricks salvaged from the rubble of the Soviet embassy, which had been hit by Russian bombers at the outset of the Russo-Finnish Winter War. Student "commandos" raised money by persuading engineering executives and 6,000 alumni to donate. Today, the union's dorms and cafeterias do a $1,700,000-a-year business and provide temporary jobs for scores of students. Together, the three student unions have a fulltime payroll of 1,000, including the hotel managers, who are picked by the elected student councils. Since the wholly student-owned enterprises pay no income tax, they can reinvest heavily in new ventures, chiefly additional low-cost student housing.

"The vast majority of our students understand the advantages of business activity," says Jaakko Saarinen, a 27-year-old student hotel manager. One reason is that almost all Finnish students come from families of modest means and have to start thinking early about how to earn a living.

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