Hanken School of Economics: From Commercial Education to Cooperative Finance Research

In 1909, Hanken’s predecessor, Högre Svenska Handelsläroverket, was established in Helsinki to provide Swedish-language commercial education in Finland. Historian Annette Forsén describes its initial aims as meeting business demand for higher education, widening access to education and raising the professional standing of people working in commerce. Teaching followed practical business needs; theoretical and research orientations developed over a longer period.

Private capital, public subsidies and tuition fees supported the early school. This combination provided considerable autonomy while unstable funding limited long-term planning. Business communities both employed graduates and supplied resources, bringing practical commercial needs into discussion of the school’s direction.

References: [2]

Helsinki’s statistical yearbook for 1910 was printed in 1913. Table 132, based on the school’s annual reports, records its first two academic years. In 1909–1910, it had one class and twelve teachers, ten men and two women. At the end of the academic year, twenty-five regular students were enrolled, eighteen men and seven women, with an additional auditor listed separately. These figures describe end-of-year enrollment rather than admissions on opening day.

The students had varied educational backgrounds. Fourteen had passed the matriculation examination; seven had completed relevant secondary or commercial-school courses; the remaining four had another form of secondary education. Twelve of the twenty-five lived in Helsinki, showing that the school drew students from beyond the city from the outset. Commercial training had to accommodate different prior qualifications.

References: [1]

The yearbook distinguished commercial studies from courses combining commerce and industry. The first year’s columns listed eleven and fifteen students respectively. A footnote explained that one attended both, leaving twenty-five students in total. In the second year, regular enrollment rose to fifty-one, classes increased from one to two and the number of teachers reached thirteen. Expansion was visible in student numbers and teaching arrangements.

The same table records a Helsinki municipal subsidy of 8,000 Finnish marks for the calendar year 1910. Its calendar-year basis differed from the academic-year figures, and the municipal grant represented only one source of income. Small-scale instruction, mixed funding and occupational study routes formed the practical foundations of the school’s early organization.

References: [1]

The school’s opening and the emergence of an independent higher-education institution belonged to different stages. The historical timeline in its 2009 annual report lists the predecessor’s founding in 1909, the introduction of higher-education courses in 1911 and the reorganization of that division into an independent commercial institution in 1927. A bachelor’s degree in economics followed in 1928; the first doctoral dissertation was defended at the school in 1944.

Research and degree structures were gradually added to vocational training. The school moved to Sailors’ Street in 1915 and continued to face choices among theory, practice and financing. A research institute appears as a separate founding milestone in the timeline only in 1970.

References: [2]

Finance emerged as a distinct research field later still. Mika Vaihekoski describes rector Lars Wahlbeck proposing a change around 1976 and working with Björn Wahlroos to redefine departments and professorial posts. The finance department was established in 1977, initially with few staff and limited research output.

In the early 1980s, Tom Berglund, Eva Liljeblom and Wahlroos worked together on data for stocks listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, initially storing their database on a mainframe in Otaniemi. Shared data allowed repeated investigation of market questions and supported a value-weighted total-return index beginning in January 1970. The latter date marks the start of the data series, not the construction of the database.

References: [3]

Bank-funded doctoral courses subsequently brought outside scholars to Finland and expanded opportunities for courses and exchanges across universities. Finance seminars organized by Hanken from 1988 included doctoral students from the Helsinki School of Economics. Berglund also worked with scholars at other universities on academic supervision of bank-supported programs. Cooperation encompassed shared data, discussion and researcher training.

From the new school’s two vocational study routes to databases and doctoral seminars decades later, Hanken’s research capacity developed through successive arrangements involving people, funding and working practices. Its opening in 1909 established the educational institution; the mature finance-research network developed afterwards.

References: [2] [3]