Ylioppilaslehti and the University’s Language Struggle in the 1920’s and the 1930’s

Abstract

A new Universities Act was a current topic in 1922, just as it is today. The most essential part in the reform concerned the language of education, Swedish and/or Finnish. It was the starting point for the language struggle which lasted until the Second World War. Nationalistic university students played an important role in this ethnolinguistic conflict. This article covers the issue through the student’s magazine Ylioppilaslehti, which has not only been an important forum for university students, but occasionally also significant for the wider Finnish public sphere.