"If we look back at the past decade, then unfortunately the momentum we had in the 1990s has, for fairly objective reasons, faded. In truth, we should take pride in what we had achieved by about ten years ago. But it's quite clear that we can't go on like this. President Ilves once said that what brought us here won't take us forward anymore. That was more than ten years ago and, unfortunately, we still haven't figured out what that means, including in education. We need to start thinking differently and begin asking whether we are really capable of doing everything we once imagined during the phase of rapid growth," said Aaviksoo, who has served as rector of the University of Tartu, rector of Tallinn University of Technology and twice as minister of education.

"We need to decide not only what we want to do, but also what we will no longer do, what we will leave behind, because we simply can't do everything anymore. I understand that this isn't easy — these are choices and making choices is difficult. We're learning gradually, under pressure, but it seems to me that we're just treading water and focusing on minor details — unfortunately, this is true in education as well," he added.

Speaking about academic freedom, Aaviksoo said that it has traditionally been highly valued in Estonia, alongside personal freedoms and freedom of the press.

"When it comes to academic freedom in universities, we've gotten to a point where we're no longer supposed to even ask how that freedom is being used. Where is the responsibility and how are academic interests being balanced with broader societal needs? Even asking such a question is seen as out of line and I think that's a problem," Aaviksoo said.

"But I see tensions growing and in many cases, academic freedom or university interests are outweighing broader social expectations. Who should say this? Everyone should: employers, parents, students. But the responsibility to put it into words and shape it into education and higher education policy still falls on the government and the education minister," Aaviksoo emphasized.

According to Aaviksoo, the concept of academic freedom has not been properly understood as an absolute right to do whatever one pleases.

"Academic freedom, as it was formulated in the mid-19th century, is primarily the freedom to teach and learn without external ideological, political or economic pressure. That's how it should be preserved and protected. But that doesn't mean higher education policy shouldn't be made. It doesn't mean we shouldn't set structural goals or distribute responsibility between universities — that's what all countries do. I believe Estonia should also begin doing this more boldly, after the necessary discussions," he said.

"In the current situation, I don't want to be unfair to any particular field, but the debate over whether one or all universities should have the right to offer legal education is the wrong question. The real question is: do we have at least one law faculty that truly meets the standard Estonia needs? If we approach this through broader societal expectations and use that as the lens through which we define academic freedom, we'll be much closer to the truth. Right now, we're fighting too much over narrow, factional rights within and between universities, instead of looking at what we actually need and where the bottlenecks are," Aaviksoo said.

The former rector does not support breaking up existing universities.

"Universities have very strong organizational cultures. If we start carving up and redistributing them, it may do more harm than good. Power dynamics also shift: if we were to merge all the universities in Tallinn, engineering education, which the technical university is supposed to champion, would become an even smaller part of the whole. That would make the future of engineering education even more uncertain. The Ministry of Education should be able to define its goals with more quality, more clarity and over a longer horizon — most importantly, it should demand that these goals be met by applying appropriate financial levers. We don't dare do that to the same extent as other countries," he said.

Aaviksoo argued that employers should be much more actively involved in shaping education policy and planning educational processes in Estonia.

He also said that problems need to be better articulated and clear priorities must be established.

Aaviksoo agreed with host Indrek Kiisler's assertion that applied higher education institutions have a poor reputation in Estonia and that attending one is seen as second-rate.

"We've defined our belief in education too narrowly: early childhood education, basic education, upper secondary school, bachelor's, master's, doctorate — it's as if education is a tree that just keeps getting better the higher you go and everything that doesn't reach the top is like discarded woodchips. That's a conceptual error. People and their abilities are different. We should be much better at identifying and empowering individuals whose strengths don't lie in academic excellence or high IQs, but who are oriented toward practical, hands-on work," he said.

"The other issue is that we place too much emphasis on formal qualifications. This is reflected in the fact that our lifelong learning and retraining systems don't work as effectively as they should. Diplomas are highly valued, but at the same time, people lose competencies much faster over the course of their lives than in more developed countries. Belief in education shouldn't mean just academic excellence, but broader practical skills. Some people aren't able or motivated to study theory, but they can build student formula cars or achieve impressive results in programming — results they wouldn't reach if they were forced to study theory until the age of 30. They want to create the next Bolt at 18. We already have examples that show we should take a broader, more self-fulfilling view of education, not just a formal one," said Aaviksoo.

According to Aaviksoo, higher education needs reform and universities and colleges themselves should take the initiative in proposing changes.

"We are capable of articulating the need for structural changes in public discourse and nudging things in a positive direction. The higher education sector itself needs to come to the understanding that we can't move forward without change. /.../ Bearing responsibility cannot just be about asserting your rights. It must happen through open dialogue. Unfortunately, the reaction from the academic community has been protectionist and aimed at defending guild privileges," said Aaviksoo.

At the same time, Aaviksoo noted, freedom of expression within academia in Estonia has endured and there have been no instances of "shouting down" or canceling lecturers over their views, as has occurred in the United States.

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