The Hybrid High School Project is funded by the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and the Economic Development Centre of Northern Finland (2026–2028). The project has been prepared in cooperation with the University of Lapland, the University of Turku, the City of Rovaniemi, the City of Kemijärvi, and the municipalities of Posio, Salla, Savukoski and Sodankylä. The University of Lapland acts as the lead project implementer and is responsible for coordinating the project as a whole.

The Hybrid High School Project

The Lapland Hybrid High School Project brings together high schools across Lapland that provide teaching, learning and guidance through flexible combinations of face-to-face, distance and online learning, as well as pedagogical and technological methods that support individual learning pathways. The hybrid high school model enables students to study regardless of their location and in different life situations, taking into account their individual skills, goals and needs. It combines physical, digital, social and psychological learning environments, guided by research-based and student-centred pedagogy.

Declining birth rates and population loss are creating challenges for the provision of basic and upper secondary education outside the major urban centres. As tuition fees for international students from EU and EEA countries are introduced, the operating capacity of high schools in sparsely populated areas will become increasingly constrained. At present, for example, more than half of the students at the high schools in Salla and Savukoski in Eastern Lapland are international students: 50 of the 80 students at Salla High School and 14 of the 22 students at Savukoski High School come from outside the EU and EEA. To ensure the continued viability of high schools in Lapland, cooperation between them is essential. If the vitality of high schools is not maintained, the provision of basic education will also become more challenging, as teachers in small high schools in particular often teach at both the basic education and upper secondary levels.

The project secures the availability of teaching in certain subjects and helps smaller high schools, such as Savukoski High School, expand their course offerings by providing optional courses that cannot be organised locally for only a small number of students. The project also supports the provision of basic education. Each participating municipality is responsible for organising hybrid teaching in one subject, which students from other municipalities can also participate in. The Hybrid High School Project strengthens expertise in technology and innovation through the use of digitalisation, learning analytics and artificial intelligence, among other things. The adoption of artificial intelligence is also an emerging trend among small businesses and Lapland’s rapidly growing tourism sector.

Kuva: Adobe Stock.

Project objectives

The project aims to develop a functional and scalable hybrid high school model that serves both individuals and the needs of working life. It seeks to establish new forms of cooperation between high schools, universities and the world of work. The project creates opportunities for continuous learning for students from diverse fields and backgrounds. It promotes the accessibility of education and strengthens equality and equal opportunities.

The project promotes opportunities for young people in sparsely populated areas to complete high education in their home municipalities. In sparsely populated areas, distances between municipalities are long, and the closure of high schools would significantly undermine the operating conditions of local basic education schools as well. Completing high school studies in their home municipality also helps young people maintain a connection to their local area and thereby contributes to the vitality of sparsely populated regions.

The project aims to improve the quality of high school education by making use of current technologies, artificial intelligence and learning analytics. Its goal is to develop new approaches to digital pedagogy based on research. Drawing on social constructivist and sociocultural theories of learning, the hybrid high school model will be developed around active knowledge construction, interaction and collaborative learning. The results of the project can be applied more broadly in Finland and internationally.

The project promotes cooperation between high school education and universities by making university studies available to a wider range of students already during high school. The national core curriculum for high school education places increasing emphasis on this as part of the role of high schools. The project enables more advanced differentiation of studies and supports academically talented students in progressing purposefully towards university studies already during high school education. The project will create new operating models and facilitate the transition from high school education to university.

The project also examines the added value that international students bring to high schools and promotes their transition to Finnish universities and integration into Finnish working life.

Meet our project team

Heli Ruokamo

Professor

Faculty of Education

+358 40 587 9090 heli.ruokamo@ulapland.fi Research profile Website
Portrait of Janne Väätäjä

Janne Väätäjä

Project Manager

Faculty of Education

+358 40 484 4259 janne.vaataja@ulapland.fi

Sirkku Kinnunen

Specialist

Faculty of Education

sikinnun@ulapland.fi

Pekka Muotka

University Teacher

Faculty of Education

+358 44 474 4341 pekka.muotka@ulapland.fi Research profile