Sep 23, 2026 · 1 hr 11 min · 11 segments
**In this episode I interview Dr Eeva Sointu. Eeva is an Associate Professor in Sociology and co-lead of the Sociology courses at York St John University. I ask Eeva about her journey into academia…
Eeva SointuGuest
Holly MurphyHost
So you mentioned earlier about higher education kind of being in a dire situation.
This question is, what are your hopes for where higher education and research are heading? But I'm holding that with knowing, you know, that we were speaking about, you know, being a really dire situation that's going on right now.
Like, I think that I'm completely biased about it, but I think the higher education is life changing and it is really, really important.
So in the moment when it feels like, you know, the students are not on board and there's just an endless... set of things that you have to do that's what i try to hold on to as well that this is actually meaningful yeah not just for me individually but for society for for the ways in which lives are organized like it actually matters that we are here doing this work And it matters.
Sometimes there are things like, you know, like, I don't know, people develop the COVID vaccine.
But there are other meanings as well, where somebody who didn't feel like they belonged does belong and can find, is able to then share their experiences and their research with others and kind of expand the vistas for others.
So I do think that that's really, really important, even in the context that is really, really dire.
But I also think that, and this is me with my union hat on, I think that we need to start thinking about things like fees.
So if thinking about the future, I would be changing the funding model and kind of thinking about higher education as a public good that is good for society because it's good to have population that actually knows stuff.
And part of that kind of development is that they wouldn't have this outrageously horrible debt hanging over them for the next 30 years.
So you mentioned earlier about higher education kind of being in a dire situation.
This question is, what are your hopes for where higher education and research are heading? But I'm holding that with knowing, you know, that we were speaking about, you know, being a really dire situation that's going on right now.
Like, I think that I'm completely biased about it, but I think the higher education is life changing and it is really, really important.
So in the moment when it feels like, you know, the students are not on board and there's just an endless... set of things that you have to do that's what i try to hold on to as well that this is actually meaningful yeah not just for me individually but for society for for the ways in which lives are organized like it actually matters that we are here doing this work And it matters.
Sometimes there are things like, you know, like, I don't know, people develop the COVID vaccine.
But there are other meanings as well, where somebody who didn't feel like they belonged does belong and can find, is able to then share their experiences and their research with others and kind of expand the vistas for others.
So I do think that that's really, really important, even in the context that is really, really dire.
But I also think that, and this is me with my union hat on, I think that we need to start thinking about things like fees.
So if thinking about the future, I would be changing the funding model and kind of thinking about higher education as a public good that is good for society because it's good to have population that actually knows stuff.
And part of that kind of development is that they wouldn't have this outrageously horrible debt hanging over them for the next 30 years.
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