Maija-Liisa Rask (born 28 January 1951) is a Finnish retired politician and nurse. She represented Lapland in the

Parliament of Finland The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...

as a member of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

from 1991 to 2007. As minister of education from 1999 to 2003, she was one of the 29 signers of the Bologna declaration.

Biography

Rask was born on 28 January 1951 in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

, Finland. She qualified as a registered nurse in 1974 and as a

public health nurse Public health nursing, also known as community health nursing is a nursing specialty focused on public health. The term was coined by Lillian Wald of the Henry Street Settlement, or, Public health nurses (PHNs) or community health nurses "integra ...

in 1980. From 1974 to 1984, she worked at hospitals in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the c ...

and Kemi. Rask received a degree in nursing education from the Kemi Institute of Health Care in 1983, where she became a teacher in 1985. She was elected to the city council of Kemi that year, and she was a presidential elector in the

1988 Finnish presidential election Presidential elections were held in Finland in 1988.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p606 They were the first elections held under a new system. Previously, the public had elected an electoral colle ...

. Rask studied

environmental protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...

at the

University of Lapland The University of Lapland is located in the city of Rovaniemi, Finland. It was founded in 1979. While UiT The Arctic University of Norway is the northernmost university in the world, the University of Lapland is the most northern university in t ...

, and received a degree in 1990. Rask was elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1991, as the only member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to represent Lapland. She sat on several committees during her time in Parliament, including Environment (1991–1995), Social Affairs and Health (1995–1999), Finance (1996–1999), and the Chancellery Commission (1999). She was also the vice chair of the SDP parliamentary group from 1997 to 1999. Rask was re-elected to her seat three times, but lost re-election in 2007. Prime Minister

Paavo Lipponen Paavo Tapio Lipponen (; born 23 April 1941) is a Finnish politician and former reporter. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 to 2003, and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland from 1993 to 2005. He also served as Speaker of t ...

appointed Rask as minister of education in April 1999, and she held the position for four years until

Anneli Jäätteenmäki Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki (born 11 February 1955) is a Finnish politician who was the first female Prime Minister of Finland from 17 April 2003 to 24 June 2003. From 2004 until 2019, she served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) ...

became prime minister in 2003. In June 1999, Rask and education ministers from 28 other European countries signed the Bologna declaration, which proposed the

European Higher Education Area The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) was launched in March 2010, during the Budapest-Vienna Ministerial Conference, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Bologna Process. As the main objective of the Bologna Process since its ince ...

in which students and graduates could move freely between countries. She oversaw other reforms of Finland's education system, including the addition of health education in schools and splitting the national matriculation exam into subject-specific tests. She proposed the development of accelerated medical programs for nurses to become doctors, in response to a shortage of doctors in Finland, but the proposal was opposed by universities. In 2006, Rask received a master's degree from the University of Lapland, specializing in education. After she left Parliament, she completed the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St ...

, Spain, in 2011. In 2012, she received the

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

degree from the University of Lapland. Her doctoral research analysed the results of a 2007 questionnaire about health literacy in secondary schools.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rask, Maija 1951 births 20th-century Finnish women politicians 21st-century Finnish women politicians Finnish city councillors Finnish nurses Ministers of Education of Finland Members of the Parliament of Finland (1991–95) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1995–99) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1999–2003) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2003–07) Living people People from Turku Social Democratic Party of Finland politicians University of Lapland alumni Women local politicians Women government ministers of Finland Women members of the Parliament of Finland Women nurses

Biography

See also

References