Thursday. 28.03.2024

Over 6,000 applicants to higher education study programmes offered in English by Finnish educational institutions have been accepted to study in Finland during the next academic year.

According to the figures released by the Finnish National Agency for Education (OPH), more than 22,500 people applied for a place of study in last spring's first joint application round. Of them, 6,033 (which is 27%) received an offer of admission.

Starting from 2020, the joint application to higher education has been divided into two separate joint applications. In the first joint application, students can apply to degree programmes offered in English, programmes offered by the University of the Arts and the theatre study programme at Tampere University.

In the second joint application in spring, one can apply to degree programmes offered in Finnish and Swedish.

The selection in the joint application consisted of programmes offered in English and programmes offered by the University of the Arts.

Compared to last year, around 1,000 more applicants were offered admission and there were some 1,000 more study places available and also a bigger number of applicants.

The rate of acceptance was also a bit higher (25% in 2020).

Fields of study

The most contested fields of study were arts and culture, with only 10% of applicants being accepted, as well as agriculture and forestry, with an acceptance rate of 15%. With 30% of applicants accepted, the easiest field to gain admission to was technology.

60% of all the applicants admitted were accepted to bachelor's degree programmes while 40% were accepted to master’s degree programmes.

The acceptance rate to universities of applied sciences (UAS) was 60% and 40% when applying to universities. 39% of the accepted applicants are Finnish citizens.

The next two most prominent nationalities within the accepted applicants were Vietnamese and Bangladeshi. 49% of the total number of accepted applicants were from outside the EU/EEA-area.

The applicants were informed of the results of the joint application during the first week of June. The offer of admission must be accepted by 16 July, before 15:00 (Eastern European Summer Time). Applicants can be admitted from a waiting list until 2 August.

6,000 admitted to Finnish higher education programmes in English