Studying in Finland: a guide by your local international tutor

Niina

03/07/2024

Hi all! Are you planning to do an exchange in Finland? Or just interested in what it is like to study at a Finnish university? If your answer is yes, you are at the right place! Welcome, welcome! In this post, I will give you some information about university life in Finland which I hope could be informative for people interested in the subject. 

My background for this post is that I am, in fact, a Finnish person studying history at the University of Jyväskylä, in central Finland. During my studies, I have worked as a tutor for international students coming to our university. Most of the things mentioned in this post are stuff that I actually told my tuties during their first weeks here. So you could consider me as your virtual tutor who guides you through the subject!

The library of our uni which is the first building you see when coming to the campus from the city center

I am aiming to write this guide as general as possible so it fits exchange students coming to study at any university in Finland and not just to Jyväskylä. However, there may be some specialties for my university or my major that work differently from other ones. Also, even though I talk mostly about exchange students, most things work the same for students doing international degrees in Finland.

There will be information about studying in Finland (like how the courses work and stuff like that), about student life and at the end some other tips and things that I think would be interesting for people coming here to study.

Let’s start with the most boring stuff:

Studying

Schedule of studies

Our school year is divided into two semesters: the autumn semester starts around late August and ends in December (depending on how early your professors want to let you and themselves into the Christmas holidays). The spring semester starts after the 6th of January and ends somewhere in May, again depending on your professors. However, international students may need to arrive sooner because of their orientation programs or possible language courses. In my uni, the orientation program usually takes place a week before the beginning of the semester. So for the spring semester right after the New Year.

Both semesters are divided into two periods. The courses may last the whole year (such as the thesis seminars), for one semester, or just for one period. This means that the timetables may change during the semester.

The courses

As a student, I have an impression that the professors can organize their courses as they like (with the guidelines of the curriculum, of course). If the professor likes to do something interactive, they can do that, but if they prefer just to talk themselves the whole time and let the students listen, that is also fine.

One of our lecture rooms (yes, there is no tables which is a bit difficult)

The same goes for the tasks of the courses. We may have exams if the professor wants to, but we do not have exam weeks at the end of the period. That said, in practice, the deadlines are usually at the end of the courses so the end of the period can still be quite busy. Instead of exams, it is common to have, for example, group works (which we all love so so so much), essays, learning diaries, or whatever the teachers come up with.

I imagine the learning diaries are the oddest one of those tasks so a short introduction: the idea is to write a little bit (around one page depending on the course) about each lecture, reflect on your own thoughts, and show what you learned. In some courses, the professors may also ask you to include some reading in the diary.

Another special thing in Finnish universities, at least in my experience, is the number of independent studies. For instance, I have done most of my minor studies as independent courses. One way to do independent studies is so-called book exams. For those, students just read two to three books and take an exam based on them. At least in my major, these book exams are a common way to get courses done, but this is not the case of all the subjects. 

Books for the book exams

Language

Finnish is a bit different than most languages in Europe, and we know that. The international students are not expected to know the language in advance. There are courses available in English and usually most of the information of the university should be available in English in addition to Finnish and possibly Swedish (the other national language).

That said, I would still recommend taking a language course to be able to say “Moi!” and “Kiitos!” to the cashier at the grocery store.

Study registration

Study registration is done online on the university’s platform. Actually, Finnish universities are very digitalized, so most things are done online. The grades and credits can be found online after the courses as well as all needed documents. It is also more common to communicate with the professors and other staff members via email instead of meeting them in person.

Tutors

I believe most of the universities in Finland have tutoring services for international students. In my university, tutors support international students during the first days. This includes, for example, meeting the student at the station and accompanying them to their accommodation, organizing campus and city tours, helping them register for the courses, and giving lots of information. Tutors are also supposed to help international students connect with the local student community.

Student life in Finland

Subject organizations

Subject organizations are an important part of the Finnish student community. They organize events and take care of students’ rights and stuff like that. International students are very welcome to join their events! This could be a nice way to meet the local Finnish students.

In addition to subject organization, all Finnish universities have a section of ESN (Erasmus Student Network), which organizes events and trips. They are particularly popular among international students. More about ESN in Finland: ESN Finland

A couple of typical events so you will not be confused:

  • Fuksiaiset (Freshman party): organized at the beginning of the year to welcome new students. Usually includes dressing up and doing little, funny tasks.
  • Sitsit (Table party): This is an experience. You sit at the table, sing random drinking songs, and drink your shots. Usually includes also eating, some tasks, and rules (such as no clapping hands, only table!). If you break a rule, you may get a punishment task!
  • Vujut or Vuosijuhlat (Annual party): Fancy dinner party. Includes best clothes, speeches, and wine. Very beautiful event! Of course, the evening ends in the after-party. My subject organization also organizes an event called sillikset on the day after. People hang around, recover from the previous night, and possibly go to the sauna to relax.
  • Approt: A Pub-grow where you collect marks of the drinks (and possible foods too). When you have enough marks, you get a patch as a price. There are huge events and students all around Finland gather them. The most popular approt is in Tampere. In addition to these pub-grow approt, there are other appro-events with the same concept where you do something (sports, watch movies, eat treats) and get a patch after completing enough of the required tasks.
  • Vappu (First of May): Vappu is a dear holiday for everybody in Finland, but especially for students who celebrate it for the whole week! Might have something to do with the fact that this is usually when all the snow has finally melted and spring is here. Also, our courses are usually almost finished. On Vappu Eve (on the 30th of April), Students dress up in their vappu attire (student overalls and high school graduation caps), get their drinks, balloons, and camping chairs, and party in the parks. The next day, the parties continue in the form of a picnic. This is a bit hard to explain, you need to experience it yourself!
Celebrating vappu!

Student overalls (or haalarit)

The basic dress code of the Finnish students in the events is the student overalls. If there is no other instruction for dressing up (like a costume or fancy dress), overalls it is! Every subject organization has its own overalls that include the logo of the organization. Based on the logos and colors of the overalls, students can recognize what the others study (or at least this is the idea, it gets hard when there are several in the same color). This is why exchange students need to get their own subject organization’s overalls and not just buy a random one they find! In case there are no available overalls for exchange students, ESN may also have them.

A big part of the overalls are patches the students sew on them to make their outfits individual. Patches can be earned by participating in events such as approt, or you can just buy them. Student organizations also sell patches.

Student restaurants

In Finland, students get cheap lunches at the student restaurants. In Jyväskylä, the price is at the moment 2,95 euros, but in some other universities, it may be a bit cheaper. The lunch includes one main course, a drink, bread, and salad.

A cool thing about the lunches is that you can have this discount in any student restaurant in Finland. So if you travel to another university city (let’s say Helsinki), you can have a cheap lunch there instead of eating something more expensive in a restaurant. Very nice and convenient!

Other useful things for international students coming to Finland

Student cards

Student cards are quite obvious items, but there are things to note about them in Finland. First and most importantly, it is common that many places (like trains) do not accept anything else but the official Finnish student card as a prove of your student status. Second, the student cards are used to prove your student status in the student restaurants to get cheap lunches. Lastly, to get the student card, you need to join the student union. And for that, you need to pay a student union fee. 

Transportation

You probably arrive in Finland by plane. The biggest airport is in Helsinki. Even if there are smaller airports around the country, I would recommend landing in Helsinki. For example, there is no public transportation from the airport in Jyväskylä to the city center, so you should book a taxi beforehand. And because the airport is a bit far away, that can be expensive. You should probably just arrive in Helsinki and take a bus or train from there to Jyväskylä. That is the most convenient.

The national train service is called VR. Here is a link to their page: https://www.vr.fi/en The thing about trains in Finland is that they go mainly from south to north and not so much from east to west. You can usually get to Helsinki from anywhere, but there might not be direct trains between cities. For example, it is difficult to travel from Jyväskylä to my home city Lappeenranta, which is three hours a car drive away. The long-distance busses may have more options to travel around. Also, they are often cheaper: https://liput.matkahuolto.fi/connectionsearch?lang=en#breadcrumb

Changing cash

For example, in Jyväskylä, there is no place to change the currency. I am not sure what is the situation in other cities, but if you need to change cash, I would recommend doing it at the Helsinki airport to be sure.

Health care

There is a special health care service for students called FSHS, but exchange students cannot use it for some very strange reason. I do not understand why. The exchange students who are EU citizens can get medical treatment in the local public healthcare center with their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). Travel insurance or such is advised but not necessary. The exchange students outside the EU need insurance and they can get treatment from private clinics.

In case you wonder, international degree students can use FSHS. They just need to pay an FSHS fee each semester, as we all do.

Registration of the residence and DVV

Okay, this is the most boring part. But yeah, if you are planning to live in Finland for more than three months, there is some administrative paperwork and offices to visit. The students outside the EU need a resident permit (of course) before they arrive, but EU students also need to register their residence! In addition, everybody needs to register their address which may require visiting a mysterious place called DVV.  

I will not go into the details of the administrative stuff because your actual tutor will help you with this! (Your tutor will have nightmares figuring out how to explain you what is DVV). But just to let you know!

So yeah, this is some of the stuff I think would be important to tell international students coming to Finland to study. Hope this was helpful and interesting! If you have something to ask, just leave a comment! Otherwise, until the next time!

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Hi all! Welcome to my blog!

I’m Niina, I come from Finland (out of all places in the world) and I really like travelling. I’ve been lucky to do all sort of cool things in many different countries.

Now I would like to share those experiences to inspire you to go your own adventure. So go explore the stuff I’ve written for you!

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