Checklist for new students

In the autumn joint application period the deadline for confirming the acceptance of the study place is 28th November 2024 by 15:00. You must make sure to confirm the offered study place by the deadline given, otherwise you will lose the study place offered. You can accept only one study place in higher education per academic term.

Please note, the study place offer is conditional until Laurea Admissions has checked your eligibility to apply to higher education. The eligibility is checked based on your final degree/graduation certificates uploaded to your application form. Admission is also conditional for tuition fee paying students until the tuition fee has been paid.

• If you have a Finnish identity number, you can confirm the study place online at the My Studyinfo service (Oma Opintopolku) by logging in via Suomi.fi e-Identification with Finnish online banking credentials, a Finnish electronic ID-card or mobile certificate.

• If you do not yet have a Finnish identity number, you will receive an email message from Studyinfo titled "Offer of admission in Studyinfo" which includes an e-mail link and you will also be able to confirm the offered study place via that e-mail link.  
  
  
• If you are not able to confirm your study place in the above mentioned ways, please contact Laurea Admissions.
  
  
• Make sure to confirm the offered study place before the given deadline or you will lose the offered study place.

One study place per term provision

According to this provision, a student may accept only one higher education study place per semester. The provision concerns study places leading to a higher education degree in Finland with studies starting in the same academic semester (spring semester 1st January - 31st July and autumn semester 1st August − 31st December). This rule applies to all higher education in Finland.

If you accept a higher education study place in Finland in the spring/autumn application period, this does not prevent you from applying again in the next application period.

If you've applied to other Universities of Applied Sciences or Universities in Finland and you get offered more than one study place, please understand that you can accept only one study place in a higher education degree programme with studies starting in the spring semester 2025. 

Read more about the one study place per term provision.

Bachelor degree students  

• Your admission is conditional until Laurea Admissions has verified your eligibility to apply to higher education. Your eligibility to apply to higher education will be checked from the education certificates you have uploaded to your application form(Studyinfo.fi). If you receive a study place, please ensure your final upper secondary school graduation certificate / degree certificate have been uploaded to your application form. You must also attach its official translation if it is not issued in either Finnish/English/Swedish. You can upload the certificates to your Studyinfo application form underneath the heading ‘Certificates required in connection with student selection (UAS)'. 
  
  

Masters degree students

• You must upload your work experience certificates to your application form(Studyinfo.fi) underneath the heading ‘Certificates required in connection with student selection (UAS)’to your application form(Studyinfo.fi).
  
  
• The work experience certificates must prove you have the required 2 years (24 months) of work experience acquired after the graduation date of your bachelor's or master's degree. Work experience acquired until 31st December 2024 will be accepted. A work experience certificate is a statement from your employer that states the exact beginning date and end date of your employment and tasks. If you are currently employed, ask your employer for a work certificate of the ongoing employment. Work contracts or letters of appointment other documents issued at the beginning of the employment period are not accepted.
  
  Entrepreneurship in Finland will be accepted as work experience if an applicant can produce a certificate attesting that he or she is or has been covered under the statutory YEL or MYEL pension scheme (YEL = statutory pension scheme for entrepreneurs; MYEL = statutory pension scheme for farmers, forest estate owners, fishers and reindeer herders and their family members). Entrepreneurship abroad will be substantiated with equivalent official documents.

  Work experience must be indicated in full months. If you have worked part-time (work under 35 hours per week), you should convert part-time work into full-time equivalents such that 150 hours OR 20 working days lasting at least 7 hours per day correspond to one (1) month of full-time work. Work experience does not have to be continuous or obtained working for the same employer. The amount of work experience awarded for parallel employment relationships may only equate to the amount awarded for full-time employment.

  A work practice placement/internship that is part of the degree you are applying with will not be considered as work experience. Also, military or non-military national service, women’s voluntary military service or child-care leave will not be counted towards work experience.

  Work experience which cannot be proven with work experience certificates will not be considered. Admission to Master’s programmes is conditional until all work experience certificates have been checked by Laurea Admissions. If the applicant does not provide the sufficient documentary evidence of work experience by the deadline given, the offered Master's degree study place will be cancelled.

Your study place is conditional until Laurea has checked the education and employment certificates which have affected your admission. Laurea may withdraw the admission if you do not provide the certificates by the deadlines given or if you have given false information in the application process. Document forgery and misuse may lead to criminal responsibility and belongs to police authority. 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Laurea Admissions: admissions@laurea.fi 

Tuition fees are meant only for non-EU/EEA citizens. If you are a citizen of an EU/EEA country, you do not have to pay tuition fees, so you can skip this segment.

Non-EU/EEA citizens admitted to an English-taught degree program are required to pay tuition fees, unless they have a valid document exempting them from the tuition fee. For students starting their studies in the spring semester 2025, the document that provides exemption must be valid in the spring semester (starting from 1st January 2025). If you have recently obtained a document exempting you from tuition fees, please upload it to your Studyinfo.fi application form underneath the heading ‘Certificates required in connection with student selection (UAS)'. 

The tuition fee for the first academic year is  9500 EUR for Bachelor's degree and 11 000 EUR for Master's degree. Payment is completed on our online Flywire platform.

The tuition fee for the first academic year must be paid by 28th December 2024 / or within 7 days of acceptance from the waiting list. Please read through all the information in the Laurea Student Agreement before payment of the tuition fee. Laurea may withdraw the admission if the student does not pay the tuition fee by the given deadline or if the student has given any false information in the application process.

Bachelor degree students, please ensure that your eligibility to apply to higher education has been checked by Laurea Admissions before making the tuition fee payment. 

For Master's degree students, please ensure that your proof of work experience has been checked by Laurea Admissions before paying the tuition fee.

Information about tuition fee exemptions, the Laurea Student Agreement and our Flywire payment platform are all available on the Laurea Tuition fee page.

In addition to the confirmation of study place, you must also register your attendance as present or absent for the spring semester 2025. 

You can complete your registration for the academic year by logging into the My Study info -service.

Tuition fee paying students can be registered as present for academic year only after Laurea has received the tuition fee payment.

If your admission is conditional, the condition has to be fulfilled first before you can register for the academic year.Failure to register for the academic year results in loss of study entitlement.

To register as absent, you need legal grounds to do so. Please see the legal grounds for registering as absent below. You can register as absent for the first academic year only by providing proof of the legal grounds of your absence. If you do not send proof of the legal grounds of your absence by the given deadline, your registration will be changed to present and any requirements for tuition fees apply. 

Legal grounds for registering as absent for the first academic year

Students who bindingly accept the study place offered must also register as present or absent for each academic year. According to the Universities Act/Polytechnics Act, a first-year student may register as absent for the academic year for the following reasons only: 

1. Service under the Conscription Act (1438/2007), Non-Military Service Act (1446/2007) or Act on Women's Voluntary Military Service (194/1995);
   Example of document required:
   • Call-up order
     
     
2. Maternity, paternity or parental leave;
   Example of document required:
   • Kela's certificate regarding maternity, paternity or parental allowance period or, if the certificate has not yet been received, a medical certificate regarding the pregnancy.
   • Corresponding certificates from the authorities of other countries regarding statutory parental leave.
     
     
3. The student cannot begin studies due to being incapacitated by personal illness or injury.
   Example of document required:
   • Sickness allowance decision or, if no decision exists, a medical certificate. The medical certificate must state
     • which illness or injury the student suffers from, and
     • that this condition prevents the student from beginning their studies from Janaury 1st 2025 onwards.
   • Obstacles caused by the practical arrangements required by the illness or injury: an adequate clarification e.g. a certificate from the student housing foundation that the student is on the waiting list for an apartment required by his or her injury. The student's own notification is not an adequate clarification.

Documents proving legal grounds for absence must be submitted in Finnish or Swedish or English. The documents that prove the legal grounds for your absence must be submitted to the Laurea Admissions Services Office by the same deadline which is given for confirming the study place offered and for registering for the academic year.

Documents sent by post must also arrive to the Admissions Services by the given deadline. If the legal grounds for absence concerns only one academic term (for example service under Conscription Act or maternity leave begins in January), you may either register as absent for the entire academic year or you may change your registration for the spring term.

You can upload your certificates for proof of absence with our E-form service or alternatively you can send them to the address: 

Laurea University of Applied Sciences
Admissions Services
Ratatie 22
01300 Vantaa
Finland

The start dates of studies varies depending on the Degree programme. Scroll down this page to Degree programme info for New Students to see your starting dates and study schedules. 

We recommend you check up on the degree programme info pages for new students for possible updates about schedules. 

This segment is only for non-Finnish citizens who are moving to Finland for their studies. Residence permits are not granted for studies that mainly consist of distance learning / online studies and do not require you to stay in Finland. If you wish to visit Finland for a shorter period of time, find out whether you can get a visa.

The Finnish Immigration Services has complied the following instructions for students regarding residence permit application. 

Residence permit application for studies

Instructions for degree students with tuition fees.

Migri Guide for students

EnterFinland eServices

If you are not a citizen of EU/EEA country and you are planning to stay in Finland for studies,  please start your residence permit application process immediately after receiving the notification of admission, as the study residence permit may take months to be processed.  The application process for a residence permit is longer if you submit an incomplete application. After you have paid the tuition fee, Laurea Admissions will send you an certificate confirming the payment of tuition fee.

In case you receive a negative decision concerning your residence permit for studies, please contact Laurea Admissions services immediately.

If you are a citizen of an EU Member State, Liechtenstein or Switzerland, instead of a residence permit you may need to apply for EU-registration. For more information, please see Migri website and an instructional video  provided by Migri about How to register an EU citizen's right to residence.

If you are a Nordic citizen(Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland), register your right of residence at the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

Your orientation starts with an online orientation course which you need to complete before the first day of studies. The course is arranged online in our Canvas platform.

The online orientation course includes independent study material about Laurea´s systems and learning environments as well as general information about studying and being a student at Laurea.

Bachelor´s degree students

1. Activate your Laurea user account in the beginning of January. When activating your user account, make sure to take a note of your Laurea username and password.
   
   
2. Go to the Canvas online orientation course (link will be updated in January!), and login with your new Laurea login and password.
   
   

Master´s degree students

1. Activate your Laurea user account in the beginning of January. When activating your user account, make sure to take a note of your username and password.
   
   
2. After you have activated your Laurea User account, go to Canvas and login with your new Laurea username and password.
   
   
3. The online orientation is part of study unit “Developing and Management of Studying Skills in Master's Studies”. 
   
   

If you need any technical help, you can email servicedesk@laurea.fi

Students registered as present at a university of applied sciences who are studying for a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree are entitled to use the services of the Finnish Student Health Service(FSHS) and are therefore required to pay a healthcare fee to Kela - The Social Insurance Institution of Finland for each academic term i.e. twice a year. Kela will not send you a bill for the fee, so you must make sure to pay it on your own initiative. Please see the following links for more information.

Healthcare fee for students of higher education(Kela)

How to pay student healthcare fee(Kela)

About Finnish Student Health Service(FSHS)

You must pay the student healthcare fee if you are studying for a bachelor's or master's level university degree and have registered as attending(present) for the current term. 

The due dates are determined based on the date on which you have registered as attending. There are four possible due dates in each calendar year.

• The due date for the autumn term is 15 November, if you have registered as attending by 30 September. If you register as attending for the autumn term on or after 1 October, the due date is 31 December.
  
  
• The due date for the spring term is 15 March, if you have registered as attending by 31 January. If you register as attending for the spring term on or after 1 February, the due date is 31 July.

If you have social security coverage in another EU/EEA country or in Switzerland or the United Kingdom, you do not have to pay the healthcare fee. However, you can to use the FSHS’s services.  Visit Kela’s website for information about how to proceed if you have social security coverage in another EU/EEA country or in Switzerland or the United Kingdom

Studying in Laurea requires a computer. If you do not have one already, we recommend a laptop as it offers flexibility to study regardless of location.

Below we have described the minimum requirements, which take into account that studies will last 4 years, and the computer should be usable for the full duration.

Recommended specifications:

• Intel i5/i7 processor (atleast 8 generation) or AMD Ryzen 5/7 or a processor of equal performance
• RAM: 8Gb
• Hard drive: at least 256Gb of SSD memory
• Operating system: Windows11 (recommendation)

You may need a webcam and headphones with a microphone (headset) during studies.

Students can download the Windows 11 licence and Office package free of charge. More information about this is avaialble on in the online orientation course.

A warranty will provide additional security when purchasing a computer. Always ask for the duration of the warranty before buying. In some cases, it is also possible to extend this warranty.

You can find out more about the current models and availability at computer retail stores.