Applying to University of Helsinki as an exchange student

University of Helsinki students in November

Has your home university selected you for exchange at the University of Helsinki? Thinking about what to do next? Congratulations, the application round for the academic year 2015/2016 just started!

Every spring about 600 students from UH’s partner universities apply to UH as exchange students, planning to come here for one semester or a year. In total, University of Helsinki welcomes about 1000 exchange students each year, for one term or for the full academic year.

If you have already been nominated by your own university, you have taken the first steps towards becoming an exchange student. The next steps are outlined below.

The application process

Applying is quite straightforward: there’s the online application, and a few enclosures (Transcript of Credits, Learning Agreement and a Language Certificate). Detailed information and instructions can be found on our Exchange website. Read the instructions carefully before starting the application process!

There’s also a different group of students, who apply independently as so called free movers or visiting students without the nomination from their home university). Their application process is a bit different.

In need of technical support? UH’s Mobility Online support team will be able to help, but please read these instructions (pdf) first.

If you upload all the enclosures to your Mobility Online application account, then there’s no need to send paper copies. That’s what Mobility Online is for!

The Learning Agreement – what on earth is that?

The Learning Agreement is a preliminary plan for the courses you are planning to take during your exchange. To fill out the Learning Agreement you need to choose between 20-30 ECTS credits per semester (with 30 ECTS per semester being the norm), at least 50% of those from one of the UH’s 11 Faculties.

The puzzling thing about the Learning Agreement? It is based on this year’s teaching. So you do not have to worry – it is not the final list of courses you will be taking during your exchange.

Each Faculty publishes the information regarding courses in the academic year 2015-16 according to their own schedule. Usually the course information is available by June. What is important for UH now is that you know what type of courses are offered at UH in general, and how you can use them towards your degree at your home university.

Detailed questions about courses? These are the people who’ll help you.

Most importantly, when will you hear the results?

The deadline for applications for autumn 2015 and full study year 2015-2016 are:

April 15: citizens of non-EU/EEA-member states
May 15: citizens of EU/EEA-member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland

Your application first goes to UH’s International Exchange Services, where the staff checks that you have included everything. After this it is sent to the appropriate Faculty for their consideration. You’ll hear the results via e-mail about six week after the application deadline.

Housing?

Remember to apply for housing as soon as possible as Helsinki is a big student city and finding accommodation can be a bit challenging.

 

We are looking forward to meeting you soon in Helsinki!

International Exchange Services

 

Photo: Veikko Somerpuro