University of Helsinki
Student life is not just about completing your degree. Student life is also about meeting new people, dialogue, sharing ideas, learning together, and forming lifelong friendships
One of the best things about studying at the University of Helsinki is the active community of students. Community spirit improves your well-being, and over 250 different student organisations within the Student Union of the University of Helsinki (HYY) open up a field of opportunities. Participating in the events and activities of these organisations is a great way to not only make friends and have fun, but to learn new skills and gain access to networks which can prove useful in your future working life.
There is an organisation (or several) for everyone , or if you can’t find one you’re interested in, why not found your own, with support from the student union! Subject organisations bring together students from same study field, whereas student nations unite students from the same parts of Finland. People with similar interests and hobbies are brought together by interest organisations focusing their activities on anything and everything from wine-tasting to cycling to home economics to gaming. Most organisations welcome you to join free of charge, while others, especially if expensive equipment is required, might have a small, student-priced membership fee.
Some organisations carry out their activities in English, whereas some may at first seem difficult to join as their language is Finnish or Swedish. Don’t let this put you off, though: the organisations and their members are often either more than happy to switch to English, or have someone to help international students with translations and interpretation, if necessary. Once you really get to know a shy-at-first Finn through suggesting things to do together, you’ll find that you’ll have made a friend for life. So if you haven’t found like-minded people and friends yet, look around. Join the social events and activities of the different student organisations. Talk to people, at Unicafe, in the library, in lecture halls, or at students’ social rooms at university.
To keep yourself informed about what is going on at the student union, join our mailing lists for international students. We have two separate lists, foreign-students@helsinki.fi for all international students, and degree-students@helsinki.fi for degree-taking international students.We’ll send you information on our events and activities, while our student organisations share information on their activities, and the university keeps you posted about study-related information. Information on how to join can be found on our website.
There’s also a Facebook group for all University of Helsinki international students, where you can also ask questions and chat freely about anything to do with studying at UH and living in Helsinki.
Did you join the student union at the Welcome Fair? If not, don’t worry: you have until February 1st to visit us at our offices at the New Student House and join. Student union memberships gives you access e.g. to our own events and services, free basic healthcare at FSHS, and numerous extra student discounts from grocery shopping to cinema tickets with the Frank student card.