Checklist for new international separate application students

To keep your study place, you must confirm the acceptance of your study place by the given deadline. Please note you can accept only one higher education study place per academic term.

Your study place offer is conditional until Laurea Education Export has checked your eligibility to apply from 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 My Studyinfo service 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 Education Export.
  
  
• 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 during Autumn 2024, 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 Education Export 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)'. 

Laurea may withdraw the admission if you do not provide the certificates which have affected your admission by the deadline 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 Education Export: education.export@laurea.fi 

This segment is meant only for non-EU/EEA citizens. If you are a citizen of an EU/EEA country, you can skip this segment about tuition fees.

Non-EU/EEA citizens admitted to an English-taught degree program are required to pay the tuition fee for the academic year, unless they have a valid document exempting them from the tuition fee. 

Instructions on how to pay the tuition fee will be provided in the admission notification email sent by Laurea Education Export.

Please ensure that your eligibility to apply has been checked by Laurea Education Export before making the tuition fee payment. 

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

The tuition fee for the first academic year must be paid by the given date. Please read through all the information in the Laurea Student Agreement before payment of the tuition fee.

Information about tuition fees and exemptions as well as the Laurea Student Agreement is available on the Laurea Tuition fee page.

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.

In addition to the confirmation of study place, you must also register your attendance as present or absent for the next academic year. If you are registering as absent, you need legal grounds to do so. Please see the legal grounds for registering as absent below. You can complete your registration for the academic year by logging into the My Study info -service.

If your admission is conditional, the condition has to be fulfilled first before you can register for the academic year.

If you are liable to pay tuition fees, you can be registered as present for academic year only after Laurea has received your tuition fee payment.

Failure to register for the academic year results in loss of study entitlement.

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. However, if you are required to pay tuition fees and you register as absent but do not provide the proof of legal grounds for you absence, you will lose your study entitlement. 

Legal grounds for registering as absent for the 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 
   • 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 English, Finnish or Swedish. The documents that prove the legal grounds for your absence must be submitted to the Laurea Education Export 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 Education Export 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 send the documents via this link or alternatively you can send them to the address: 

Laurea University of Applied Sciences
Education Export
Ratatie 22
01300 Vantaa
Finland

You will get information by email concerning the start date of your studies. 

Starting date of studies can be postponed if students in the same study group have not recieved their the resident permits. Studies cannot start before students of the study group have arrived to Finland. 

This segment is only for non-Finnish citizens who are moving to Finland for their studies.

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 Education Export will send you an certificate confirming the payment of tuition fee.

Residence permits are not granted for studies that mainly consist of distance learning online 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.

In case you receive a negative decision concerning your residence permit for studies, please contact Laurea Education Export 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 one week before the start of your studies. 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: https://canvas.laurea.fi/enroll/DT948H and login with your new Laurea username and password.
   
   Note that international separate application academic year starts differently than written in orientation. The start date of the studies is also the starting date of the academic year. 

Master´s degree students

1. Activate your Laurea user account one week before the start of your studies. 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”. The link to orientation is to be updated.
   
   Note that international separate application academic year starts differently than written in orientation. The start date of the studies is also the starting date of the academic year. 

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. In 2024, the higher education health care fee is EUR 36.80 per term. 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 for the current term. You must pay the fee even if you do not receive student financial aid or if you use occupational or other health services instead of the FSHS.

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

Incoming exchange students, students in open university/path studies, tailor-made programmes, customer-specific training programmes are not entitled to use the services of the Finnish Student Health Service, and thus they do not have to pay the healthcare fee.

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: Windows10 (recommendation)

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

Students can download the Windows 10 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.