Are you planning to have a degree in Europe, perhaps study in Finland? Questions you have in mind as to how and what are the steps? This post is then for you.
If you have been visiting my site previously, you probably come across my posts where I mentioned that I came to study in Finland, yes, I came as a student more than a decade ago. Time went so fast! A decision that I am happy I did take the risk.
Why I come to Finland is one of the most common questions asked to me and also one during the interview I had with Finland second-largest newspaper in the country Iltasanomat.
Before I proceed, I will write here first a little story about my journey. When I decided to come to Finland, I was already a sophomore University student in my home country. It was just like me trying-nothing-to lose kind of mindset when I sent my application form.
Who wouldn’t want to study in Europe? I only see Europe in movies and it seems so far away from the reality of my life. However, destiny has its way of showing me where I truly belong.
I have relatives in Finland already who are willing to support my studies, a blessing I have to be thankful for until to this day. Without their support and introducing me to the school, I wouldn’t be able to study here.
To keep the story short, I applied to the school and get the invitation for the entrance examination in my home country. How did I do it? Nowadays the process I did is different from the time I applied. There are so much easier now with the online processing system and all the requirements are listed.
How to apply to study in Finland?
This is another common question I get since the day I arrived in Finland. If you have the degree in mind that you want to study, that’s the very first step. Then where in Finland? Do you want in the capital city or somewhere else?
Take into account that Finland is only about 5M population. The more you go North the fewer people there are and the fewer international people in there. However, it might be that with it come to accommodation, the further from bigger cities the cheaper it is. Have you decided now which area you are planning to study?
Then let´s get back to how to choose which school you would like to study with your degree of choice? You then have to go to studyinfo where you can find the joint application for all Bachelors degrees and Masters Degrees in every University or Universities of Applied Science in Finland that is open. You can select to apply to more than one school.
School Requirements
Every school have different requirements and it is important to check properly their admission criteria in their site. However I listed here some common requirements, also it is different for EU and non-EU applicants.
When you are accepted in your school of choice, they will send you an invitation for the entrance examination, location and time will be in that invitation. Some schools/ courses provide pre-reading material for a limited time. Isn’t that great?
I didn´t have that during my time, I was even too nervous that I didn’t remember a thing after the exam was done.
Applying for Residence Permit for Student
If you are in this stage, you passed the exam, congratulations for making it this far! You are so close to your dream to study in Finland! Before that, what are the requirements for applying for Residence Permit for studies? Here is the list of the most important requirements.
- Passport copy
- Acceptance Letter from Finnish School
- Health Insurance
- Funds Certificate
- Bank statement
- Clarification of Origin of funds (if you have a sponsor then the immigration can ask your sponsors bank statement for a certain period of time)
When you have all your requirements complete, go to enterfinland which is the online visa application site of the immigration of Finland. You can start your application there and check how it looks like and have it saved as draft. You can log in back anytime and do some changes as long as you are not ready and when all the attachments are complete, only then you can submit your application.
Visiting the service point
Then depends if you pay the fee online upon submitting your application, you can also pay it in the service point location.
In both cases, you have to visit the service point so they can check the original documents of those attached to your application. When this is done, all you have to do is wait and check the status of your application in enterfinland. If there is something unclear for them, they will send you a request to submit additional supplementary documents.
Learning the Finnish language before arriving in Finland
If you want to study in Finland and want to learn the Finnish language in advance, you can check this post of mine where you can check the link for the free online course Spark your Finnish.
If you want to learn more and practice the conversational Finnish, that is a paid course and the link is in the same post. Your teacher in this Finnish course is Varpu, a Finnish MSc who can speak 6 languages who is also an engineer and an entrepreneur!