!! Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for studying Finland. !! I want to study in Finland. What should I do? You should start by browsing the websites of the universities you are interested in. The links for the ten universities using University Admissions Finland’s centralised service are found on the front page of this website. You will also find information about the available programmes at yliopistohaku.fi. You can apply to Master’s programmes offered by the ten universities through University Admissions Finland (UAF). When you have found a programme you wish to apply to, and when the application period approaches, create a user account for University Admissions Finland. In the user account you can manage your personal information and fill in your educational background. Once the application period for the programme you wish to apply to begins, you can log in to your account and continue with the application process. How can I get assistance with my application process? University Admissions Finland serves you via email ([email protected]). Our telephone service (+358 9 191 23528) is open during the application period from Monday to Friday, 12.00 to 16.00 (GMT+2). University Admissions Finland does not offer face-to-face customer service. If you have questions about admission requirements, study-related issues or programme-specific enclosures, such as CVs and reference letters, please contact the university you are applying to. When can I create a user account? You can create a FuniMa account from the beginning of November 2013. The link will be available on the front page of our website. An applicant can have only one user account but it is possible to apply for several programmes through this account. Your FuniMa account will be valid for the whole application period 2013-2014. My school does not have an email address that I can submit – what do I do? University Admissions Finland checks the educational background of all applicants. This involves contacting the schools and universities where the previous education was obtained. We ask for the email address on the Application Form as it in some cases hastens this procedure. Please contact your school and ask about an email address you could provide us with. The appropriate contact person at the institution can be the registrar, student affairs officer or other such official. If the school indeed does not have an e-mail address, please write in the space requiring the email address the following: unknown@example. When is the application period? The application period is programme-specific but begins at the earliest in November 2013. Please note that not all universities and Master’s degree programmes start their application periods on the same day. Exact application procedures and dates will be available on the universities’ websites. What kind of educational background I must have to be eligible to apply for a Master’s degree? As a rule, you can apply for Master’s level studies if you have a first cycle degree – normally a Bachelor’s degree – from an accredited institution of higher education. Master’s studies are usually done in the same field or one closely related to it, as the Bachelor’s studies. However, it is the university who evaluates your eligibility for a specific programme. Can I apply for a Bachelor’s degree through UAF? No. University Admissions Finland offers service only to applicants who are applying for Master’s level studies. For information on Bachelor’s degree programmes, we recommend that you visit the individual universities’ websites or see studyinfinland.fi (offered by the Centre for International Mobility, CIMO). How can I apply for Doctoral studies? At the moment there is no centralised application service for Doctoral studies. As each university has different admissions procedures for PhD candidates, you should check the universities’ websites or contact the university you are interested in directly. Can I apply if I have not yet graduated? You can apply to some programmes even if you have not yet graduated. This depends on the programme so always check the website of the relevant university. If you have not graduated by the time the application period for the programme begins, you are required to submit an officially certified copy of your latest transcript of records (please also see Country-specific requirements). If you receive the degree certificate and the final transcript of records during the application period, it is recommended that you submit them as well. You should point out the anticipated graduation date on the application and submit the documents you have at the time of applying. Do not wait to receive your degree certificate if it is not available during the application period. Depending on the programme you are applying to, you may also be required to submit a statement from your home institution in English, Finnish or Swedish, stating the expected date of graduation. How many degree programmes can I apply to? University Admissions Finland has no limitation on how many universities you can apply to. However, some universities may have restrictions on how many programmes you can apply to within their university. For more detailed information on this, please consult the university you are interested in. Please note that when applying, you must submit as many sets of officially certified educational documents as there are programmes you are applying to, i.e. a separate set of documents for each programme. Also note that the degree programmes may have programme-specific enclosure requirements and therefore you should prepare to collect different application documents for different degree programmes. I made a mistake in the application form. How can I correct it? If you wish to make changes to your personal details you can log in to your FuniMa account and correct the information yourself at any time. Changes to your educational background information are possible only until University Admissions Finland has processed one of your applications, after which the educational background will be locked. If you have already saved the Application Form you will not be able to make any changes to it or compile a new application for the same programme. If you wish to change something on an application you have already saved, please enclose a separate paper stating the corrections you wish to make and send it to University Admissions Finland along with the rest of your application documents. Please note that corrections send by email are not accepted. Do not attempt to make changes to the Application Form itself, as any changes to it will be considered as forging an official document. If you have already submitted an application and make changes to your name or date of birth in your account, it is recommended you send an email to [email protected] and state the correction. If you wish to delete your application, please contact UAF at [email protected]. How do I indicate my language skills? Do I need to take a language test? There are different ways of indicating your language skills, depending on the Master’s degree programme you have selected. Always check the language skill requirements and application deadlines on the website of the university you are applying to. For most programmes, you do not need to submit a separate language test result if you have graduated from a higher education institution in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand with an education that has been fully completed in English. However, language skill requirements are always programme-specific, so please consult the university you are interested in applying to. For more information on the accepted language tests, please see Language Skills. Do you need to receive my language test results as many times as there are programmes I am applying to? If you are applying to more than one programme and are using the same language test to verify your language skills, University Admissions Finland needs to receive your test results only once. Please note that language skill requirements are programme-specific and may vary. Always check that the programmes you are applying to accept the same language test as a method of indicating your language skills, and what their minimum score requirements are. What happens if the language skill requirements are not met? University Admissions Finland processes the applications in steps, which means that we will only proceed from one step to another once the previous step has been completed, as follows: 1) arrival of the Application Form, 2) verification of language skills, 3) arrival of educational documents and credential evaluation If the language skill requirements set by the programme you are applying to are not met by the given deadline, University Admissions Finland cannot process your educational documents or verify your credentials. All applications are forwarded to the relevant universities. I have submitted a language test to UAF earlier. Do I now need to submit the test results again? If you submitted language test results during one of the previous application periods, University Admissions Finland still has the record of them. However, they will not automatically show up in your FuniMa account and will appear only when UAF processes the first application from you. If the previously submitted language test was taken prior to May 2011 and you wish to use it, please contact UAF. Remember to check the time limitations for language tests on the university’s website. Language skill requirements are programme specific and University Admissions Finland makes no exceptions to those. In general, language tests are valid for two years and the test results must be valid throughout the application period. This means it must not expire prior to the application deadline. Also note that the language skill requirements may have changed from the previous application periods. Which application documents must I submit? The admissions requirements are set by the degree programmes and the universities. This means that the number and type of required documents vary depending on the degree programme. In most cases the following application documents are normally required: 1. Application Form - completed online, printed and signed 2. Proof of language skills - depending on which option you have chosen, e.g. a language test 3. Documents related to educational background (Please remember to check Country-specific requirements) - documents which indicate your eligibility to apply 4. Other documents - as requested by the university offering your desired degree programme After compiling an application, you will find the required application enclosures for that programme listed on the Application Form. You can find detailed information about the documents on the individual universities’ websites. Do I need to have my educational documents (degree certificate, transcript of records, and their translations) officially certified, i.e. attested? Yes, you do. Copies of educational documents must be officially certified (attested) either by the institution that granted you the documents (i.e. your home university) or by a notary public. Translations must be official translations, done either by the awarding institution or an official translator. For more information, please check Educational Documents. universityadmissions.fi/?page_id=16 University Admissions Finland verifies the authenticity of the documents. Please note that applicants whose degrees have been awarded in certain countries also need to pay special attention to the documentation before submitting it. In addition to the standard document requirements, please check if there are any Country-specific requirements for your degree awarding country and then follow the instructions. The country-specific requirements must be followed first and foremost, before any regular requirements for attesting documents. How do I submit my application documents? You can send the Application Form with the required enclosures by mail to University Admissions Finland. Our mailing address is: University Admissions Finland Yliopistonkatu 2 FI-00170 Helsinki Finland Alternatively, you can leave the documents in our mailbox at Yliopistonkatu 2. The mailbox is located inside the gateway leading to an inner yard. You can access the mailbox on weekdays between 08.00 and 20.00 except on public holidays when the gate is shut, and evenings before public holidays when the opening hours might differ. Can I visit UAF’s office? University Admissions Finland does not receive visitors at its office or offer face-to-face customer service. Please note that it is not possible to obtain a receipt for the documents you are submitting, and they cannot be submitted to our office personally. Once an application has been processed, a notification email regarding that application will be sent and, if needed, you will be requested to supplement your application. Can I send application documents for more than one application in a single envelope? It is possible to send your application documents for different programmes in a single envelope. Please remember to carefully attach all the enclosures with the relevant Application Form. You should also specify the relevant application form number on each enclosure. Please note that separate enclosures are required for each of the programmes you are applying to. Also note that different programmes have different application periods and enclosure requirements. Applications must reach University Admissions Finland by the application deadline. Do I need to mail all application enclosures to University Admissions Finland at the same time? We prefer that you send all the application documents at the same time, because it helps us to process your application faster, but it is acceptable to send us enclosures separately. Please remember to write your application form number on each enclosure you send. The printed and signed Application Form MUST reach University Admissions Finland by the application deadline. Is it possible to check if UAF has received my documents? Because we receive thousands of applications and enclosures, we unfortunately do not have the resources to check the arrival of each document before processing them. We process the mail in the order of arrival. Once we have processed your application, we will send you an e-mail notification and, if necessary, request you to supplement your application. Please be patient as this might take a few weeks after we have received your application. Earlier than that, we cannot give you information on whether or not your documents have arrived. I have applied during the last application period. Can I apply again using the same documents? If you submitted an application last year and now want to apply using the same documents, you should first contact the university you have applied to and request that they mail your documents back to University Admissions Finland. Be advised that some universities might have already archived your previous year’s documents, and will not return them. If the university agrees with your request to return the documents, please instruct them to send the documents directly to University Admissions Finland. You will then need to create a FuniMa account and compile a new application form (applications from previous years are not valid and cannot be reused this year). You must then send the Application Form to University Admissions Finland for processing. You should also be aware that some document requirements may have changed from the previous application period, and your old educational documentation might not necessarily meet the new requirements. Please check the admission requirements on the university’s website and, if needed, acquire new documentation. As well, remember to check the Country-specific requirements. If you have any new documents that you would like to submit, these should also be attached to the new application. Are there tuition fees? At the present, some degree programmes in Finland charge tuition fees. For more information on tuition fees, please check the website of the university that you are interested in, or contact them directly. Is it possible to receive a scholarship? The universities usually have either no or only a very limited number of scholarships or grants available for new incoming students. Please check the website of the university you are interested in or contact them directly for information on scholarships. University Admissions Finland does not grant scholarships or process scholarship applications. How much does it cost to apply? Applying through University Admissions Finland is always free of charge and no fees are charged at any time during the admission process. The applicant will have to cover expenses related to obtaining and submitting the required documents (e.g. certifying the documents, acquiring translations, possible language tests and mailing costs). Will UAF forward my application to the university I have applied to if the status of my application is ‘incomplete’? Yes. University Admissions Finland forwards all applications to the relevant universities, who will then evaluate the applications and make the student selections. UAF does not take part in the student selection process. Where will I get information on the student selections? Student selections are carried out by the universities and University Admissions Finland does not take part in this process. Please visit the website of the university you have applied to or contact the relevant programme directly for information on the student selection schedules. Does UAF recommend using agents/consultant agencies when applying? University Admissions Finland advises against using fee-charging educational consultants or agents when applying for admission to Master’s degree programmes in Finland. University Admissions Finland does not use any agents to help applicants with their admissions and no agency is used to represent UAF. The universities using UAF’s service may cooperate with certain agencies, and applicants are encouraged to contact the university if they have any questions regarding these. Using an agent’s assistance in the application process does not give the applicant any advantage. Universities make their student selections based solely on the admissions requirements and thus no agent can guarantee an applicant a study place. It is strongly recommended that all applicants carry out the application process themselves. If you need help in filling in the application form or with other aspects of the application process, you are recommended to contact the university or UAF. These are the only reliable sources of information. Information given by other agencies may be unreliable, or at worst, untrue. The applicant should always fill in the application him/herself and use his/her own contact details. This ensures that the applicant will receive all important information directly from the university and UAF. If you are unable to carry out the application process yourself, it is acceptable to use a legal representative. In such cases a written power of attorney is always required and must be submitted with the application. The power of attorney must include the original signatures of the applicant and the legal representative. The applicant must always provide answers him/herself to questions pertaining to the admission requirements (e.g. motivation letter and research proposal). The applicant can cancel the power of attorney at any point during the application process. It is recommended that the applicant carry out the application process him/herself and have control of the FuniMa account. Applying through UAF is always free of charge and no fees are charged at any point in the application process.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 21:50:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015