50% foreign students want to stay in Finland

About 50 per cent of the foreign students from non-EU countries studying at Finnish universities and polytechnic institutes are interested to stay in Finland after completion of their graduation, reports a recent survey.

The survey results published by the National Agency for Education on Tuesday also said that 25 per cent of the students want to stay for at least two years while 20 per cent are not sure whether they would stay here or not after the study.

The students who are very much interested to live here for long are those in business and technical fields, according to the International Student Barometer (ISB).

Terming the survey results encouraging for the country’s intellectual capital, the director of the agency, Olli-Pekka Heinonen said the results are “encouraging in terms of Finland’s intellectual capital”, but at the same time he expressed concern at the fact that students’ satisfaction was at the lowest on employment-related issues.

About 50 per cent of the respondents said they were dissatisfied with the support provided by their institutions in relation to work and career opportunities.

A total of 6,650 foreign students from 17 countries studying at 13 universities and two polytechnic institutions in Finland were interviewed under the survey last autumn for the ISB.