23,400 apply for higher education programmes

A record number of about 23,400 applicants participated in this spring’s first joint application to higher education, i.e., about 3,000 higher than the number of applicants in the corresponding joint application last spring, said the Finnish National Agency for Education in a press release on Monday.

However, there are also more study places available.

The higher education programmes applied for included English-taught study programmes, studies offered by the University of the Arts, and the theatre study programme at Tampere University.

The spring 2021 joint application for higher education ended on 20 January.

There were about 5,600 study places available in about 270 study programmes, much higher than that in the last year, when there were about 4,700 study places in 260 programmes.

Two-thirds of the study places available are offered by universities of applied sciences (Polytechnic Institutes) and the remaining third by universities.

Out of the about 23,400 applicants, 4,000 applied to the University of the Arts and to the Theatre Study Programme at Tampere University, and the rest applied to English-taught study programmes.

About 14,500 applicants were of non-Finnish nationality and a majority of these, 12,500 applicants, came from outside the EU/EEA area.

The most popular fields were business, administration and law, information and communication technologies, and arts and culture.

The toughest competition for study places in higher education was in the fields of arts and culture (13.7 applicants/study place), social studies (eight applicants/study place), as well as health and welfare (6.6 applicants/study place).

The fields with the lowest number of applicants per available study place were humanities (3.4) and natural sciences (3.3).

In the next few months, higher education institutions will inspect applications and organise entrance exams. The first results of the first joint application will be published starting from the end of January and the beginning of February. All results will be published on 4 June at the latest.

Meanwhile, the joint application for degree programmes offered in Finnish and Swedish will be arranged on 17 to 31 March 2021.