Number of applicants to Finnish higher Edu in English reduces by half

The joint application to degree programmes in English at Finnish higher education institutions reduced significantly this year, said the Finnish National Agency For Education in a press release on Thursday.

A total of about 32 400 students applied this year and the number is about half of the applicants compared to 2024.

In this application students could apply to higher education in English starting in autumn 2025 as well as programmes offered by the University of the Arts.

There was a significant drop in the number of international applicants.

The first joint application for higher institutions in spring 2025 ended on Wednesday.

There were about 8,600 starting places to apply to in 431 study programmes. Roughly half of the study options are at universities and half at universities of applied sciences (Polytechnic Institutes).

Out of the total applicants, two thirds were non-EU/EEA or Swiss citizens.

In 2024, there were around 63,000 applicants, of which 80% were non-EU/EEA or Swiss citizens. There were over 3 700 applicants to programmes offered by the University of the Arts.

The largest nationality groups in the applicants were Finland (25% of the applicants), Nigeria (13%), Bangladesh (9%), Pakistan (8%) and Nepal (6%).

In the joint application last year the largest nationalities were Bangladesh (18%), Finland (15%), Pakistan (14%), Nigeria (11%) and Nepal (8%).

The absolute number of Finnish applicants stayed diminished by about 1,000 applicants from last year.

Most of the applicants applying to English-taught degree programmes are from outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland, and as such they are required to pay tuition fees.

Starting from January 1, 2025, they are also required to pay an application fee of 100 euros to apply to Bachelor's or Master's level studies in Finland.

The implementation of application fees can be seen as one factor for the diminishing applicant numbers. For example, the number of Bangladeshi applicants dropped by over 5,000.

The number of applicants includes those who have sent in their application by the 22nd of January.

This number will decrease over time, as the applicants can send in their applicants before paying the fee. This means that the number includes applicants who will not pay the application fee and thus their applications will be deleted. The final number of applicants will be known in February when all of the applications are reviewed.

In absolute numbers, the highest number of applicants were for study programmes in the fields of business, administration and law, and information and communication technologies (ICT).

In higher education, the toughest competition for a study place, i.e. the highest number of applicants in comparison to study places, takes place in Arts and culture (about 11,6 applicants/study place), social sciences (about 8,2 applicants/study place) and services (about 8 applicants/study place).

The lowest number of applicants in comparison to study places is in engineering, manufacturing and construction (about 3,8 applicants/study place), as well as in humanities (about 5,5 applicants/study place).

Currently, higher education institutions are reviewing applications and organizing entrance examinations. The results of the first joint application for the spring will be published starting from the end of January and the beginning of February. All results will be published no later than May 28.

In the first spring joint application the applicant can be offered admission to any and all of the programmes on the application form.

However, only one offer of admission can be accepted to studies starting in the same academic term.

The second joint application this spring is from 11 March to 25 March 2025.

The application includes study programmes in Finnish and Swedish at the higher education institutions starting in the autumn.