Application Process Step by Step for Joint Application to Higher Education in Finland

Application Process Step by Step for Joint Application to Higher Education in Finland. Please note that the timetable and instructions below do NOT concern applying to the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s degree programme in Radiation and its Effects on Micro Electronics and Photonics Technologies (RADMEP). For information on the application period and application process of the RADMEP program, please see the RADMEP webpage.

The timetable of the application process

Application process step by step

1. Start preparing for applying well in advance: See the programme-specific admission criteria of the programme(s) you are interested in, and book a language test at your earliest convenience, if needed.

2. Submit the online application form (available only during the admission period) in Studyinfo. fi.

3. Submit the required attachments by our deadlines. More information on the attachment deadline and how to submit attachments will be published on this webpage by the end of October 2022.

4. Check your email regularly after you have submitted your online application and attachments. If you receive a request to send further information, please send us the missing information without delay.

5. After the applications have been processed, a selected group of applicants will be invited to participate in the application process’s next phase(s). Typically this is an interview, but please check this from the programme-specific admission criteria. The interviews will be held online.

6. Decisions on student admission will be made based on the applicant’s application and the possible subsequent phase(s) of the application process (if applicable) according to the programme’s admission criteria. Applicants will be informed of the results of the application round and the allocation of tuition fee scholarships via email.

What is a joint application to higher education in Finland?

There are two kinds of application processes for higher education degree programmes in Finland: joint application and separate application. In the separate application, only one higher education institution’s study programmes are available.

The Master’s programmes taught in English at the University of Jyväskylä, except for RADMEP, are part of the joint application to higher education in Finland. This means that with the same online application form in Studyinfo. You can apply to up to six (6) programmes, and these six options may include degree programmes from one or several different higher education institutions which participate in the joint application. You can find the programme offer of the joint application in Studyinfo.

Please note that even though there is only one application form in the joint application, different universities may have different requirements for the required attachments. Therefore, you may be asked to submit the same attachments (for example, the degree certificate and transcript of records) in different ways to different institutions. Please always submit the attachments as required in the programme in question. Also, the deadline for the attachments and timetable for processing applications may vary between universities.

What are the admission criteria for JYU Master’s programmes?

The admission criteria are programme-specific and consist of requirements for educational background, success in previous studies, proficiency in the English language, and possible motivation letter, CV, work experience and interview. The admission criteria explain how the admission score for each eligible applicant is calculated in the programme. Please see the admission criteria of the programme(s) you are interested in through the following links.

• Banking and International Finance
• Biological and Environmental Science
• Biology of Physical Activity
• Cognitive Computing and Collective Intelligence
• Corporate Environmental Management
• Development, Education and International Cooperation
• Digital Marketing and Corporate Communication
• Educational Sciences
• Information Systems
• International Business and Entrepreneurship
• Language, Globalization and Intercultural Communication
• Music and Science
• Nanoscience
• Psychology of Physical Activity, Health and Well-being
• Responsible for Management and Business of Sport

When and how to submit the application form?

The online application form will only be available on Studyinfo. fi portal during the application period. The form needs to be submitted before 18 January 2023 at 3:00 p.m. EET. It is not sufficient if the applicant has started filling in the application form before the deadline. If you miss this deadline, the next possibility to apply will be in January 2024.

You can apply to up to six (6) programmes on the same application form. These six options may include degree programmes from one or several higher education institutions participating in the joint application.

Please note that you can submit only one application form during the admission round. If you submit more than one application form in the joint application, only the most recent one will be considered. The other applications will be cancelled.

It is not possible to save a draft of the application form. If you close the form without submitting it, the information you have entered on the form will be lost. After submitting the form, you will receive a link via email, through which you can make changes to the form until the end of the application period. Please see additional instructions for filling in the application form in Studyinfo

With the same online form, applicants who are liable to pay tuition fees can apply for the tuition fee scholarship and Finland Scholarship from JYU.

How to submit the required attachments?

In addition to the online application form, the applicant must submit the required attachments mentioned in the programme-specific admission criteria and on the application form. These include documents on the applicant’s educational background and other attachments depending on the programme, such as language test reports, motivation letters and CVs.

Further instructions on submitting the required attachments will be published on this webpage by October 2022.

How to demonstrate English language proficiency?

The accepted ways for proving your proficiency in the English language vary between different Master’s programmes. Therefore, please check the requirements for proving language proficiency in the programme you are applying to from the programme-specific admission criteria.

If you need to take a language test, book a time for it as soon as possible. Please check the language test dates and locations nearest to you.

Who is eligible to apply?

This chapter explains the general requirements for eligibility for international Master’s programmes at the University of Jyväskylä. For more specific requirements, please see the programme-specific admission criteria.

Previous degree

To be eligible for international Master’s programmes at the University of Jyväskylä, applicants must hold (or complete by our deadline) a Bachelor’s or Master’s or equivalent degree from a recognised institution of higher education. Please note, however, that if you hold a Master’s degree, which gives eligibility for doctoral studies in Finland, it is recommended to apply for doctoral studies. The field of the degree must be relevant to the field of the programme you are applying to.

The general rule is that if your degree gives eligibility to Master’s degree studies in the country where the degree is completed, it will also give general eligibility to our Master’s programmes. However, if the applicant’s degree is considerably less extensive than a Finnish Bachelor’s degree, it is possible that the applicant cannot be admitted.

Language proficiency

To be eligible for our Master’s programmes, each applicant, even native speakers of English, must prove their proficiency in the English language in one of the ways stated in the programme-specific admission criteria. No waivers are given, and no other means for proving language proficiency than those stated in the programme’s admission criteria are accepted. If an applicant’s language test results are below the required minimum, the application will be considered ineligible and will not be processed further.

Applying with an unfinished degree

Applicants whose degree used for proving eligibility has not yet been completed during the application period can be conditionally admitted in case they graduate by our deadline. Further information on the deadline will be published on this webpage by the end of October 2022.

During the admission period, the applicant applies the same way as applicants who have graduated, excluding the requirement of attaching a copy of the degree certificate to the application. The applicant is required to submit the transcript of records of studies completed by the time of application. The transcript must meet JYU’s document requirements and be received by JYU before the deadline for required documents/attachments. All other information, except the degree certificate and final transcript of records, must reach JYU by the document deadline. For example, they are sending a language test result to us after this deal deadline is impossible. Information on the attachment deadline and how to submit application attachments will be available on this webpage by the end of October 2022.

Suppose an applicant wishes to prove their language proficiency with an unfinished degree. In that case, it must be the same degree the applicant uses to prove their general eligibility for the Master’s programme. Please note, however, that it is impossible to prove your language proficiency with a Finnish higher education degree which includes command of English, according to Government decrees if the degree is unfinished on the end date of the application period.

If the applicant is admitted, they need to graduate and submit a copy of the degree certificate and final transcript of records to JYU by the deadline for final educational documentation of conditionally admitted students (see the timetable of the application process).  By graduation, we mean the degree must be conferred to the student. Further information on the attachment deadline and how to submit application attachments will be available on this webpage by the end of October 2022.

A conditionally admitted applicant can accept the study place but cannot enrol nor pay the tuition fee as long as the admission is conditional. A conditionally admitted applicant may apply for a residence permit, but the application will be processed only after the admission is no more conditional.

Accepting the study place and enrolment

Admitted applicants must accept the offered study place/seat in the Studyinfo portal by the given deadline (see the timetable of the application process). Instructions for this will be sent with the Letter of Admission.

Please note that it is not possible to accept the study place after the given deadline, nor is it possible to cancel the acceptance after accepting the study place in Studyinfo. This is because of the one study place per term provision of Finnish higher education (see below for details), which ensures that a person can accept only one study place for studies that start during the same term (in this case, Autumn term 2023) in Finnish higher education institutions.

One study place per term provision

According to this provision, a student may accept only one study place leading to a higher education degree in Finland during one academic term. This rule applies to all higher education, including:

• Bachelor’s degrees and Master’s degrees awarded by Finnish universities of applied sciences
• Bachelor’s degrees and Master’s degrees awarded by Finnish universities
• Licentiate and doctoral degrees awarded by Finnish universities

The provision will not be applied to study seats awarded by educational institutions outside of Finland.

Enrolment in the University

After accepting the study place, students are asked to enrol at the University and pay the registration fee (approximately EUR 130 per academic year). Students who are liable to pay the tuition fee are asked to make the tuition fee payment for the first academic year before enrolling. Further instructions on tuition fees and enrolment will be sent to admitted students by email.

Statistics on student intake

Each degree programme has a defined number of study places open for application. The admission rate depends on the number and quality of applications, which naturally vary between admission rounds. If the number of excellent applications exceeds the given number of available study seats, we may accept slightly more applicants than initially announced. As there is no system for clearing, this also ensures that all the study seats will be filled in case an admitted applicant does not accept the offered study place.