Studying

The Bachelor's Programme in Liberal Arts and Sciences combines select disciplines across one of the world’s top 1% universities. You get a crash course on how different arts and sciences produce knowledge. You will sample from the disciplines and find a combination that suits you. By the end of your studies, you have developed an interdisciplinary profile along with applied and critical skills that can be put to use wherever you continue.

Why study Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Helsinki?

The Helsinki Liberal Arts and Sciences programme leverages the University of Helsinki's status as a high-quality, broad-disciplined research university when joining diverse fields of knowledge.

By integrating natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, you’ll develop skills in contextualisation, analysis, problem-solving and critical thinking. These meta-skills enable you to analyse new situations, contextualise them based on your existing knowledge and identify what you need to learn to address the issues you face.

Key benefits:

Analytical skills: Develop critical analytical skills that according to research are highly valued by employers
Expert profile: Graduate with a particular (inter)disciplinary expert profile, allowing you to take on jobs requiring specific expertise or continue your studies in Master’s programmes across the University of Helsinki and beyond, in fields such as the humanities, data science, social sciences, life sciences and agricultural, environmental and forest sciences.

Flexible structure:

Exploration: You don't need to know your exact career path at the start. The programme structure allows you to explore various disciplines through its flexible modules and optional studies, finding your particular interest.
Coherent expertise: Despite the flexibility, the programme structure ensures that you graduate with a coherent expert profile, instead of graduating with a mix of disconnected pieces of knowledge.

In our Bachelor's Programme in Liberal Arts and Sciences, you can discover your interests, develop valuable skills, and prepare for a successful future in a wide range of fields.

Language of instruction

The programme is taught in English. For your elective studies, it is possible to include also courses taught in other languages.

Structure and content

The programme is structured around a common core as well as disciplinary modules of increasing depth. Particular combinations of modules then comprise specialisations, which denote the interdisciplinary profiles with which it is possible to graduate from the programme.

The scope of the bachelor's degree is 180 credits to be completed in three years. The specialisation options are:

Data science
Digital humanities
Ecology and Adaptation
Economics of Natural Resources
Resource Management of Global Forests
Social Data Science

Student life in Helsinki

At the University of Helsinki, more than 250 student organisations operate within the Student Union of the University of Helsinki (HYY), ranging from faculty and subject organisations to political and societal organisations, and from choirs and orchestras to sports and game clubs. Their activities include anniversary celebrations, academic dinner parties, cultural events, get-togethers and excursions.

Students in Finland are also entitled to many benefits and services. For example, affordable student housing, low-cost sports services and student-priced meals. You also get numerous discounts, for example on public transport fees across the country.

Study environment in Helsinki

The University of Helsinki has four campuses. The six faculties involved in the Bachelor's programme in Liberal Arts and Sciences (Agriculture and Forestry, Arts, Biological and Environmental Sciences, Education, Social Sciences, Science) operate on the following campuses:

Depending on your studies, you may also have a chance to visit one of the field research stations of the University of Helsinki.

More about the programme