Student life in Helsinki

Helsinki is an international students city with over 63 000 students. A combination of the endless variety of a capital city and small town coziness makes Helsinki a cool and groovy student city.

With your student card, you have discount access to opera or Helsinki Music Centre. You visit various film festivals or enjoy the numerous concerts and exhibitions of Helsinki Festival Weeks. You cook and eat during the pop-up restaurant day, have a picnic in Esplanadi Park or go on a hike in Nuuksio National Park.

There are over 260 clubs and organizations affiliated with the University of Helsinki Student Union (HYY). They all have their own style of doing things, however it may be connected to a major, a hobby, an ideology, or even to the region where the students originally came from. You are sure to find like-minded people to share an interest and party with – to be friends forever. And, supported by the Student Union, you and your friends may start your own club if you can’t find a suitable one!

For a very student-friendly fee of 90 euro per year, the sport options at the University of Helsinki are unbeatable. With a selection of almost every form of physical exercise from traditional work-out to the newest hot fads, UniSport moves students on all four campuses.

The Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) provides general, mental and oral health care services for students of universities and other institutions of higher education.The FSHS promotes students' health, wellbeing and ability to study as well as the capacities they need to be able to study. As a University of Helsinki undergraduate or graduate student you can use the services of FSHS health centres.You just have to pay your student union membership fee (90 to 100 euro per year) to a student union that is affiliated to the FSHS.

Living in Helsinki is rumored to be expensive, and unfortunately there are grounds for these rumors. However, one third of all students live in reasonable cheap student apartments offered by the Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region (HOAS), student nations and student foundations. Many students have found the alternative way of living by sharing a rented apartment on the open market. Read more about housing in the Housing Guide for international students.