Educational documents from Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences
Upload a clear copy or scan of your transcript of records to the application system.
You do not need to send any other official copies of your educational documents, as the Admission Services will verify your educational background from the national register. We can only receive your educational data if you have a Finnish personal identification code and the institution where you have done studies have this code and you have given the code on the application form.
Exception 1: If you do not have a Finnish personal identification code or your degree was completed before 1 January 1995, the Admission Services cannot access your educational information in the national register. Please submit your educational documents following the general instructions, see the section “Educational documents, general instructions” below.
Exception 2: All educational documents awarded by the institutions listed below must be submitted following the general instructions, see the section “Educational documents, general instructions” below:
Educational documents, general instructions
Follow these instructions to find the correct way to submit your official educational documents. If your educational document is not issued in English, Finnish or Swedish, you must submit the official translation following these same instructions.
Exception: Educational documents from China must be submitted in a specific way. Please see the country-specific instruction for China.
You must provide a proof of your language proficiency. Please find all the accepted methods of proving your language proficiency with detailed instructions here:
Please note that the University of Helsinki has a specified list of acceptable methods of proving your language proficiency. You cannot prove your language proficiency with any other methods.
Besides your educational documents and proof of language proficiency, there are some other attachments that are required or optional to submit.
The attachments listed in this section can all be uploaded as PDF files in the application system after you have submitted your application.
University of Helsinki charges tuition fees from Master’s degree students who are studying in languages other than Finnish or Swedish and are not citizens of the EU/EEA or Switzerland. If you choose English as the language of the degree on the application form, you are liable to pay the tuition fee, unless you can prove exemption.
You are exempted from paying the tuition fee in the following cases:
Find more information on tuition fees and scholarships.
Certain programmes require additional programme-specific attachments. Upload these attachments as PDF files to the application system after you have submited your application.
Exception 1: Master’s Programme in Translational Medicine (TRANSMED) requires a reference (in English) submitted by an academic professional through a separate online form. References cannot be uploaded to the application system.
Exception 2: Master’s Programme in Pharmaceutical Research, Development and Safety requires a reference (in English) submitted by an academic professional through a separate online form. References cannot be uploaded to the application system.
You can find all the required programme-specific attachment in the programme’s admission criteria on Studyinfo.
A degree certificate is issued by the degree awarding institution to a student who has successfully completed all the studies included in the degree programme that shows that the academic degree has been awarded or conferred.
The degree certificate must include and clearly state:
You may be awarded a temporary or provisional degree certificate if you have completed all the studies included in the degree programme and the degree has been awarded or conferred, but your final degree certificate cannot be issued to you immediately upon graduation due to technical or administrative reasons. The temporary or provisional degree certificate must include the same information as a final degree certificate (see above).
Exception: If the certificate only confirms the completion of all courses but not the award or conferral of the degree, it is not accepted as a temporary or provisional degree certificate.
You can apply if you have not graduated before the application period. In such case, you do not need to submit your degree certificate during the application period. If you are admitted, your admission will be conditional, and you must graduate and submit your degree certificate by the end of August.
If your degree is a top-up degree, you must submit degree certificates or diplomas for the earlier parts as well as your final degree certificate.
Top-up degrees are, for example, higher national diplomas followed by a one-year bachelor’s top-up programme, or ordinary bachelor’s degree followed by a one-year bachelor honours degree.
If you receive two degrees at the end of your programme, you can choose which one or ones you wish to submit.
Dual degrees are programmes where, usually, two universities jointly run a programme and both award their own degree at end of the programme.
A transcript of records is a document listing the courses/study units you have completed at the institution. Other names for the document are, among others, academic records, marksheet, grade report etc., depending on the institution.
The transcript of records includes the following information:
Course names
Course names are required information for a transcript of records. If your transcript does not list course names, the document is not accepted.
If your transcript of records does not include the names of each course you have completed, for example if it only lists course codes, you must supplement your transcript with a document that lists the names of the courses. This can be, for example, a syllabus/course catalogue from the time of your studies.
Course grades/evaluation
Course grades (letter, numeric, or percentage) are required information for a transcript of records. If your transcript does not list course grades or some other form of course evaluation, the document is not accepted.
If your transcript does not list the grades awarded for each course you have completed, you must supplement your transcript with a document that lists the grades awarded for each course.
If your institution does not award grades for courses, you must supplement your transcript with an official document issued by the degree awarding institution that explains the evaluation system used at the institution.
Course credits
Course credits are recommended information for a transcript of records. If your transcript does not contain course credits, your transcript can be accepted, but it may affect the evaluation of your previous studies.
If your institution does not use a credit system to describe the amount of study required per course, other systems such as marks or study hours per course are also accepted.
Course completion dates
Course completion dates are recommended information for a transcript of records. If your transcript does not contain course completion dates, your transcript can be accepted, but it may affect the evaluation of your previous studies.
Course completion dates are accepted as exact dates, as months of completion, as semester of completion, or even as the year of completion.
It is also accepted if the transcript states your date of enrollment and graduation. Your date of enrollment and date of graduation are stated in your other officially certified educational documents.
Transcript of records when applying if you have not yet graduated
Your transcript of records must mention the name of the degree programme that you are completing. If the name is not mentioned on the transcript of records, you must submit an official statement from your home institution indicating the name of the degree that will be awarded to you.
Transferred credits and credits completed at other institutions
Transferred credits should be listed with the same information as courses completed at the transcript issuing institution. This means that transferred courses should have their names, grades, credits, and completion dates listed.
You can also submit an official transcript of records from the institution where you originally completed the courses.
Applying with top-up degrees, direct access programmes etc.
If your degree contains studies completed at different institutions, for example as top-up studies, you must submit a transcript of records for each part of your degree.
For example, if your degree is a higher national diploma followed by a one-year bachelor’s top-up degree, you must submit a transcript of records for the higher national diploma as well as the top-up bachelor’s degree.
Additionally, if you have gained direct access to an advanced level in your degree, for example your transcript starts directly at second year or 200-level etc., you must submit a transcript of records or another document that cover the previous studies based on which you were admitted to the degree programme.
I need to supplement my transcript of records, how can I send the supplementary document?
Any supplementary document to a transcript of records is considered an educational document and must be submitted following the instructions for submitting official educational documents. Please see the instructions for submitting educational document in the section "How to submit documents" above.
If your educational documents have not been issued in English, Finnish or Swedish, you must also submit official translations into one of these languages. You must also submit your official educational documents in the original language.
Official translations can be done by an official/registered/authorised translator or by the institution or organisation that issued the document in the original language.
Official translations must be certified on each page with the stamp and/or signature of the translator.
Applicants’ self-made translations are not accepted.
The translation of an educational document must be submitted as an official educational document. Please see the instructions in the section “How to submit documents” above.
If your home institution uses en electronic credential service or there is a national register of educational documents that allows you to share your official educational documents, please use that service to share your educational documents directly from the service to the University of Helsinki.
Select the University of Helsinki from the service's list of registered recipients or, if the service requires a contact email address for sharing, use masterenclosures@helsinki.fi as the contact address.
The document must arrive to the University of Helsinki directly from the service, do not download the document to your own computer first.
Please refer to your institution’s own instructions for more details on how to access the service that your institution uses. University of Helsinki is unable to assist you in using your home institution’s services.
Below is a list of some common electronic document services that are accepted by the University of Helsinki Admission Services:
If your institution uses a service that is not listed here, please contact us, and we will investigate whether we can accept your documents through this service as well. Please note that the University of Helsinki reserves the right to make the final decision on whether a service is accepted or not.
We accept documents that have been electronically signed with a valid digital signature (so called Adobe blue ribbon) by the awarding institution. A valid digital signature appears as a blue ribbon when the document is opened in Adobe Reader. The signature must be issued by the awarding institution, and the signature must be valid when the document is opened.
The University of Helsinki reserves the right to evaluate each digitally signed document case by case and reject documents that do not meet the requirements.
Upload the digitally signed document as a PDF file in the application system after you have submitted your application.
We accept electronic educational documents that contain a verification code that can we can use to verify the document and its contents using an electronic verification service used by the degree awarding institution.
The following requirements must be met for the the verification to be accepted:
Please note the following restrictions:
The University of Helsinki reserves the right to evaluate each electronic document and verification service case by case. If we cannot verify the required information, you must submit the document via some other accepted method.
Upload the electronically verified document as a PDF file in the application system after you have submitted your application.
Exception: Only PDF files can be uploaded in the application system. If your institution issues electronically verified documents in another file format, contact the Admission Services for instructions on how to submit the document.
Note! You must have submitted your application and received an application number before using this delivery method.
If your institution does not use any electronic credential services (such as Digitary, Parchment, MyEquals, CSSD/CHESICC, Truecopy etc.) to share official educational documents, you may ask that your institution sends your official electronic educational documents by email directly to the University of Helsinki to the following email address:
In order for the document to be accepted, certain requirements must be met:
Documents sent by email that do not meet the above requirements are not accepted. Please give the above instructions to your institution's representative when requesting that they send your documents.
You only need to submit physical copies of your educational documents if none of the electronic delivery methods mentioned above are not available to you. That is, your home institution does not use any digital credential service to share document, your home institution does not issue official electronic documents, and your home institution will not send copies of your official educational documents by email directly to the Admission Service from an institutional email address.
If that is the case, you must submit your official educational documents or officially certified copies of your educational documents as physical documents to the Admission Services.
Please note that you should not send any unique documents that you cannot have easily replaced, as the sent documents will not be returned to the applicants after the application round. If your document is unique and you need to retain it, send an officially certified copy.
If you choose to provide us with the original documents, the following requirements apply:
Physical educational documents awarded in certain countries must be certified and/or submitted following country-specific requirements. These requirements must be followed first and foremost, whenever applicable, if you are required to send physical documents. Please find the requirements here:
Other copies will not be recognised as officially certified copies. For example, a regular photocopy or a copy certified by two persons are not sufficient to constitute certification. Also note that copies certified by a notary public in another country will not be accepted, unless the copies have been legalised. An officially certified copy must be submitted to Admission Services in paperform, if not specifically otherwise instructed.
An officially certified copy must always be made directly from the original document. The stamps and signatures in the original document must in all cases be original and the copy must include all the pages belonging to the original document.
If the copy contains several pages, each page must be stamped and signed by the certifying institution or individual, unless the pages are bound together in such a way (e.g. by a seal) that individual pages cannot be detached from each other. If the pages of the copy are loose or can be detached from each other (i.e., are stapled together using a regular stapler), each page must be stamped and signed by the certifying institution or individual.
For a copy of a document issued by an educational institution to be recognised as officially certified, the copy must be stamped with the official stamp of the institution. The official stamps of educational institutions usually display the institution name and emblem. In addition, the copy must contain the signature of a representative of the institution, their name in capital letters as well as their title. A stamp which only contains the phrase “jäljennöksen oikeaksi todistaa” or “certified copy” is not an official stamp of an educational institution. Also, please note that an educational institution cannot officially certify a degree diploma awarded by another organisation (such as the Finnish Matriculation Examination Board or the IB organisation) or institution.
If your copy does not fulfil the above requirements for officially certified copies, contact the certifying institution or individual and ask for a new copy which complies with the requirements.
Legalisation can take place by two different routes depending on whether the country of the awarding institution is a signatory to the Hague Convention of 1961 or not. Documents supplied by countries that have ratified the Hague Convention are legalised by the issuance of an Apostille Certificate (stamp or paper certificate). Documents issued by other countries are legalised in two steps: first by the foreign ministry of the issuing country, then by a competent Finnish Embassy or Finnish Consulate of that country.
The Apostille Certificate (stamp or paper certificate) is necessary if the document has been issued by the authorities of a country that has ratified the Hague Convention of 1961. Information on the Hague Convention as well as an English language list of its member states can be found here:
It also provides information about the authorities issuing Apostille Certificates in the various countries.
Please make sure that the Apostille certificate is firmly and clearly attached to all the documents it is certifying as being official.
If the country issuing a document is not a signatory of the Hague Convention, a document is legalised by the foreign ministry of the issuing country, after which a competent Finnish Embassy or Finnish Consulate of that country legalises the document, certifying the competence of that foreign ministry official to issue such legalisation.
Courier services (e.g., DHL, UPS) are often the fastest and safest way of sending your educational attachments.
When submitting your application enclosures, please indicate your application number(s) on the attachments or the envelope. If your attachments are sent by a third party, they will be attached to your application(s) based on the personal details you have given on the application form.
If you are applying to multiple Master's programmes at the University of Helsinki, you are required to submit each enclosure only once. Please note that some programmes require programme-specific attachments such as a portfolio or a reference letter. In these cases, you must submit the programme-specific attachment individually for each programme.
Please Note! When sending out your documents make sure to send them to the address below. Do not send your documents to any other mail box, pick up location, parcel point etc. as we do not have access to any third party pick up location. Your documents must arrive at University of Helsinki directly.
University of Helsinki
Admission Services
Unioninkatu 40
00170 Helsinki
Phone number: +358 2941 21601 (no customer service, only for courier services)
We recommend using a courier service to be able to track your shipment. University of Helsinki is not responsible for services provided by courier services, or any delays or damage caused by them.
We strongly recommend using a courier service for shipments from outside the European Union instead of regular mail.
If you send the documents by regular mail, kindly note that all documents coming from outside EU/EEA -area need to go through custom clearance. To avoid custom clearance, do not indicate any monetary value to your documents when mailing them.
If your documents go through customs clearance, you need to do the clearance beforehand by using this form Private person’s declaration of goods imported from outside the customs and fiscal territory of the EU.
If an amount is required and 0 € is not allowed, a sum of 0.01 € (or equivalent in your own currency) can be given.
It is always the applicant’s responsibility to make sure that the application documents reach the University of Helsinki by the deadline. University of Helsinki will not process any application documents that have arrived after the deadline.
Please Note! When sending out your documents make sure to send them to the address below. Your documents must arrive at University of Helsinki directly.
University of Helsinki
Admission Services
P.O. Box 24
00014 University of Helsinki
University of Helsinki is not responsible for services provided by postal services, or any delays or damage caused by them.
You can drop off your attachments in the letterbox located at Unioninkatu 40, on the corner of Unioninkatu and Yrjö-Koskisen katu streets in Helsinki. Attachments can be dropped off in the letterbox at any time, but please note that the attachments must be dropped off in the letterbox before 15.00 local Helsinki time to be considered as having arrived during the same day. If you drop off attachments in the letterbox after 15.00, the attachments are considered to have arrived on the following weekday.
NB! Do not give documents intended for Admission Services to porters or drop them off in any other letterbox than the one designated for this purpose.
You can find answers to some frequently asked questions in our FAQ.
Do you wish to contact our admission advisers? See our contact information.