Required application enclosures

You must submit a degree certificate and a transcript of records for all post-secondary/higher education studies that you wish to include in your application.

All educational documents must be submitted as official documents or officially certified/legalised copies. For studies completed in certain countries, there are also country-specific requirements in place that must be followed first and foremost. Please see more information below:

• Requirements for officially certified documents and copies
• Country-specific requirements

De­gree cer­ti­fic­ate

A degree certificate is a document issued by the degree awarding institution to a student who has successfully completed all the studies included in the degree and has graduated.

The degree certificate must include:

• the name of the institution awarding the degree
• the date of graduation
• the name of the graduating person
• name of the title or degree

You may submit a temporary (or provisional) degree certificate if you have graduated but your final degree certificate cannot be issued to you immediately upon graduation due to technical or administrative reasons. Your temporary degree certificate should include the same information as a final degree certificate (see above).

Please note that a document stating only the completion of all courses is not accepted as a temporary (provisional) degree certificate.

Applying if you have not yet graduated

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 to the Master’s programme, your admission will be conditional, and you must graduate and submit your degree certificate by the end of August.

Tran­script of re­cords

A transcript of records is a document listing the courses/study units you have completed at the institution. The transcript of records must include the following information for all your courses:

• course names
• course completion dates
• course grades
• course credits.

The transcript should also explain the grading scale used at your institution at the time of study.

If your transcript does not contain all the information listed above, please see the instructions on how to supplement your transcript of records. If you do not supplement your transcript of records with the required information, it will not be accepted.

A diploma supplement may be used in place of a transcript of records if the diploma supplement contains the same required information as a transcript of records. Please note that a diploma supplement is only valid when submitted together with the diploma/degree certificate.

Transcript of records when applying if you have not yet graduated

Your transcript of records must mention the name of the degree that you are completing. If the name of the degree 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

If your transcript of records contains transferred credits, they must be listed with the same required information as your other courses. If the transferred credits are not listed with the same information, you must submit a separate transcript of records covering the transferred credits that lists all the required information.

Trans­la­tions of edu­ca­tional doc­u­ments

If your educational documents have not been issued in English, Finnish or Swedish, you must also submit official translations into one of these languages. Please note that you must also submit officially certified copies of the documents in the original language. Please follow the instructions here:

• Official translations 

Top-up de­grees, trans­fer stud­ies, dir­ect ac­cess pro­grammes etc.

If your degree contains studies completed at different institutions, for example top-up studies or transfer studies, you must submit officially certified educational documents that cover the whole duration of your studies.

Additionally, if you have gained direct access to an advanced level in your degree, you must submit educational documentation covering the previous studies based on which you were admitted to the degree programme.

Please note that different country-specific instructions may apply if the studies were completed in different countries.

You must provide a proof of your English language proficiency. Please find all the accepted methods of proving your language proficiency with detailed instructions here:

• How to demonstrate language proficiency in English

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.

Copy of pass­port or res­id­ence per­mit card

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:

1. You are a citizen of the EU/EEA or Switzerland. Please submit a copy of your passport’s ID page or a copy of your ID-card. Please note that your passport or ID-card has to be valid when the semester starts on 1 August 2021.
2. You are not a citizen of the EU/EEA or Switzerland, but you have a residence permit in Finland. Please submit a copy of your residence permit card (type A or P). Please note that your residence permit card has to be valid when the semester starts on 1 August 2021.

More information on tuition fees and scholarships.

More information on the documents exempting you from tuition fees

Dip­loma sup­ple­ment

A diploma supplement is a document that provides additional information about the degree you have completed. It is an optional enclosure if you have also submitted a transcript of records.

Please note that if you wish to use your diploma supplement in place of a transcript of records, the diploma supplement must be officially certified and submitted as if it were a transcript of records. In that case, please refer to the instructions for a transcript of records.

Pro­gramme-spe­cific en­clos­ures

Certain programmes require programme-specific enclosures in addition to the enclosures required from all applicants. Please find more information about programme-specific enclosures in the programme descriptions.

If you are applying to multiple Master’s programmes that require programme-specific enclosures, you must submit the required programme-specific enclosures for each programme.

De­grees awar­ded by uni­versities and uni­versities of ap­plied sci­ences in Finland

If you have completed your degree at a Finnish university or university of applied sciences, in most cases you are not required to submit officially certified copies of your educational documents. Please follow the country-specific requirement for Finland:

• Country-specific requirement for Finland

De­grees awar­ded by higher education in­sti­tu­tions out­side of Fin­land

If you have completed your degree at a higher education institution outside of Finland, your educational documents or their copies must be:

• certified by the awarding institution, OR
• legalised, OR
• officially certified by a Finnish notary public

Please find more information about officially certified copies here:

• Officially certified copies 

Please note that the University of Helsinki does not accept regular photocopies or scanned copies of educational documents awarded by higher education institutions outside of Finland.

Country-specific requirements

Please note that 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. Please find the requirements here:

• Country-specific requirements 

You can submit the required application enclosures by regular mail, via courier services, or by bringing them to our drop-off mailbox. Some enclosures can also be submitted electronically. 

Mail, courier services, drop-off mailbox

For more detailed instructions about how to submit your enclosures by mail or via courier services, or how to find the drop-off mailbox, please see the website Submitting documents to Admission Services.

Mailing address for regular mail

University of Helsinki
Admission Services
P.O. Box 24
00014 University of Helsinki

Delivery address for courier services

University of Helsinki
Admission Services
Unioninkatu 40
00170 Helsinki
Phone number: +358 2941 21601 (no customer service, only for courier services)

When submitting your application enclosures, please indicate your application number(s) on the enclosures or the envelope. If your enclosures are sent by a third party, the enclosures 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 enclosures such as a portfolio or a reference letter. In these cases, you must submit the programme-specific enclosure individually for each programme.

Please note that it is always the applicant’s responsibility to make sure that the application enclosures reach the Admission Services of the University of Helsinki by the given deadline.

Please note that enclosures will not be returned to applicants. Do not send any original documents, such as your original degree certificate, that cannot be replaced easily. Instead, send officially certified copies of the documents that cannot be replaced.

Submitting application enclosures electronically

Some enclosures can also be submitted electronically. Please find more information about the accepted electronic document delivery services and other electronically accepted enlosures here:

• Submitting enclosures electronically 

Submitting proof of language pro­fi­ciency

Please find the instructions on how to submit the different proofs of language proficiency here:

• Proving English language skills

Pro­gramme-spe­cific and other en­clos­ures

Copies of your passport or residence permit card and optional diploma supplement do not need to be officially certified. You may upload these in the appliation system. Please follow the instructions here:

• Submitting enclosures electronically

Programme-specific enclosures must be submitted according to the instructions given in the programme description, on the application form and in the confirmation email that will be sent to you when you submit the online application form.

After you have filled in and submitted the application form, you will automatically receive a confirmation email to the address you have given on the application form with a request to complete your application with the required enclosures.

The application is considered incomplete until the Admission Services has received all the required documents. The documents must reach the Admission Services by the deadline given on your confirmation email. Documents received after the given deadline are not taken into consideration.

Due to the great amount of arriving mail, we cannot confirm the arrival of individual enclosures.

All enclosures will be processed in the order of arrival, and once your documents have been processed, we will send you an email informing you of the status of your application and your enclosures. We will send the email to the same address you have given on the application form.

Please note that there may be a delay between the arrival and the processing of the enclosures.

If, during the processing, we notice that your documents do not meet the requirements, we will notify you by email. However, you will not be given additional time beyond the given deadline to supplement your application. It is the applicant’s responsibility to make sure that all documents meet the given requirements and are delivered by the deadline. Documents that arrive after the deadline indicated in the confirmation email will not be processed. We encourage you to submit the required enclosures as early as possible.

If you have questions regarding your application or the required enclosures and cannot find the answers on our website, you may contact our application processing service by email or telephone from 1 December 2020 to 29 January 2021.

Call us

You can call us at: +358 (0) 2941 21234
Our telephone service hours are:

• Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00 to 14:00 (UTC+2).

Chat

You can also reach us via chat.

The chat is open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 12:00 to 14:00 (UTC+2). The chat window opens on this page when the chat service is active. 

On the following dates the chat is open from 12:00 to 15:00 (UTC+2):

• Friday, 15 January
• Friday, 29 January

Write to us

You can send us a message to the email address masterenclosures@helsinki.fi
Please include your application number in the message if you have already submitted an application.

Gen­eral ad­mis­sion ad­vising

For general questions about applying to and studying at the University of Helsinki, please contact our admission advisors.