Every eighth applicant admitted to the University of Helsinki

Almost 32,000 individuals applied to the University of Helsinki. Every eighth of them was admitted. The most popular degree programmes were law and psychology. More than half of the new student places were filled based on certificate-based admission, with the remaining places filled based on entrance examinations.

The University of Helsinki admitted 4,092 new students in the spring joint application procedure, in which applications are submitted to bachelor’s programmes as well as Finnish- and Swedish-language master’s programmes. There were almost 30,000 applicants to bachelor’s programmes, of whom 12% received a student place. As for master’s programmes, there were over 2,000 applicants, of whom 19% were admitted. Overall, 28% of applicants were admitted to Finnish universities this year.

Law and psychology the most popular application options

When comparing the number of applicants to available student places, the most popular bachelor’s programmes of the University of Helsinki were law and psychology. Psychology was also the most popular of the master’s programmes.

The number of applicants increased most in the Degree Programme in Veterinary Medicine, where the number of applicants almost doubled. In large master’s programmes of more than 100 applicants, the number of applicants increased the most in the Master’s Programme in Law.

In all, 237 new students were admitted through the Open University route, of whom as many as 148 were admitted to computer science, while 78 new students were admitted through the transfer application procedure. The transfer application procedure is available to students wishing to change their university or field of study, in which case their study right is transferred from one university to another or from one degree programme to another within the university.

The new blended learning programme in early childhood education to be launched in autumn 2021 received 477 applications from, of which 54 were accepted. The aim of the programme is to provide individuals working in early childhood education with the qualifications for working as an early childhood education teacher.

The English-language Bachelor’s Programme in Science admitted 133 new students out of the 306 applicants. Some of them applied to the programme already in December-January and some in connection with the joint application procedure.

The application procedure to the 35 international master’s programmes of the University of Helsinki took place at the start of the year and the results were published in April. International master’s programmes had a total of 7,400 applicants (from as many as 150 countries), of whom 1,200 were admitted. The number of applicants grew by 58% compared to the previous year.

Good experiences of digital entrance examinations

More than half of the University of Helsinki’s new student places were filled based on certificate-based admission, with the remaining places filled based on entrance examinations. Half of the entrance examinations were held as invigilated digital on-site examinations for the first time, and the other half were organised as traditional paper-based entrance examinations.

“We are extremely happy with the experience we gained of digital examinations. It is clear that there will be a large-scale shift towards them in the future, since a majority of our applicants will already have completed their matriculation examinations in a digital environment. In the future, it is also expected that digital examinations will make the admissions process faster,” says Head of Admissions Maarit Kallio from Admissions Services.

The results of student selection can be viewed by the applicants in the national Studyinfo service. Student places must be accepted by 15.00 on 16 July 2021. The admission of students from the reserve list will continue until 2 August 2021.

More detailed statistics on gender and language distribution, the number of first-time applicants, and applicants with the University of Helsinki as their first choice, as well as other factors, will be compiled for each degree programme during July. Detailed application option specific statistics on student admissions will also be published by the end of July. 