Forfeiture of study right

The notification to forfeit a study right is binding and final. After forfeiting a study right, you will no longer be able to apply for reinstatement of your study right, nor apply for an extension of the right to pursue your degree. If you want to continue your studies later, you will need to apply for a place through the normal student admission process. 

Forfeiture of your study right will terminate any optional study right for a second-cycle degree bound to the study right, effective from the notification date. The forfeiture will also terminate all the separately obtained study rights bound to your main study right, for example pedagogical studies included in your degree. 

If you have accepted a new study right and wish to forfeit it, you can do it only once the study right has begun. 

If you are annually registered for the following term for the study right you are forfeiting, the registration will be canceled according to the Rectors decision HY/3220/00.00.06.00/2021. 

If you are pursuing fee-based studies (specialist training or continuing education), forfeiting the study right does not exempt you from the fee. If you forfeit this kind of a study right, please contact HelsinkiUni Help. 

If you wish to forfeit a study right and you are liable to pay tuition fee, please contact HelsinkiUni Help before you hand in the forfeiture form.

 HelsinkiUnu Help

Rectors' decision HY/3220/00.00.06.00/2021 (Flamma, requires login)

Forfeiture of your study right is only required in very few circumstances. For example, eligibility for unemployment benefits does not usually require you to forfeit your study right. Instead, it might be enough to show that your studies have been suspended, meaning that you have not earned any credits during the past year. Similarly, failing to do your annual registration or exceeding the validity of your study right does not require that you forfeit your study right.

In practice, you might need to forfeit your study right if you need to be eligible for unemployment benefits, cannot demonstrate that your studies have been suspended and cannot wait until the conditions are met. You might also need to forfeit your study right if you are applying to study somewhere else and the education provider requires that you forfeit your existing study right. For example, if you reapply through the student admission process to the same study right you already have, you need first to forfeit the prior right. This applies even if you are no longer enrolled, or your study right has expired.

If you are not sure if your circumstances require that you forfeit your study right, please contact HelsinkiUni Help before submitting your forfeiture notification.

HelsinkiUni Help

You can forfeit your study right by using the secure form. To sign in to the secure form service, you need to use strong authentication (Suomi.fi or eIDAS authentication). 

You can forfeit only one study right per form. The form shows you all your study rights that you can forfeit using this form.  

If you wish to forfeit multiple study rights during the same login session, you can continue to the next form directly after you have sent the first form. The study right information will be updated to the form in 30 minutes, which is why the previously forfeited study right may still be shown on the next form. 

If you have had a break from your studies, the name of your study right may have changed when the University of Helsinki transferred to new degree programmes. 

Once you have sent the form, you cannot cancel your notification to forfeit the study right. The end date of your study right will be the date you send the forfeiture form. 

When the forfeiture has been handled, you will receive a confirmation message at the email address you provided on the form. 

Forfeiture form (Suomi.fi or eIDAS authentication)

Ways to hand in the forfeiture form

If you are unable to use digital strong authentication methods, you can hand in the forfeiture form

• scanned by email to HelsinkiUni Help (see instructions below),
• in person to the HelsinkiUni Help service point or
• by post to the HelsinkiUni Help mail address

Check this before you hand in the form

•  The form has to be signed by hand.
• When handing in the form, you need to prove your identity (passport, personal identity card or driver’s license is accepted, student card is not). If you send the form by mail or email, you can prove your identity by attaching a copy or a picture of your personal identity document.
• The signing date on the form should be the same as the date you hand in or send the forfeiture form and that will also be the end date of your study right.

Sending the form by email

Send the form and a picture of your personal identity document as confidential message.  Please send the forfeiture form, preferably in pdf format, and the picture of the ID in two separate attachments.

• If you have a valid helsinki.fi email address, send the message from your helsinki.fi email to the address uni-help@helsinki.fi.s (recommended method). When you add .s at the end of the recipient’s address, the message becomes encrypted.
• If you don't have a valid helsinki.fi email address, send the email as a canfidentian message in the Securemail-service, recipient uni-help@helsinki.fi. This option works only if you send from some other than a helsinki.fi email address.

Forfeiture form (pdf)

HelsinkiUni Help