Late arrival checklist for degree students

Late arrivals are not recommended, especially to tuition liable students, for two major reasons.

1. You will miss the chance to complete the necessary registrations with Finnish authorities (DVV, HSL, etc.) during orientation week. Additionally, you might not receive the same support from tutors or your peers, and could miss out on your first opportunities to connect with fellow students.  
2. The academic structure in Finland may differ from what students are used to in many other countries, where the semester is often treated as one continuous unit. At the University of Helsinki, each semester is divided into two shorter teaching periods (approximately seven weeks each). Some courses are completed within a single period, including lectures and assessments, while others may run across both periods. Arriving late, even by a few weeks, can mean missing entire courses. If you are a tuition fee liable student, you will not be compensated for the weeks that you could not study. This means that your tuition fee and/or tuition waiver will be used up even if you do not manage to complete the full credit load. On top of this, you would likely be busy with handling the necessary procedures of an incoming international student such as registering with the authorities, furnishing your apartment, and activating student/university accounts. Together, this would significantly affect your ability to follow your study plan and complete courses on time.

If you ultimately still choose to arrive late for your studies, please understand that most of the preparation as an incoming international student must be done independently. 

If you have not done so yet, register as an attending student (or non-attending student) as soon as possible by following these steps. You will lose the study right granted to you if you fail to register as an attending or non-attending student by the given deadline mentioned in your acceptance letter. Students who have paid their tuition fee and/or have received a tuition fee covering grant are already registered and can skip this step.

Registering as an attending student means you also become a member of the Student Union HYY.

If you have yet to secure housing, please read through the instructions on how to apply for Housing. 

You need your user name for accessing the University’s digital systems, eg. computers on campus, e-mail, intranet, Moodle, campus wifi etc. You can activate your user name only once you are registered as an attending student.

For further instructions, please see University user accounts.

Once you have your IT user account, you can order your certificate of student status from the student register Sisu. You can show the digital version on your phone in most places, but we recommend to also have a printed copy.

You can use this certificate to prove your student status at e.g. the student cafeteria to get the lunch discount. The certificate includes your student number. 

If you do not manage to order one online you can get your certificate of Student Status from the Student Services. Remember to have an ID with you if you visit the services in person.

After you have registered as attending, get a student card. You have several options:

• Option 1
  You can download the digital student card Frank App from Google Play or App Store and register with your student number. Once you have received your personal identity code (see below "Re­gis­ter­ing with the Finnish au­thor­it­ies"), send the last four digits/characters to the International Student Advice (international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi) and re-load the Frank App to synchronize it with the new information in the University’s database.
   
• Option 2
  You can order a plastic Student Card from Frank.

After arriving in Finland you will have to register with a few relevant authorities within a certain period of time. Once you have received your personal identity code, send the last four digits/characters to the International Student Advice (international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi). Please see the detailed instructions for registering with the authorities. 

1. Get a degree student’s discount ticket application for HSL from the Kaisa House Student Advice or download it from HSL's website. Fill it and request the clerk at the Kaisa House Student Advice to sign it. If you already have a student card, you do not need the application.
2. Make sure your municipality is already registered at the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (see Register with the Finnish authorities)
3. Go to the HSL Service Point.
4. Have an ID, your personal identity code and the discount ticket application/Frank App/student card with you.
5. Get to know the Journey Planner on HSL's frontpage.

1. If the registration period for a course has not ended, please register on Sisu. You will need your user account for this. You can check out the instructions for registering to courses and exams. Please see the Sisu instructions for students for more details on Sisu.

2. If the registration period has ended, contact the teacher and ask if you can join the course. The name of the responsible teacher can be found in the course search.

3. If you need guidance on which courses to choose, please consult staff members of your degree programme.

Please update your Finnish address and phone number to the student register Sisu.

If you are moving to the capital region (Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa) with children, please read through the instructions page for moving to Finland with children.

• Instructions for new students, organised thematically.
• Student Services
• Check out the student organizations and join their email lists / Facebook groups.