Recognition of prior learning through credit transfer

Credit transfer is a procedure whereby you receive credits for previously completed studies or other learning. You may have accumulated knowledge and skills by completing studies in another higher education institution, or through work experience and hobbies.

• You may request the transfer of credits completed at higher education institutions in Finland (universities, the National Defence University and universities of applied sciences) or abroad. You must have received a passing grade for the studies in question.
• You can also request the transfer of credits for learning acquired in, for example, professional life, elected positions or hobbies. Such cases constitute learning acquired in non-formal and informal education.

Methods of credit transfer include substitution and inclusion.

You can request the transfer of credits by submitting an application for either substitution or inclusion. 

Substitution

If you wish to substitute a course or study module with previously completed studies, submit a substitution application. 

For your application to be accepted, the content of the studies must correspond to the studies to be substituted and you must have achieved their targeted learning outcomes.

• For example: You have completed at another higher education institution a course corresponding to a basic course in your degree programme. You can request the transfer of credits by submitting a substitution application. If your application is accepted, the substitution will be recorded in Sisu.

Inclusion

If you wish to incorporate previously completed studies into your degree or studies, apply for their inclusion. When applying for inclusion, you do not request the transfer of credits for a specific course or study module. Usually, the studies in question are included as optional studies in a degree or programme.

If completing a degree, the studies or other learning to be included must correspond to the level of studies in your degree programme and the targeted learning outcomes of your degree.

• For example: You have completed studies during an international exchange period which you wish to incorporate into your degree. The studies do not correspond to any of the courses or study modules included in your degree programme, but they can be included in your degree as elective studies. You can request the transfer of credits by submitting an inclusion application. If your application is accepted, the studies will be incorporated into your degree as such, and you can add them to your study plan.

Credit transfer for learning acquired in non-formal and informal education

Prior learning acquired in contexts other than formal education is known as non-formal or informal learning. Non-formal learning may be acquired in, for example, continuing education, in-house training and adult education. Informal learning can be acquired in everyday situations such as work, hobbies and elected positions.

When applying for the transfer of credits for non-formal and informal learning as part of your degree or other studies, you must:

• Verify and document your learning as agreed with the teacher
• Demonstrate that you meet the learning outcomes set for the studies in question

It is possible that you must also take an examination, create a portfolio, write an essay or report, attend an interview or complete other work. Furthermore, you may be expected to complete separate learning assignments or other equivalent tasks.

Request the transfer of credits for learning acquired in non-formal and informal education by submitting an application for substitution or inclusion. You must attach to your application a description of how the learning corresponds to the learning outcomes of the studies in question. If you are applying for substitution, your learning will be assessed according to the assessment scale or system implemented in the course to be substituted for in the curriculum.

You have already completed the relevant studies

You can apply for the substitution of a course or study module only if you have not completed it yet.

You completed the relevant studies over 10 years ago

If you completed the studies over 10 years ago, your credit transfer application will not be processed.

The expiry date is calculated from the date the studies were completed. For study modules, this is counted from the date on which the last course in the module was completed. Courses and modules are valid until the end of the term on which the expiry date falls. However, intermediate studies completed on the basis of basic studies postpone the expiry of basic studies; in such cases, basic studies expire at the same time as the intermediate studies. Degree programmes may also implement their own rules limiting the validity of old credits to a period shorter than 10 years.

The expiry rule does not apply to learning acquired in non-formal and informal education.

The date of completion of any credits transferred is the original date of completion. For example, if you completed a course in October 2017 and received the relevant credit transfer decision in autumn 2022, you can incorporate the course into a study module until the end of the autumn term 2027.

If you have had credits transferred for learning acquired in non-formal and informal education, the date of completion is the date the teacher decided on the credit transfer. If you have had to supplement your learning, the date of completion is the date you completed the supplementary studies.

Further information is available in the instructions on the expiry of studies.

Bachelor’s and master’s theses and maturity tests

Although credits cannot be transferred for theses or maturity tests included in bachelor’s and master’s theses, the language of the maturity test can be recognised if you completed your basic or secondary education in Finnish or Swedish and the maturity test of a Finnish higher education degree in the same language.

However, in the degree programmes in medicine and dentistry, credits can be transferred for the theses of students whose right to study in the programmes took effect prior to 1 August 2023.

Pedagogical studies for teachers

Based on your previous studies, you can apply for the transfer of credits for the pedagogical studies required of teachers towards a second-cycle degree, but they are not transferable for a first-cycle degree. Exceptions include the degree programmes in educational sciences and psychology, in which some of the pedagogical studies required of teachers are included in the relevant bachelor’s programme and others in the master’s programme. 

When planning your studies, reflect on the structure of your prospective degree and consider the transfer of credits for studies and learning at an early stage. Your PSP teacher or other guidance provider can instruct you in general questions about credit transfer. If you have questions about the transfer of credits for a specific course or study module, contact the relevant course or module coordinator. 

If you believe you possess competences required for your studies or degree, apply for credit transfer. This will expedite your progress and ensure you need not complete course content in which you are already proficient.

Apply for credit transfer in Sisu. As transferred credits will be incorporated into your degree or studies, your study plan must accommodate them.

When planning to have credits transferred, remember that you cannot exceed the scope of your degree by over 10%, in addition to which the credits can be rounded up to the next number evenly divisible by five. In other words, the maximum scope of a bachelor’s degree (180 credits) is 200 credits, and the maximum scope of a master’s degree (120 credits) is 135 credits. Credit transfer applications exceeding the maximum scope will not be processed. However, this does not apply to students who began their studies before 1 August 2017 and whose degree is not limited in scope.

When processing your substitution or inclusion application and calculating the maximum number of credits for your degree, the following studies are taken into account:

• All studies recorded in Sisu and available for your degree (including credits you did not plan to use for your degree)
• Any missing compulsory studies

No general deadlines have been set for applying for credit transfer.

In what situations can I apply for credit transfer?

You can apply for credit transfer if you hold the right to study in a degree programme at the University of Helsinki, and if your registration as an attending student pertains to the studies associated with the right to study for which you wish to transfer credits. Credit transfer is also possible when completing professional specialisation education or specialist training in medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine, or corresponding education or training.

You can also apply for credit transfer for any open university courses or non-degree studies for which you have been granted the right to study. If you are applying for credit transfer for open university studies, please read the relevant instructions.

When applying for credit transfer, the studies to be substituted must be included in your study plan. This does not apply to students completing open university studies who do not have access to a study plan.

If you are about to go on an international exchange, draw up a study plan in advance and agree preliminarily on credit transfer with a representative of your degree programme. You should submit a credit transfer application as soon as possible after the exchange.

There is no maximum number of credits that can be transferred if the completed studies have not previously been incorporated into a higher education degree. However, the maximum scope of a degree cannot be exceeded with transferred credits.

Inclusion is always based on the original scope of the completed studies. This applies to decimals as well (e.g. 3.5 credits).

Please note, however, that if you have completed studies outside Finland, the ECTS scale used in some countries does not correspond directly to the scope of credits in Finland. 

When including learning acquired in non-formal and informal education, the teacher decides on the scope of credits.

As for substitution, the student usually receives the number of credits defined for the course or study module to be substituted. If your learning is considered to correspond to the course or study module to be substituted, no additional credits will be required from you.

A deficiency of up to one credit between the course to be substituted and your prior learning or studies is acceptable if it is assessed that the learning outcomes of the studies to be substituted have been reached. For example, you may have completed studies worth four credits at another higher education institution, gaining learning equivalent to a five-credit course at the University of Helsinki. In this case, you will be granted a substitution worth five credits.

If, when processing the application, it is assessed that your learning exceeds, in terms of the content or number of credits, the learning required for the course or study module to be substituted, you can include the additional credits as a separate course in, for example, optional studies. You may submit an inclusion application for the excess part.

If you received the right to study through a transfer application process, the previous studies serving as grounds for application will be transferred as fully as possible. The transfer of credits for your other previous studies, if any, will be considered case by case.

Partial credit transfer

You may be granted partial credit transfer if your prior studies or other learning do not fully cover the course or study module. In such cases, you must supplement your learning as determined in the substitution decision and complete the missing studies. You can ask for more detailed instructions from the teacher who assessed your application. You can find the teacher’s name in the substitution decision in Sisu under ‘My profile’ on the ‘Applications and decisions’ tab in the section ‘Decision maker’. If you requested the decision by post, you can find the teacher’s name in the hardcopy version of the decision.

Substituted and supplementary studies are recorded in Sisu in accordance with the course scope. The date of completion for the course is the date you completed the supplementary part. The grade is decided by the teacher assessing the partial substitution. The grading scale or system used is that defined in the curriculum description of the course to be substituted, and the grade must be adjusted to the scope of the studies substituted and completed.

Grading scale or system for transferred credits

If your previous studies were assessed on the same scale or system as that used at the University of Helsinki, you will receive the original grade for the transferred credits. The grading scales and systems include 0–5, pass–fail and, for proficiency in writing and speaking the official language of Finland that is not the student’s first language (Finnish or Swedish), good–satisfactory–fail. If your previous studies were assessed on a different scale or system, the grade is recorded as pass. Different grading scales include those that do not only use whole numbers or that use a scale of A to F. 

If you have completed studies outside Finland, the grade assigned for them will be pass.

In the case of the inclusion of learning acquired in non-formal and informal education, the grade assigned will be pass.

You cannot attempt to raise the grade of a course or study module for which credits have been transferred.

Although the language studies included in a higher education degree completed in Finland substitute as such for the language studies required by the Government Decree on University Degrees and Professional Specialisation, credits cannot be transferred for maturity tests. However, the language of the maturity test can be recognised if you completed your basic or secondary education in Finnish or Swedish and the maturity test of a Finnish higher education degree in the same language.

See the Language Centre instructions for credit transfer for communication and language skills if you wish to

• Have compulsory communication and language studies substituted for your bachelor’s degree; these include compulsory studies in a foreign language (4 cr), studies in the second national language of Finland (3 cr) and communication studies in the first language (3 cr).
• Incorporate language studies completed at other Finnish or international universities into language programmes at the Language Centre
• Include in your degree KiVANET/KiVAKO or KiViTa courses completed elsewhere 
• Add to your study plan communication and language studies from a previous or incomplete degree pursued at the University of Helsinki

If your degree includes not only the above, but also other compulsory language studies, please submit a credit transfer application in Sisu:

• A substitution application if you are substituting one of the optional courses set for your degree structure
• An inclusion application if you can choose one of several optional language studies in your degree

The three-credit Student’s Digital Skills course (or formerly, the ICT Driving Licence) you complete as a degree or open university student at the University of Helsinki fully substitutes for the equivalent requirement. 

If this course is already incorporated into a study module or another University of Helsinki degree, read the Sisu inclusion instructions for how to accommodate the course in your study plan. Please write in the additional information field of the application that the credit transfer pertains to digital skills studies completed at the University of Helsinki.

• If you intend to participate in a student exchange programme, you should schedule the exchange and plan the studies to be completed during the exchange. Before your exchange, agree preliminarily on the transfer of credits for your exchange studies with your degree programme representative. See detailed Sisu instructions for exchange studies. 
• If you have completed a compulsory course during your student exchange, you can apply for its credit transfer in accordance with the Sisu substitution instructions. 
• If you have completed an optional study module or separate optional courses during your student exchange, you can apply for their credit transfer in accordance with the Sisu inclusion instructions. 
• Your exchange studies can be transferred as credits for a separate study module. This applies to higher education institutions with which the University of Helsinki has concluded an exchange agreement. A study module completed at a higher education institution outside Finland (min. 15 cr) is included in the degree as optional studies if this is permitted by the degree programme curriculum. Apply for credit transfer in accordance with the Sisu inclusion instructions.
• You can incorporate any language studies completed during your exchange into a language programme at the Language Centre.

If you wish to have credits transferred for studies included in a previous degree, their scope is limited:

• You can have up to 90 credits of studies included in your prior higher education degree transferred for a first-cycle degree.
• You can have up to 60 credits of studies included in your prior higher education degree transferred for a second-cycle degree.
• You can have up to 150 credits of studies included in your prior higher education degree transferred for a degree you are pursuing in the Degree Programme in Medicine or Dentistry.

You cannot have credits transferred in the following cases:

• In the case of a second-cycle degree pursued at the University of Helsinki, credits cannot be transferred for studies included in a previous first-cycle degree completed at a university or a first-cycle degree completed at a university of applied sciences.
• In the case of a doctoral degree, credits cannot be transferred for studies included in a previous first- or second-cycle degree completed at a general or applied science university.
• Credits cannot be transferred for a bachelor’s, master’s, licentiate or doctoral thesis, or a maturity test included in your degree. However, the language of the maturity test can be recognised if you completed your basic or secondary education in Finnish or Swedish and the maturity test of a Finnish higher education degree in the same language.

As a rule, credits completed at the University of Helsinki need not be transferred. However, in the exceptional event that you wish to incorporate into your degree or study plan studies already incorporated into another degree or study module completed at the University of Helsinki, please note the following: 

• If the studies incorporated into the degree or study module have a different code from those you wish to substitute, apply for substitution as usual with a substitution application in Sisu. 
• If the studies incorporated into the degree or study module have the same code as the studies you wish to substitute, submit instead an inclusion application in accordance with the Sisu inclusion instructions. Please write in the additional information field of this application that the credit transfer pertains to studies completed at the University of Helsinki. In these cases, the inclusion application is used instead of a substitution application, since in Sisu the same course or study module cannot be simultaneously incorporated into two degrees or study modules.
• If you wish to transfer credits for language studies included in a degree or study module pursued at the University of Helsinki, see the instructions Transfer of credits for communication and language studies. 
• If you have completed the Student’s Digital Skills course and incorporated it into a degree or study module pursued at the University of Helsinki, see the Sisu inclusion instructions for how to accommodate the course in your study plan.

You cannot use the same course or study module twice for the same degree. 

If you have previously incorporated into your first-cycle degree a course or study module which is a compulsory part of the curriculum for a second-cycle or doctoral degree, you must agree with the course or module coordinator on separate studies enabling you to achieve the minimum scope of your degree.

Credit transfer for open university studies

Generally, you need not apply for substitution for University of Helsinki open university studies. You can add them to the correct slot in your study plan by selecting them from the ‘Equivalences and substitutions’ tab of the course brochures.

However, if your open university studies have already been compiled into a study module, you cannot employ this method to choose them. In this case, complete an inclusion application in Sisu. After your application has been accepted, it is often necessary to submit an application for content that deviates from the predetermined structure to add the studies appropriately to your study plan.

You should not compile your open university studies into a study module if you wish to incorporate them later into a degree to be completed at the University of Helsinki.

If you wish to transfer credits for prior learning, you must submit an application and verify your learning.

• Apply for credit transfer based on the relevant Sisu instructions.
• Your application must be accompanied by a transcript of the studies completed outside the University of Helsinki. Use an electronically verified transcript of studies or a link obtained from the My Studyinfo service.
• Add to your application a description of the completed studies, indicating their targeted learning outcomes, content and any literature.
• If you apply for credit transfer based on a course or study module (MOOCs) provided as open online teaching at a higher education institution in Finland or abroad, you may be asked to submit a separate course or module certificate, provided by the teacher or higher education institution, on which your name is indicated.
• If you are applying for credit transfer for non-formal or informal learning, your application must be accompanied by a description of how the learning corresponds to the learning outcomes of the studies in question.

You will receive information on the credit transfer decision in Sisu within 30 days of the date all the information required to assess your application was received. In the case of applications submitted in the summer, from 1 June to 31 August, the processing may take longer. If your application is accepted, the substitution will be included in your completed studies.

If you are dissatisfied with the decision, you can request its administrative review according to the instructions available at Protection of students’ rights and review procedures.

Guidance and advice on credit transfer is provided by your faculty’s Student Services staff. Please notify them if your application is particularly urgent. 

Contact Student Services also if you are unable to use the electronic application form. If you are unable to submit your application through Sisu due to the accessibility deficiencies associated with the system, contact the University’s accessibility liaisons. Further information on individual arrangements

The Kaisa House Student Advice staff process and provide advice on the following credit transfer applications:

• Compulsory communication and language studies included in degrees
• Studies incorporated into Language Centre language programmes
• KiVANET/KiVAKO or KiViTa courses

Credit transfer applications for other language studies are sent to your faculty’s Student Services for processing.