Guidelines for tuition-fee-liable students

• The amount of the tuition fee is fixed and is not affected by how many credits you complete. In other words, a student can complete as many credits as they wish during one term.
• A student’s liability to pay for tuition is tied to the student’s study language and the degree programme. If a student changes their study language from English to Finnish or Swedish, they will no longer be liable to pay for tuition. However, at the same time they will also lose their potential scholarships. The same applies if a student changes to a non-paying degree programme.
• If you are an incoming first year student and you are unable to begin your studies on time due to a force majeure reason, you may be eligible to defer the start of your studies, as well as your paid tuition fee and/or scholarship, for one academic year. For detailed instructions, please read carefully the instruction of Deferring beginning of studies.
• It is important that you are proactive in your communication to the International Student Advice and your programme with any challenges you may encounter with your studies. We can best help you if we are earlier informed of problems with your studies, finances, health, etc. Even if you think a situation might be resolved and you do not need assistance, please contact the International Student Advice to be sure.

Students who are on their second study year or beyond can pay their tuition fee for the whole academic year or per term. The academic year consists of two academic terms: the autumn term and spring term. The tuition fee for one term is half of the tuition fee for the whole academic year. You can read more about the structure of the academic year and teaching periods here: The academic year and teaching periods. If your bank prevents you from making a payment for the whole academic year or for a single term, please ask them to increase your transaction limit.

Payment Deadlines and What’s Included

The deadlines for tuition fee payments are 31 August for the whole academic year or for the Autumn term, and 15 January for the Spring term. For continuing students, if the tuition fee is paid after these dates, a re-enrolment fee of 50€ will apply. 

If you have began your studies in 2026 or later, you must pay your HYY student union fee separately: Membership – Student Union of the University of Helsinki 

The higher education student healthcare fee is not included in the tuition fee or scholarships covering the tuition fee. All students need to pay the healthcare fee directly to Kela.

Tuition Fee and Attendance

If you are tuition-fee liable, you cannot register your attendance in Oili. You must pay your tuition fee for the consequent year or semester of study before you can register as attending. Once the tuition fee has been received, International Student Advice will manually update your status as attending within one week.

Academic registration as a tuition fee liable student is tied to the tuition fee payment. If a student pays the tuition fee for only the autumn term, they will only be registered as attending for the autumn term and non-attending for the spring term, and vice versa.

These same rules apply if you are delayed in your studies and must study for an additional semester or academic year to graduate. You can register as attending for the following autumn term, in which case you must pay half of the annual tuition fee. The fee will be charged by term until you have completed the degree.

How to pay

The tuition fee is paid using the Flywire service portal. The University of Helsinki does not send invoices by email. Instead, students must pay the tuition fee online through Flywire, a secure payment platform partnered with the University.

• If you pay the full tuition fee you can pay the full tuition fee here.
• If you receive the 50% tuition waiver or pay for only one term, you can pay half of the tuition fee here.
• If you need to pay a custom amount or wish to register as non-attending for a semester or for the whole academic year, please contact international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi. 

The instructions in this paragraph concern scholarships that cover either 50% or 100% of the tuition fee, as well as Finland Scholarships. These scholarships are granted only when you are accepted to the University or when you continue from the Bachelor's degree Programme in Science to a master's degree at the University of Helsinki.

Please note that scholarships for students starting their studies in 2026 or after do not cover their HYY student union fee.

Renewal of scholarship

The scholarships are granted for two academic years. To renew your scholarship for the second year, you need to earn 55 credits during your first study year, which ends on 31 July. This is the only condition for receiving the scholarship for the second year.

• You do not need to receive all the grades and have 55 credits officially registered by 31 July. What matters is that you have completed and submitted all coursework for the courses that count toward your 55 credits by this date. This includes, for example, all assignments, final essays, exams, or other required coursework.
• Only new credits that have been earned during the student’s first study year at the University of Helsinki are included in the 55 credits. Transferred credits from previous studies cannot be included.
• You do not need to earn a certain number of credits during your second study year. However, if you do not graduate within two academic years and need to complete credits during a third study year, you will need to pay for tuition for each additional term.

Those who received a 100% tuition fee scholarship or Finland Scholarship:

When you have earned the necessary 55 credits, send a message to  international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi to notify us and we will then register you as attending for the upcoming academic year. Please do not send a transcript of records, we will check your data directly from Sisu. 

Please notify International Student Advice about your earned credits as soon as possible, but latest on 31 August, when the registration period closes. After this date, a re-enrolment fee of 50€ will be assigned to you.

Those who received a 50% tuition fee scholarship:

When you have paid half of the tuition fee and earned the 55 credits, send a message to international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi to notify us and we will then register you as attending for the upcoming academic year. Please do not send a transcript of records, we will check your data directly from Sisu.

It is also possible to pay the tuition fee for only one semester of your second year. To request the payment link, please contact international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi.

The deadline for the payment is 31 August. Please notify us about the 55 credits earned and completed payment as soon as possible, but latest on 31 August. After this date, a re-enrolment fee of 50€ will be assigned to you.

Each International Master's Programme can award one Dean's Award to a tuition fee liable student for outstanding study performance during the student's first study year. The Dean's Award is worth 1000€ and will be paid to the student's Finnish bank account at the end of the autumn of their second study year, provided the student is registered as attending. There is no application process for this award, degree programmes choose their grantee in August after the first study year.

The Bachelor's Programme in Science and the Bachelor's Programme in Liberal Arts and Sciences can award one Dean's Award to:

• one student on their first study year (grant paid on the second study year) for outstanding study performance during the student's first study year
• one student on their second study year (paid on the third study year) for outstanding study performance during the student's first and second study years.

Starting from autumn 2026, a National Language Scholarship will be awarded to students who complete Finnish or Swedish language studies at the University of Helsinki.

Eligibility

To qualify for the scholarship, you must:

• Be a tuition-fee-liable student whose study right begins in 2026 or later.
• Complete at least 5 credits of either Finnish or Swedish language courses at the University of Helsinki during one academic year.
• Complete the credits in one language only. Finnish and Swedish credits cannot be combined to meet the 5-credit requirement.
• Be registered as an attending student when the scholarship is paid, in the autumn term of the following academic year.

Scholarship Amount and Payment

• €800 per eligible academic year.
• The scholarship is paid to your Finnish bank account.

Example

If you complete the required 5 credits during the 2026–2027 academic year, you will receive the scholarship in autumn 2027, provided you are registered as an attending student for the autumn 2027 term.

Multiple Scholarships

You can receive the scholarship more than once, as long as you

• meet the eligibility requirements each academic year and
• are registered as an attending student when the scholarship is paid
• complete language courses in the same language every year: if you complete 5 credits of Finnish language studies during your first year and wish to apply for the scholarship also after your second year, the eligible language credits must also be completed in Finnish during your second study year. You cannot swap languages between study years.

Students need to be registered as attending when they submit their thesis and graduation request. A tuition fee liable student can graduate within the same term if they 

• submit their thesis and graduation request by 31 July for the spring term or
• submit their thesis by 15 or 17 December (faculty dependent) and their graduation request by 31 December for the autumn term 2026. Please check the Rector's decision to see which date applies to your faculty regarding the autumn term 2026.

Students who do not submit their thesis and graduation request by the dates mentioned above must pay the standard tuition fee for the following term to be registered as attending and to be able to graduate.

Please note that you do not need to receive all the grades from your courses or thesis before submitting a graduation request. You may submit the request already once you have completed all required coursework and have submitted your thesis. 

There are two ways to submit a graduation request in Sisu, depending on your grade situation: 

1. If you have received all your grades:
   Please follow this instruction: Graduation request
2. If the grade for your thesis or any other course is still pending:
   Please submit your graduation request through a degree programme code by following this instruction: Graduation request through a degree programme code 

If a student follows the last submission deadlines mentioned above, their graduation date will be in July/December, but they will receive their diploma only months later, during the next term.

If you have submitted your graduation request and your residence permit for studies will expire before you receive your diploma, you should primarily apply for a new extended residence permit based on studies. Another option is to apply for a residence permit to look for work (Migri's website). You can apply for this type of residence permit earliest three months before you graduate.

First-year students

If you are a first-year student and wish to register for the academic year as either attending or non-attending for a statutory reason, please see the instructions on the following page: registration for the academic year (new students).

Continuing students (beyond first-year)

Registering as attending

If you are a tuition-fee-liable student, you cannot register yourself in Oili. You will be manually registered by International Student Advice once we have confirmed that your tuition fee payment has been received or scholarship renewal requirement has been fulfilled.

Registering as non-attending

For continuing students, no specific reason is required to register as non-attending – it does not need to be based on a statutory reason. If you wish to be non-attending for a term or for the whole academic year, please contact International Student Advice: international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi.

The deadline to register as either attending or non-attending is 31 August for the Autumn term or the whole academic year and 15 January for the Spring term. After these dates, your registration status cannot be changed from attending to non-attending and your tuition fee/scholarship will be spent for that term if you are registered as attending. Your status can be changed from non-attending to attending at any point during the academic year, but not for past terms.

Important notes on non-attendance:

• If you are registered as non-attending, you will no longer have an active student status. This means that you cannot attend classes, earn any credits, or graduate during this time period. Your university user account will also expire, meaning you will lose access to university platforms such as Moodle and Sisu.
• Non-attendance may affect your access to student healthcare services (FSHS), the HSL student discount, and student housing. It might also have implications for your current study based residence permit, or the extension of your study based residence permit.
• Non-attendance does not use up your tuition fee or scholarship.
• If you hold a 100% or 50% scholarship, you are allowed to be non-attending for a maximum of two terms for a non-statutory reason without losing your scholarship.
• Non-attendance for a statutory reason does not consume your study right. After your first study year, illness is not considered a statutory reason, so your study right will be consumed.
• All students can be non-attending for a non-statutory reason for two terms without the study right being consumed. After two terms, your study right will be consumed if you don't have a statutory reason.

Missing or Neglected status

If you do not register as either attending or non-attending by the registration deadline (31 August / 15 January), your attendance status will be marked as “missing.” After the registration period ends, all “missing” statuses will automatically change to “neglected.”

Once marked as “neglected,” you will have to pay a 50 euro re-enrolment fee to change your status from “neglected” to “attending” or “non-attending”. If it has been more than a full academic year since your last registration, you will also need to apply for a reinstatement of your study right.

Any term for which you have not registered as either attending or non-attending will count toward the total duration of your degree. This means that being marked as "neglected" for a term or an academic year will also consume your study right.

When do I not need to pay tuition fees? 

There will be changes to tuition fee exemptions due to changes to the Universities Act, taking place from 1 December 2024.

The student is legally liable to pay tuition fees at the University of Helsinki (from 1 December 2024):

If they are not citizen of a European Union/European Economic Area country or Switzerland OR do not have permanent residence status in Finland. Students are not liable to pay tuition fees in case they have:

• a  permanent residence card in Finland (type P)
• a long-term resident’s EU residence permit for third-country citizens in Finland (type P-EU permit)
• a residence permit based on temporary protection
• an EU blue card in Finland
• Right of residence under the withdrawal agreement (Brexit residence permit)
• a residence card for a family member of an EU citizen in Finland.
• from students studying under the Erasmus Mundus programme funded by the European Union
• continuous residence permit (type A) may exempt you from paying tuition fees if it is not granted on the basis of studying. However, you are required to pay tuition fees if:
  • your first residence permit in Finland was granted for studying, they have to pay tuition fees, even in case they have later obtained a continuous residence permit (type A) on other grounds.
  • you have a continuous residence permit (type A) based on family ties in Finland, and their family member originally came to Finland on a residence permit granted for studying.
  • if your continuous residence permit (type A) is granted for studying, you are required to pay tuition fees.

When does my residence permit need to be valid? 

• Documents stating that a student is not liable to pay tuition fees must be valid when the term starts on 1 August/1 January.
• If your document is valid e.g., until October, you are not liable to pay the tuition fee for the fall term. If your document is valid e.g., until March, you are not liable to pay the fee for the spring term either.
• Please send a picture of your residence permit to international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi.s (.s is for secure mail) well before the beginning of the academic term for which you wish to be exempted from paying tuition fees.
• NB! Please note that having a pending application for an exempting residence permit is not sufficient for not having to pay the tuition fee. Always apply for an extension to your current residence permit as early as possible as the handling of applications at Migri can take several months. 

What if I do not receive a decision of my exempting residence permit on time? 

• If you have applied for an extension of your current residence permit on time, i.e. three months before it expires, but have not received a decision from Migri in time to be exempt for the coming term, you can either register as a non-attending student or pay the tuition fee. If Migri then grants you an extension of your exempting residence permit, which is valid before or during the term for which you have paid the tuition fee, the University can refund the full amount of the tuition fee.
  • Example 1: A student's A residence permit, granted based on work, expired on 2 March and granted them an exemption from tuition fees until 31 July. They have applied for an extension of the permit but have not yet received the decision. They pay for the autumn term and later on receive Migri’s decision that they have been granted an extension starting from 25 July.  They are thus retroactively exempted also from the autumn term, which begins on 1 August and the University can refund the tuition fee to the student.
  • Example 2: A student's A residence permit, granted based on work, expired on 2 March and grants them an exemption from tuition fees until 31 July. They have applied for an extension of the permit but have not yet received the decision. They pay for the autumn term and later on receive Migri’s decision that they have been granted an extension starting from 15 September. They are thus exempted from the autumn term and the University can refund the tuition fee to the student.
• If you applied for a new type of residence permit before the previous exempting residence permit expired but have not received a decision from Migri in time to be exempt for the coming term, you can either register as a non-attending student or pay the tuition fee. If Migri then grants you the new type of exempting residence permit, which becomes valid before the term for which you paid the tuition fee, the University can refund the tuition fee.
  • Example 1: A student's A residence permit, granted based on work, expired on 2 March and granted them an exemption from tuition fees until 31 July. They have applied for a P permit but have not yet received the decision. They pay for the autumn term and later on receive Migri’s decision that they have been granted a P permit starting from 25 July.  They are thus retroactively exempted also from the autumn term, which begins on 1 August and the University can refund the tuition fee to the student.
  • Example 2: a student's A residence permit, granted based on work, expired on 2 March and grants them an exemption from tuition fees until 31 July. They have applied for a P permit, which becomes valid on 15 September. They are thus not exempted from the autumn term and need to either pay the tuition fee or register as non-attending for that term. 

Eligibility for Reimbursement 

1. Registration Status 

To be eligible for a reimbursement, your registration status for the term for which you are requesting reimbursement must not be “attending.” In other words, your status for that term must be either non-attending, missing or neglected. 

The deadline for registering as non-attending is: 

• 31 August for the autumn term
• 15 January for the spring term 

This means that if you wish to receive a reimbursement for a term, you must change your registration status to non-attending before these dates.

Please see however the following exception if you have an exemption from paying tuition fees based on your residence permit.

2. Example Scenarios Eligible for Reimbursement 

Reimbursement may be granted in the following situations: 

• A conditionally admitted student fails to meet the admission conditions within the allocated time.
• A student has been granted a deferral.
• A student’s residence permit status changes and the new permit exempts them from paying tuition fees.
  • Note: the student must be exempted from paying tuition fees for the term that they wish to be reimbursed.
• The degree programme is not offered.
• A student graduates before the target duration of the degree (e.g. in the second autumn of a master’s degree or the third autumn of a bachelor’s degree).
• A student cancels their registration as attending before the registration period ends and requests reimbursement before the relevant deadline.

How and When to Request Reimbursement 

To request reimbursement, please contact International Student Advice at international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi. 

For the term of non-attendance, the deadline for requesting reimbursement is: 

• 30 September for the autumn term
• 31 January for the spring term 

The reimbursement deadline may be extended only in exceptional cases, such as when a student is granted a deferral or a change in residence permit status.

• For students with a deferral:
  If you defer your studies, your new reimbursement deadline will be July 31 of the academic year following your new start year. 
  Example: If you were originally scheduled to start in autumn 2025 but deferred to autumn 2026, your reimbursement deadline will be July 31, 2027.
• For changes in residence permit status:
  Please contact international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi for information about applicable reimbursement deadlines.

Administrative Costs 

Please note that the University withholds €300 from reimbursements to cover administrative costs. 

However, the €300 will not be withheld when a student has paid the tuition fee and has subsequently been granted a deferral.

If your situation is not listed above, but you believe you may be eligible for reimbursement, or if you are unsure about deadlines or whether the administrative fee applies, please contact international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi for further guidance. 

Parental leave is considered a statutory reason for non-attendance. Statutory non-attendance does not consume your study right. The amount of study leave you are admitted usually correlates to Kela's approved benefits. You do not need to be the birthing parent to be granted statutory non-attendance from parental leave.  

For the University to verify this and to calculate terms of non-attendance, Kela's document about parental leave or a foreign equivalent can be submitted via secure mail (if you have access to your University email) at international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi.s If you have any documentation from a country outside of Finland regarding pregnancy or parental leave, please be in contact; these are handled on a case-to-case basis. A form from the nurse’s office (signed or unsigned) regarding pregnancy is usually not sufficient.  

If a student is not receiving benefits from Kela, the amount of leave time is estimated based off Kela’s calculator: Kela - For what period can I get parental allowance?

According to Kela, each parent is entitled to 160 days of parental leave, which begins after the birth of the child. In addition, the birthing parent is entitled to extra 40 weekdays of pregnancy leave before the birth of the child. If even one day of a semester falls within the calculated leave period - either parental leave or pregnancy leave (if the student is the birthing parent) - the student may register as non-attending for the entire semester.

Please note that registration as non-attending must be completed within the official registration period: by 15 January for the Spring semester and by 31 August for the Autumn semester. You are expected to either be studying or on parental leave, not both at the same time. If you are planning on taking parental leave, please register as non-attending for that whole term according to the deadlines mentioned above. Being registered as attending will consume your paid tuition fee/scholarship, even if you have been granted parental allowance for the same period.

Continuing UK degree students are exempt from paying tuition fees even after January 1, 2021 as long as they change their EU registration in Finland to EU right-to-residence in accordance with the withdrawal agreement (with Migri). Apply for the change of status between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021. The University of Helsinki however strongly recommends that you apply for it before July 31, 2021 so that you will be exempt from tuition fees for the whole autumn term 2021. A proof of right of residence, or a proof that you have applied for it (from Migri) is sufficient for exemption. Please send the proof of your right of residence or proof of your application to international-studentinfo@helsinki.fi as soon as possible. 

New UK degree students who arrive in Finland after December 31, 2020 are liable to full tuition fee and residence permit requirements like other non-EU/EEA students. The full tuition fee liability also opens the possibility to apply for University of Helsinki scholarships. 

• Who is liable to pay for tuition 
• FAQ tuition fees and scholarships 
• Other grants offered by the University of Helsinki
• Extending your residence permit 
• Graduation