How to apply as a visiting student (free mover)

The requirement is that you will take courses or do an internship/thesis work/PhD research at the University of Helsinki. You may also apply for the visiting student status if you have received a scholarship (e.g. from EDUFI, Fulbright Center or Erasmus+ training SMT) or if you present other compelling academic reasons. Visiting students do not need to pay tuition fees at the University of Helsinki.

In line with the recommendations of the Ministry of Education and Culture, all institutional collaboration with Russian and Belorussian universities and other institutions is suspended. This means that University of Helsinki cannot consider exchange or visiting student applications from students whose home university is Russian or Belorussian. For more information please check the regularly updated web pages of the University of Helsinki.

NOTE: If your home university has a student exchange agreement with the University of Helsinki and you are applying as a regular exchange student, please see our instruction How to apply as an exchange student. 

Visiting students taking courses 

• The credits/courses/research completed at the University of Helsinki should be approved as a part of your degree at your home institution.
• As a visiting student you will receive credit units (ECTS) for all of your work but you are not able to obtain a degree from the University of Helsinki.
• The visiting student status is normally granted for one or maximum two academic terms.
• Please note that due to the limited number of available places we prioritize students nominated through our agreements. Applications from the visiting students who have applied for course work will be reviewed only after the available spots have been allocated to students from our partner universities.
• The Faculty of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Social Sciences are currently accepting visiting student applications only from students who have found an academic supervisor from the Faculty and are coming to do research. Applications for visiting students only wishing to take courses at the faculty are not open until further notice in those faculties.

Visiting students doing in­tern­ship/​thesis work/​PhD research

• Your supervisor needs to agree to give ECTS credits for the visit, even if you do not need them for your home institution or if you were completing your traineeship as an Erasmus+ recent graduate grantee. PhD students are an exception.
• The visiting student status is normally valid for a minimum of two months and a maximum of one academic year.
• Incoming applicants of Erasmus+ short-term mobility of PhD students (5-30 days) also apply as visiting students. 

If you are applying for the visiting student status to complete course work at the University of Helsinki, you must follow the application period and deadlines for exchange students.

If you are applying for the visiting student status for internship/thesis work/PhD research, you should apply two months prior to the start of your stay in Helsinki the latest. You can apply closer to the date, but in that case we can not guarantee that your application will be handled in time before you start your stay in Helsinki. The application portal for the coming academic year (1.8. - 31.7.)  is opened annually on April 1st. 

The following documents (as pdf - please do not upload zip files) must be uploaded to the Mobility Online application system by the deadline:  

• Motivation letter
• Certificate of Language skills
• Preliminary Learning Agreement (PDF) approved and signed by the appropriate person at your home university. When you plan your studies please note that you should mainly select courses from one faculty, which best corresponds your field of study. Please see Courses for exchange students to look for suitable courses. Note the Restrictions -chapter on the aforementioned page as it's very unlikely to be accepted on those courses as a visiting student.
• An official transcript of records (same as transcript of credits) (in English, Finnish or Swedish), i.e. a certified list of all the courses and exams you have completed at your home university, must be attached to your application.
  • Please note that you should include a complete transcript for both current and past degrees, i.e. if you are applying as a Master's Degree student, you should also include a complete transcript for your Bachelor's Degree. If you are applying as a PhD student, please also provide transcripts of your Bachelor's and Master's degrees. It is important that the courses are listed in English, Finnish, or Swedish. In case your home university does not provide transcripts in any of the aforementioned languages, you are responsible for translating the document yourself. It does not need to be an officially verified translation.
• Fulbright scholarship receivers: the only required document is a copy of the decision or agreement for your scholarship.

University of Helsinki retains the right the verify the authenticity of all submitted documents.

The prerequisites for a visiting student status are that you have already secured a supervisor at the University of Helsinki (UH) and receive credits units (ECTS) for internship/thesis work/research at the hosting unit. PhD students do not need to receive credits for research/thesis work. If you do not yet have a supervisor, you can use the University's Research page or  University of Helsinki Research Portal to look for a potential supervisor. You can refer the potential supervisor to the UH Intranet Flamma for instructions on Hosting international research trainees (Intranet - requires UH IT credentials). 

Following documents (as pdf - please do not upload zip files) must be uploaded to the Mobility Online application system before the application can be processed: University of Helsinki retains the right to verify the authenticity of all submitted documents.

• Preliminary Learning Agreement (PDF) approved and signed by the appropriate person at your home university. If you don't have a suitable course name/code for the work you will conduct at the University of Helsinki at hand, you can write internship/thesis work/PhD research and the estimated amount of credits you receive for the work.
• Invitation letter (PDF) (including dates for the visiting period and the estimated amount of credits received at the University of Helsinki) from the academic contact person who has agreed to supervise your work at the University of Helsinki (UH). Please note that in order to obtain a student status at UH, your supervisor must commit to granting ECTS credits for your work (credits not required from PhD students or from applicants to summer training at Veterinary teaching hospital) even if your home institution does not require them. You can refer the potential supervisor to UH Intranet for instructions on how to give credits (Intranet - requires UH IT credentials).
• Certificate of Language skills or a clarification of sufficient language skills from the supervisor at UH. The supervisor can verify the sufficient language skills in the invitation letter, for which we have provided a template above. The faculty may ask you to demonstrate further evidence of sufficient language skills.
• An official transcript of records (same as transcript of credits) in English, Finnish or Swedish, i.e. a certified list of all the courses and exams you have completed at your home university, must be attached to your application.
  • In case your home university does not provide transcripts in any of the aforementioned languages, you are responsible for translating the document yourself. It does not need to be an officially verified translation. 

University of Helsinki retains the right the verify the authenticity of all submitted documents.

Exceptions

• EDUFI fellowship and Fulbright scholarship receivers: the only required document is a copy of the decision or agreement for your scholarship.
• Joint degree programmes for PhD students and Cotutelle supervision: for applicants who already have a formal co-supervisor at the University of Helsinki, the only required documents is the Invitation Letter from your supervisor.

NOTE: Erasmus Traineeship agreements should not be sent to the International Exchange Services before they are signed by all parties. Training agreements are signed and agreed upon by the academic host at the receiving unit, usually by the supervisor. The contact person can be the same as the supervisor. 

There are two types of Erasmus+ short term mobility funding for PhD students:

• short term student mobility (SMS), 5-30 days, this funding can only be used if there already is an Erasmus+ student exchange agreement with the University of Helsinki, which includes PhD students. Your home university is responsible for making sure that there is a valid student exchange agreement.
• short term traineeship (SMT), 5-30 days, this funding does not require an exchange agreement between universities, you need to find an academic host at the University for Helsinki in order to apply for a short-term traineeship.

Required documents

Unless you are attending a short course at the University of Helsinki (UH), the prerequisite for a visiting student status is that you have already secured a supervisor at UH. If you do not yet have a supervisor, you can use the  University's Research page or University of Helsinki Research Portal to look for a potential supervisor. You can refer the potential supervisor to the UH Intranet Flamma for instructions on Hosting international research trainees (Intranet - requires UH IT credentials). 

Following documents (as pdf - please do not upload zip files) must be uploaded to the Mobility Online application system before the application can be processed: 

• Preliminary Learning Agreement (provided by your home institution) approved and signed by the appropriate person at your home university. If you don't have a suitable course name/code for the work you will conduct at the University of Helsinki at hand, you can write PhD research.
• Invitation letter (PDF) (including dates for the visiting period) from the academic contact person who has agreed to host you at UH.
• An official transcript of records (same as transcript of credits) in English (or Finnish/Swedish), i.e. a certified list of all the courses and exams you have completed at your home university, must be attached to your application.
  • In case your home university does not provide transcripts in any of the aforementioned languages, you are responsible for translating the document yourself. It does not need to be an officially verified translation. 

University of Helsinki retains the right to verify the authenticity of all submitted documents.

Before you start the application, please read the instructions below and collect all necessary documents for your application. Some details can no longer be edited by you, once you have filled in the application form. Reading the instructions saves a lot of time and effort. 

Register as an applicant by filling in the application form. 

Once you have submitted the application form you are asked to register to Mobility Online. Please create a username and a password which both have minimum 8 and maximum 12 characters, at least one number, at least one upper case letter and no special characters. For example: Username1, passWord1. 

Please login to Mobility Online to continue filling in your personal details and uploading the required application documents. Mobility Online will guide you forward step-by-step. 

Please note:

• You should apply for the visiting student status from the Faculty you plan to study/receive the credits in.
• It is not possible to apply for a visiting student status for courses provided by the University of Helsinki Language Center.
• All the requested documents must be either in English or in Finnish or Swedish. In case your home university does not provide transcripts in any of the aforementioned languages, you are responsible for the translation of the document yourself. Such a document needs to be either a certified translation of the original document or the sending institution needs to verify your own translation with a stamp and a signature.
• Applications that are not completed will not be processed.
• Forged or invalid documents cause a cancellation of the student's admission.
• Application documents are not returned to you.

Fixed-term right to study granted to visiting students is not intended for mobility between Finnish institutions of higher education. Instead, students enrolled at a Finnish institution of higher education as degree students should apply for the right to complete non-degree studies at the University of Helsinki.

China scholarship Council applicants apply to the University of Helsinki according to the normal visiting student application deadlines listed above. During the funding application process, China Scholarship Council may ask for an acceptance letter from the University of Helsinki. Because University of Helsinki has its own application deadlines, which are different from CSC, applicants can get an invitation letter (PDF) from their potential supervisor at the University of Helsinki for CSC, which explains UH's application process. China Scholarship Council applicants are required to provide a certificate of language skills during the application process.

You are strongly recommended to have a good personal insurance including liability insurance. University of Helsinki does not provide insurance to incoming students unless they will be hired by the receiving institute. Here you can find more information on insurances for students.

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Training at the Veterinary teaching hospital
When applying for clinical practice: In case you have not yet passed some of the clinical theory courses but will have by the time you start studies in Helsinki, you have to include a list of those courses in the application. You should also mention your previous and forthcoming clinical practice experience in the application.

The following faculties require at least two years of relevant academic studies before the exchange from students hoping to take courses:

• Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry
• Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences
• Faculty of Pharmacy

The following faculties are currently accepting visiting student applications only from students who have found an academic supervisor from the Faculty and are coming to do research: 

• Faculty of Educational Sciences
• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Social Sciences

Applications for visiting students only wishing to take courses at these faculties are not open until further notice.