The University of Turku was the most popular university in this spring’s second joint application round for the Finnish-language degree programmes which ended on 27 March 2024. The total number of applicants to the University's Finnish-language degree programmes was 31,824, which is also the highest number of applicants ever to the University of Turku. The previous applicant record from 2021 (31,511) was broken in the last hour of the application round.
The 31,824 applicants (in 2023: 29,466) who applied to the University of Turku submitted a total of 42,198 applications (in 2023: 39,361) via the Studyinfo service.
“The competition for the largest number of applicants was very tight and exciting right up to the application deadline,” says Mari Kähkönen, Head of Admission Services at the University of Turku.
Tampere University came second with 31,631 applicants, and the University of Helsinki was third with 31,273 applicants. The fourth most popular institution was the University of Eastern Finland (24,389 applicants) and the fifth most popular was Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (21,432 applicants). The total number of applicants in the application round for the Finnish-language degree programmes was just over 144,000 (in 2023: around 142,000).
Significant increase in the number of applicants to law, political science and contemporary history, speech and language pathology, and automation technology
Once again, the most popular Finnish-language degree programme at the University of Turku is economics on the Turku campus (5,971 applicants). Popular degree programmes also included law (4,187 applicants), medicine (4,178 applicants), and psychology (2,964 applicants). Of these subjects, the largest increase in the number of applicants was in law, which became the second most popular subject.
Among the other subjects, political science and contemporary history saw a significant increase of more than 42% in the number of applicants, and there was also a more than 20% increase in speech and language pathology and automation technology. Among the engineering programmes, the new industrial engineering degree programme was the most popular with 679 applicants.
In total, the University of Turku had 104 degree programmes in the spring’s joint application round, 52 of which were aimed at those applying for their first study place in a higher education institution, i.e. a bachelor's degree, bachelor's+master's degree or licentiate degree.
"We are excited about the success of the University of Turku and currently have a spring in our step. Our multidisciplinary research University offers plenty of opportunities to tailor your own degree with a great selection of minor studies. We are developing our education to meet the needs of the future and professional life, and our applicants have noticed this in particular. We are delighted that our University and the education we offer are attracting such a great, record number of applicants," says Vice Rector Piia Björn.
