From 2025, universities will have nine national entrance exams, which will allow applicants to apply for a wide range of different subjects and universities. At the same time, the timetable for the entrance exams will be relaxed so that those selected by certificate-based admissions will no longer have to prepare for and take the entrance exams.
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.
Students will soon be able to take one entrance exam and use it to apply to several universities and fields of study. The reform will significantly reduce the number of entrance exams. This will make it possible to adjust the schedule of admissions so that those selected through certificate-based admission do not need to prepare for the entrance exams. Approximately half of the places in the bachelor’s as well as bachelor's and master's degree education at the University of Turku are filled on the basis of entrance exams.
The proposed scoring model would ease the pressures on general upper secondary students and allow them to focus on subjects interesting them. The new scoring model for certificate-based admission will be published in autumn 2023.
The aim of the Finnish universities is to streamline certificate-based admission and to ensure that the study opportunities are not unnecessarily restricted by subject choices made at general upper secondary level. This would ease the pressures experienced by general upper secondary students. About half of all new university students are admitted on the basis of their certificates.
In the first joint application round of 2023, the international Master’s degree programmes of the University of Turku attracted a total of 5,958 applications. The number of applications grew by a record-breaking 76 percent compared to the number of applications in 2022. The greatest growth was seen in the Master’s degree programmes in Gender Studies and in Mechanical Engineering.
The universities will decide on the reform of the scoring model for certificate-based admission in 2023. The new model will be introduced in 2026. The aim is also to increase collaboration related to entrance examinations among universities. Relief for applicants will be provided by a timetable reform aimed at making it unnecessary for those admitted through the certificate-based admission procedure to prepare for entrance examinations from 2025 onwards.
The application round to Finnish-language degree programmes in Finnish universities ended on 30 March 2022. For the first time, the University of Turku was the most popular higher education institution in Finland in the number of applicants. Altogether 29,504 prospective students applied to the University of Turku.
The international Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes of the University of Turku attracted a record number of 3,378 applications during the joint application round on 5–19 January 2022. The number of applications grew by 73 percent when compared to 2021. The most popular programmes were Master’s degree programmes in Information and Communication Technology and Global Innovation Management.
Finnish universities’ vice rectors for education agreed on launching a joint development project to develop student admissions. Entrance examinations will be digitalised, their content developed, and their number significantly reduced. The needs for development were identified jointly by the universities particularly as a result of admissions carried out over the course of the national state of emergency. The development work will be discussed at universities during the autumn.