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General admissions criteria

The eligibility criteria for Finnish higher education studies at universities of applied sciences comes from the Finnish law, Polytechnics Act (932/2014).

You can apply to a Bachelor’s degree programme if you have completed:

  • The Finnish general upper secondary school syllabus and/or the matriculation examination
  • an International Baccalaureate (IB) degree or final certificate of the IB upper secondary school and written 6 subjects on IB level
  • A European Baccalaureate (EB Diploma) from European Schools in Finland or abroad
  • A Reifeprüfung (RP) Diploma in Finland
  • A Deutsche International Abitur Diploma (DIA) in Finland
  • A Finnish vocational upper secondary qualification with a scope of 120 credit units or 180 credit points, or a comparable previous Finnish vocational qualification with a minimum scope of 80 credit units
  • A Finnish post-secondary or higher vocational level diploma
  • A Finnish vocational upper secondary qualification or a further or specialist vocational qualification as a competence-based qualification or a comparable previous qualification
  • A Foreign qualification that provides eligibility for higher education studies in the country in question. You can the find examples of accepted foreign diplomas at the website of Haaga-Helia. Please note that not all diplomas are listed at the page.
  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree
  • Licentiate or Doctoral degree

The scoring models of certificate-based selection are maintained and updated on the national website UASinfo

Refugee or asylum seeker

Refugees or asylum seekers may submit their application and be selected for the degree programme in the same way as any other eligible Finnish citizen or foreign national.

If you are a refugee in Finland or are in a position similar to that of a refugee or an asylum seeker, and you cannot provide documented evidence of your earlier degree, you must complete a background check form. You can receive the form from the Admission Services. Oamk will decide whether the information given in the back ground check form is sufficient. Based on this decision you will or will not be invited to take entrance exam. To be able to apply as refugee, you must have an official decision of your status (asylum decision or residence permit based on protection). A copy of the official status must be added as annex into your back ground check form. 

If you are an asylum seeker and are yet to receive a decision of refugee status, you should present an identity card with a photograph issued by Finnish Immigration Services, Migri, at the entrance examination. In addition you should also present a certificate on a pending asylum process issued by Migri. 

If you are applying as refugee or asylum seeker in Finland, please contact our Admission Services for further information.