The application deadline is 25 July 2008. However, the earlier you apply the better, as students are accepted on a first come, first served basis. If you would like Helsinki Summer School to arrange your accommodation, you should apply no later than the beginning of June. This is because the accommodation fee must be paid no later than 6 June 2008.
Unfortunately no, because our courses are designed for university students who have already studied for at least a few years.
As long as you have studied at a university for at least a few years, you are welcome to apply to Helsinki Summer School. However, the number of places open to professionals is limited.
If you have paid the accommodation fee prior to the 6 June 2008 deadline, Helsinki Summer School will refund your money after deducting 5% charge and banking fees. Accommodation fees will not be refunded under any circumstances after the accommodation deadline has passed.
Although all of our courses are taught in English, they are not language courses. If you are looking for summer language courses in Finnish, you can find useful links here.
The courses are extremely intensive (normally 2-3 lectures per day), so it is not possible to take more than one course at a time.
After the session has ended we will mail each student who has successfully completed their course a course diploma, a transcript, and a course description.
In case you have paid the accommodation in advance before the accommodation deadline but cancel your participation, Helsinki Summer School will refund the accommodation payment after deducting 5% and banking fees. Accommodation fees will not be refunded under any circumstances after the accommodation deadline has expired.
If you have been accepted to HSS and have paid the registration fee, we can inform the Finnish Consulate that you have been accepted to our programme. If you would like us to do so, please contact us and tell us which consulate you are applying for a visa at. We cannot, however, guarantee that you will be granted a visa, as that is entirely up to the Finnish Consulate. If you are not granted a visa and have to cancel your participation, we will not be able to refund your registration fee.
The competition for Helsinki Summer School scholarships is intense. Last year (2007) we received a total of 260 scholarship applications and were able to grant 20 full scholarships and 1 partial scholarship. We recommend that you try to find sources of financial support in your own home country as well.
Unfortunately, Helsinki Summer School is not able to provide you with contacts to other scholarship sources. We recommend that you contact your own university for more information on possible scholarships and/or grants.
The recommendation letters should be “academic” and therefore written by a teacher or professor.
We will inform all of our scholarships applicants of the results by email no later than the end of May. No enquires about the results will be answered before that.
This year five universities are organising courses on seven different campuses in the
The course sizes vary, but there are normally between 15 and 30 students per course. In 2007 we had a total of 305 students from 50 different countries. Normally about one third of our students are from Finland.
Unfortunately no. We will email all our students instructions on how to get from the airport to the city centre, how to find the hostel, what to do on the first day, etc.
Yes. You are required to pay the normal registration and course fees. Only applicants who have been accepted as exchange students at a Finnish university for the academic year 2008-2009 will receive a discount on the registration and course fees (see the Payments page for more information).
No. We strongly recommend that all students obtain travel insurance prior to leaving their home country.
All of the participating universities have excellent computer facilities, and we will provide all of our students with a computer license which includes an email account and a printing quota of 200 pages. You will also have access to the computer labs at the Alexandria Learning Centre, which is located on the University of Helsinki’s city campus. You can also get a key card (requires a 25 € key deposit) which allows you 24 hour a day access to the computer labs. If you do bring your own laptop, the Alexandria Learning Centre offers free WLAN Internet access. Eurohostel also provides WLAN Internet access. More information about the fees is available on the Eurohostel web page.