The application deadline is the day before the course begins. However, the earlier you apply the better, as students are accepted on a first come, first served basis. Usually, the courses become full before they begin. If you would like Helsinki Summer School to arrange your accommodation, you should apply no later than the beginning of June.
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.
Please take a look at our cancellation policy.
The registration fee and social programme fees cannot be refunded.
If you have paid the accommodation fee and you cancel your participation prior to the accommodation fee payment deadline, Helsinki Summer School will refund your money after deducting 15% 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 post a course diploma, a transcript, and a course description to each student who has successfully completed their course.
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.
No, it's not. The competition for Helsinki Summer School scholarships is intense. We get hundreds of scholarship applications every year while we are able to give out only a handful of scholarships. 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.
We will inform all of our scholarships applicants of the results by email no later than the end of April. Please note that no enquires about the results will be answered before that.
It depends on who organises the course. Please take a look at the Accommodation page to find a link to a list of the courses and campuses and their distances from the accommodation we offer.
The course sizes vary, but there are normally between 15 and 30 students per course. The students come from dozens of different countries all around the world. Usually, there are also some Finnish students on most of the courses.
Regrettably, no. You can find the 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. at the Extranet.
Yes. You are required to pay the normal registration and course fees. A discount on the registration and course fees can be granted only to applicants who have been accepted as exchange students at a Finnish university for the academic year following the summer course (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 500 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 website. There is also a free broadband Internet connection in every apartment in Pihlajamäki. You only need an Ethernet network card and a LAN cable to use it.