Bachelor's Degree Programme in Information Technology

Eligible applicants hold an upper secondary education certificate:

• Finnish matriculation examination
• International Baccalaureate degree (IB)
• European Baccalaureate degree (EB)
• Deutsches Internationales Abitur degree (DIA) or Reifeprüfung degree (RP) in Finland
• A Finnish vocational upper secondary qualification, further vocational qualification or specialist vocational qualification as set in the Vocational Education Act (531/2017)
• any other comparable upper secondary educational qualification which provides eligibility for university-level Bachelor’s studies in the country in question.
• Advanced International Certificate of Education degree (AICE) in Finland, or has the right to study towards a university degree in Finland, or holds a degree conferred by a Finnish higher education institution or at least a Bachelor level degree conferred by a foreign institution.

Applicants who are in the final semester of their upper secondary education are also eligible to apply.

In entrance examination admission, completed Finnish matriculation examinations and Finnish vocational qualifications of which the university has received information by 13 May 2025 will be taken into account. International matriculation examinations and degrees completed abroad will be taken into account if the required attachments have been sent by the deadline.

If you are a refugee or your status is comparable to that of a refugee, and you thus cannot verify your eligibility for higher education with documentation, the university may allow you to take part in an entrance examination for the bachelor’s degree programme. You must have a decision by the authorities regarding your refugee status (decision on asylum or residence permit based on protection), and you must submit a copy of the decision to the Admissions Office on 29 January 2025 at the latest.

Language requirements:

Applicants must either (1) reach the minimum required language test results to be considered eligible to the University of Eastern Finland or (2) meet the language proficiency criteria (see below). No exceptions will be made.

(1) Applicants can prove their English language skills with one of the following examinations or tests

Matriculation examinations

• Finnish matriculation examination, English language (A-language, advanced syllabus) completed with a minimum grade of magna cum laude approbatur (M)
• International Baccalaureate degree (IB):
  • diploma completed in English, 
  • succesful completion of A level English exam (literature / language and literature / literature and performance),
  • completion of B level English exam, minimum grade of 5 (good).
• European Baccalaureate (EB) degree: 
  • L1-language (English) completed successfully
  • L2 – or L3 language (English) completed with a minimum grade of 7.
• Reifeprüfung (RP) or DIA degree (German school of Helsinki) Satisfactory completion of: 
  • English A written scores completed successfully
  • oral score being minimum of 8 

Language tests

• TOEFL iBT test: minimum overall score 78 
• IELTS (academic)-test: minimum overall score 6.0
• PTE (academic)-test: minimum overall score 54
• C1 Advanced minimum score: C
• C2 Proficiency minimum score: Level C1
• A National certificate of language proficiency (YKI) (English) of The Finnish National Agency for Education: level 4 in all different subtests (reading comprehension, writing and speaking). It is possible to combine different examinations.

No other degrees or statements of language proficiency will be accepted.

TOEFL, IELTS and PTE certificates are valid for two years from the day they are issued, i.e., the language test needs to be in effect during the application period, from 8 January 2023 onwards.

The language test results must be verifiable from the online verification service of the organizer.

(2) Applicants who hold one of the following do not have to take an English language test

A language test is not required if the applicant has completed their secondary education degree in English in EU/EEA countries, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, or Switzerland.

A language test is not required if the applicant has completed a Bachelor’s, Master’s or higher degree in the English language in EU/EEA -countries or in one of the following countries:
Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Sierra Leone, Singapore,
South-Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The degree/programme must be taught and assessed entirely in English. If you verify your language skills with your education degree, the language of instruction must be clearly indicated on the educational documents.

Online studies or studies completed on offshore campuses outside the accepted countries/area cannot be used to indicate language skills, even if the degree-awarding institution is in one of the accepted countries. 

Entrance examination course and video interview

Students are selected for the Bachelor in Science, Information Technology degree programme using an online entrance exam course and a video interview.

There are 40 student places in the Joensuu campus.

There are 40 student places in the Kuopio campus.

Entrance exam course will be passed during the application evaluation period. The course opens on 10 February 2025 and the course must be finished by 16 March 2025. The course must be completed using the university Moodle platform. Access rights for the course will be sent to applicants after the application period. The applicant’s eligibility for application and selection will be checked before the final selection decision.

The course part of the selection: Introduction to Computer Science and Algorithmic Thinking. It contains material and exercises on elementary Computer Science and algorithmic subjects. The course is worth 2 ECTS units, and the selected students can use the credits within their BSc degree.

Scoring the entrance examination course and video interview

The applicants must complete the course by 16 March 2025 to be considered for admission. The maximum for the whole course is 200 points. The applicant must get at least 100 points to be considered for admission. According to the course points, after completing the course, at least 60 of the best applicants for each campus are invited for a video interview. The video interview will be graded based on three parts. Each grading part (1)-(3) has a maximum of 10 points, and at least 5 points must be achieved in each grading part (1)-(3) to be considered for admission.

The applicants are then ranked based on the combined score of the entrance exam course and video interview, which can be a maximum of 230 points. If more than one applicant has the same combined score, all such applicants will be admitted.

Selections for the video interview will be published by 21 March at the latest. Video interviews will be organized from 31 March to 11 April.

The results of the entrance examination course admission will be announced in the My Studyinfo service on 28 May 2025 at the latest.

The granted right to study

If you are admitted to the programme, you will gain the right to complete a Bachelor in Science, Information Technology degree.

You may accept only one student place leading to a higher education degree in education that begins in the same academic term.

Additional information on applying

Conditional acceptance

You will be informed in the result letter you receive from Studyinfo and in the My Studyinfo service if your acceptance is conditional. If you do not meet the condition by the deadline, you will lose the study place offered to you.

Applicants who complete an IB or EB degree in the same spring they apply

If the applicant completes their IB or EB degree in the spring of 2025, the final result of selection will be made based on the final grades of the IB/EB degree. If, for example, your grades improve from preliminary grades so that your selection points would increase over the cut-off, you will be selected as an extra student. If your grades decline so that you would not have been selected, then the selection will be cancelled. All the information will be checked at the latest when you start your studies. Checking and registering the final grades of applicants whose acceptance is conditional in Studyinfo may change the admission order of all applicants.

Delimitation of granting the right to study

You cannot be granted a new right to study resulting in a Bachelor in Science, Information Technology degree if you already have a valid right to study in the Information Technology degree programme resulting in a Bachelor in Science, Information Technology degree or a right to study in the Information Technology degree programme resulting in a Master of Science degree at the University of Eastern Finland.

Rectifying procedure

If you disagree with the student selection decision, you may apply for a rectification of the decision after the results have been published between 28 May – 11 June 2025 before 3:00 p.m. Appeal instructions.

Attachments

Eligibility

The attachments must be electronically saved on the application form (pdf, jpg, or png) by 29 January 2025 at 3:00 p.m. If attachments are required from you, after submitting the application form, you will receive information on the required attachments on the screen as well as by email (confirmation message about submitting the application form).

Certification of English language skills

To verify your English language proficiency, upload the required document to the application form by 29 January 2025 at 3:00 p.m. If you must upload a required attachment after submitting the application form, you will receive information on the required attachments on the screen and by email (confirmation message about submitting the application form).

Information concerning the required documents.

Applicants receiving their diplomas in 2025 please see our website

The attachment is uploaded to the application form

Deadline for uploading attachments

29 January 2025 at 3:00 p.m.

Annual tuition fees for non-EU/EEA or Switzerland citizens will be 10,000 EUR. There are no tuition fees for EU/ETA or Switzerland citizens.

Non-EU/ETA applicants can apply for tuition fee waivers when applying for admission to the university by filling out the relevant section of the application form. The decision about the waiver is made in connection with student admission, and the student is notified of the matter in the letter of acceptance. The waiver is personal and it is awarded for two academic years. The waiver exempts the student from the tuition fee partially (50%).

Students granted a tuition waiver or scholarship must sign and return a student agreement. The Early Bird deduction ends on 21 June 2024. The first tuition fee payment for Autumn 2025 needs to be made by 31 August 2025. In addition, the Student Union membership fee and Kela student health care fee are obligatory for bachelor’s degree students.