Master's Degree Programme in Biomedicine

Degree certificate

All applicants should have at least Bachelor's or equivalent degree in an applicable field (e.g. biomedicine, cell biology, molecular biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry) corresponding to at least 3 years' of full‐time academic studies (equivalent of 180 ECTS credit units in the Finnish university system) obtained at an internationally recognized and accredited university or higher education institution. Applicants having a Bachelor's degree from a Finnish University of Applied Sciences or Polytechnic are not electable.

Note that biological, environmental, medical, veterinarian or pharmacy studies, as such, do not give an adequate knowledge base for biomedicine MSc studies. For a successful study performance, a more comprehensive understanding of the structure and function of the genome is needed.

Conditional admission

Your admission is conditional if you apply to UEF with a degree that is not finished during the application period. It is required that the applicants deliver officially certified copies of the final degree certificate and the transcript of records to the programme coordinator by 9 August 2024. 

All accepted students need to provide officially certified copies, if they cannot authenticate their degree/transcript electronically when applying. The students will be conditionally accepted until they have provided the certified copies of the educational document (degree certificate and transcript of records). Country specific requirements are in use in the situations when the applicant cannot provide the documents electronically. The last date to send the documents is 9 August 2024. 

Your admission is conditional also if you are liable to pay the tuition fee until you have returned the signed Student agreement and have paid the tuition fee by 31 August 2024 at the latest. 

Those accepted students who have granted a Finland scholarship must accept the study place and return the signed Scholarship agreement by 3 May 2024 at the latest 

In case the applicants do not deliver the documents by the given deadlines, their study right will be cancelled.

Official translations

All application documents should be submitted in Finnish, Swedish or English. Also the copies of the original documents have to be submitted. Translations of educational documents must be 1) issued by the awarding institution or 2) officially certified copy of a translation issued by the awarding institution or 3) translated by an official translator or 4) officially certified copy of a translation made by an official translator. Each page of an official translation must bear the translator’s stamp and/or signature. Official translations must be exact translations of the original documents. Translations done by the applicant him‐ or herself are not accepted.

Language requirements

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

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

• Passed English exam in Matriculation Examination in Finland 
• English as A1 language as part of International Baccalaureate examination 
• Bachelor's, Master's or Doctoral degree was conducted in English language in EU/EEA country or  Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom or United States  
• Bachelor's, Master's or Doctoral degree was conducted in English language in our cooperation university, University of Ghana
• Bachelor's, Master's or Doctoral degree was conducted in English language in our cooperation university KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) in Ghana
• Exchange studies (at least 20 ECTS) completed in English in University of Eastern Finland

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.

(2) All other applicants have to take one of the following language tests: 

• IELTS (academic): overall 6.5 (min. 6.0 in writing)
• TOEFL iBT: 92 (min. 22 in writing) *
• PTE (Pearson Test of English, academic): 62 (min. 54 in writing)
• Cambridge English Qualification:
  C1 Advanced (Certificate of Advanced English) overall score C or 180, with min 162 in writing
  C2 Proficiency (Certificate of Proficiency in English) overall score level C1 or 180, with min 162 in writing
• National Certificate of Language Proficiency YKI-test: level 5 in all different subtests (reading, comprehension, writing and speaking). It is possible to combine different examinations.

* TOEFL code of the University of Eastern Finland is 9779.

Online studies or studies completed on offshore campuses outside the accepted countries cannot be used to indicate language skills, even if the degree-awarding institution is in one of the accepted countries. If the applicant is applying with one degree and indicating the language skills with another, he/she is required to submit educational documents regarding both degrees. He/she can only indicate the language skills with an incomplete degree if he/she is applying for the studies with the same degree.

TOEFL, IELTS and PTE certificates are valid for two years from the day they are issued, i.e. the language test need to be in effect during the application period, from 3 January 2022 onwards. 

Student selection will be based on the application documents and evaluation of how the applicant’s skills and competences gained by the previous academic studies correspond to the Master´s studies applied. Also, the success in earlier studies, possible earlier research experience, the motivation letter and the introduction video of the applicant will be taken into account in the selection process in evaluating the suitability of the applicant’s background. 

Note, that a previous MSc degree (or higher), or present study place in another MSc programme, are not necessarily considered to be beneficial. Meeting the minimum application requirements does not guarantee acceptance to the programme. 

Applicants will be ranked according to the selection criteria. The best 10 applicants are accepted to the program and the rest of the applicants are rejected. The programme may accept more applicants by discretion to fulfill the available study places in the programme. Applicants are not placed on the waiting list 

Applications are evaluated by the admission committee of the Master’s degree programme. The admission committee asks the 20-30 best applicants to make a short, max. 5 minutes introduction video about themselves. Instructions and a request to make an introduction video will be sent by e-mail. If the applicant does not send the video by the given date, the application will not be processed further.

The admission committee scores the selected applicants by following application components:  

• Compatibility of the background studies 0-5 p (0p = insufficient, 1p = poor, 2p = satisfactory, 3p = good, 4p = very good, 5p = excellent relevance to Biomed programme curriculum)
• Previous academic success and study history 0-3p (0p = poor, 1p = satisfactory, 2p = good, 3p = excellent)
• Laboratory or biomedical data analysis work experience 0-3p (0p = no experience, 1p = laboratory / data analysis course work as part of previous studies, 2p or 3p = additional experience, which is not directly included in the previous studies, e.g. internships, summer projects, other working experience)
• Motivation letter 0-3p (0p = insufficient, 1p = somewhat motivated, 2p = sufficient and well-justified motivation, 3 p = excellent motivation)
• The introduction video, including English skills, is scored on scale 0-3p (0 = insufficient, 1p = satisfactory, 2p = good, 3p = excellent). 

If the applicant scores 0p in any of the components, the application will not be processed further. The scores from each component will be added together, and ten (10) best scoring applicants will be selected in the programme. If two or more applicants have the same score, the order of applicants is determined based on previous academic success and study history. If two or more applicants have the same score even after this, both or all of them will be selected in the programme.

Selection results

Results for studies starting in September 2024 will be published on 12 April 2024 at the latest. When the selection decision has been made, the results will be posted immediately to applicants by e-mail. 

Admitted students shall inform whether they accept their study place by latest on 11 July 2024 at 3 pm (EEST) electronically via Studyinfo portal or by submitting the confirmation form to hakijapalvelut@uef.fi. 

According to One study place per term provision, a student may accept only one study place leading to a higher education degree in Finland during one academic term. This rule applies to all higher education. 

Conditional acceptance

Your admission is conditional if you apply to UEF with a degree that is not finished during the application period. It is required that the applicants deliver officially certified copies of the final degree certificate and the transcript of records to the programme coordinator by 9 August 2024. 

All accepted students need to provide officially certified copies, if they cannot authenticate their degree/transcript electronically when applying. The students will be conditionally accepted until they have provided the certified copies of the educational document (degree certificate and transcript of records). Country specific requirements are in use in the situations when the applicant cannot provide the documents electronically. The last date to send the documents is 9 August 2024. 

Your admission is conditional also if you are liable to pay the tuition fee until you have returned the signed Student agreement and have paid the tuition fee by 31 August 2024 at the latest. 

Those accepted students who have granted a Finland scholarship must accept the study place and return the signed Scholarship agreement by 3 May 2024 at the latest 

In case the applicants do not deliver the documents by the given deadlines, their study right will be cancelled.

Students who are not citizens of an EU/EEA member state or Switzerland are liable to pay the tuition fee of 8 000 € per academic year. The tuition fee covers the studies included in the degree (personal study plan), studies-related supervision and counselling, and studies-related supporting services offered by the university.

In addition, all degree students are liable to pay the membership fee of the Student Union. By paying the Student Union membership fee, students are also entitled to university sports services (Sykettä).  All degree students are entitled to the services of the Finnish Student Health Service by paying the mandatory student healthcare fee.

University of Eastern Finland offers scholarships for non-EU/EEA students. Non-EU/EEA students in the Master's Degree Programme in Biomedicine are all granted a scholarship in the form of a partial tuition fee waiver. The scholarship covers 50 percent of the tuition fee (4000 € per year) and is granted for two years. The University of Eastern Finland will also grant an Early Bird tuition fee deduction of 500 € to students who accept the study place and pay the tuition fees by 3 April 2024.

There is no separate application for scholarship. Those applicants who are liable to pay the tuition fee apply for the scholarship within the application form.  

The Scholarship does not cover living costs. Students are expected to cover all living expenses (app. 800 euros per month) and other study related costs from their own financial resources.

Finland scholarship

In the academic year 2024-2025, University of Eastern Finland grant an extra Finland scholarship (Suomi-stipendi) for the two best applicants who are required to pay the tuition fee and who have been chosen for the studies based on their success int the admission process (applicants with the highest points). The Finland scholarship consist of a full (100 percent) tuition waiver and 5000 eur for living expenses. The scholarship only applies to the first year of Master’s studies, and the tuition waiver for the second year is 50 percent. If two or more applicants have the equal points, the recipient of the Finland scholarship will be determined based on previous academic success and study history. 

More information on tuition fees, waivers and scholarships can be found in the University of Eastern Finland website.