Master's Degree Programme in Information Technology

Our admission process aims at fair selection of high-quality applicants. Anybody satisfying the admission requirements is eligible to apply.

Each applicant must meet the following criteria

1. B.Sc. degree in Computer Science or Information Technology or equivalent degree in closely related field corresponding at least three years of full-time higher education academic studies.

• The degree should include enough studies in computer science completed at excellent levels. The basic prerequisites are: programming skills and knowledge about the theoretical foundations of computer science, data structures and algorithms, databases, and data management. Applicants lacking background in one or more of the mentioned skills can be selected as students only in exceptional cases. The degree must be awarded by an internationally recognized university, university of applied sciences or polytechnic.
• Applicants with a Finnish Polytechnic Bachelor’s Degree (AMK) in the related field are also eligible, but they may have to take complementary studies if they are admitted. These studies are not included in the Master’s degree, but are an addition to it.
• Conditional acceptance with pending degree is possible if the applicant is able to send final degree certificate to IMPIT Coordinator by August 9, 2024. Provisional B.Sc certificate is accepted if issuing of the final B.Sc certificate is delayed due to administrational reasons. Please remember to check the required documents (below) carefully before applying.

2. English language proficiency proved by a generally recognized test or by previous degree conducted in English language

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

• Previous education or higher education has been completed in English in EU/EEA -countries, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand or in Switzerland.
• Previous completed exchange studies at University of Eastern Finland (UEF transcript must be included in application).

Note! 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 score 6.5, min. 6.0 in writing
• TOEFL iBT, overall score 92, min. 22 in writing
• PTE (academic), overall score 62, min 54 in writing
• C1 Advanced overall score C or 180, with min. 162 in writing
• C2 Proficiency 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.

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 have to be in effect during the application period.

Required documents

1. Application form filled in Studyinfo.fi

2. Official transcript of university records from the home university in English, or an officially certified translation of it.

3. Copy of BSc. diploma or equivalent (OR a statement of expected graduation, if the BSc degree has not been completed yet, OR a provisional BSc certificate)

4. Motivation letter*. max 1 A4 page.

5. An introduction video* of the applicant, max. duration 2 minutes, including introduction, educational background, and merits if applicable. A video must be uploaded into a videostreaming service such as youtube/vimeo/tudou and link (URL) to the video must be included into the application form. The video must be reachable for evaluators during the whole period of evaluation, January 17 – April 12, 2024.

6. Generally recognized English language certificate that can be verified from the test administrator OR a certificate stating language skills, if one of the above mentioned conditions for language skills is fulfilled

7. Recommendation letter (maximum length 1 A4 page) from teacher who has directly supervised the candidate on some project/work.

8. Passport copy/other document of identification

*Both motivation letter and video must start by mentioning the identity of the applicant, the program and university applied to, and the date when the letter was written/video recorded.

The eligibility and authenticity of the educational certificates of all applicants is evaluated. This includes e.g. contacting the previous educational institutions and language test providers. Any malpractice will be reported to the universities and proper authorities.

All translations must be officially certified and accompanied by copies of the original documents. 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.

Applications will not be considered unless the documents requested are in English. Incomplete applications will not be processed. The application is considered incomplete if it does not include all the necessary documents delivered by the application deadline.

The application round is open January 3, 2024 - January 17, 2024 at 15:00 (EEST). Results will be published at latest on April 12, 2024.

Application process

• Make sure that you fulfill the admission requirements and have all the required documents (see accordion content above).
• Fill out the application form in Studyinfo system (link below) and scan the required documents to your application. Please note that the application form is accessible only during January 3 - January 17 at 15:00 (EEST).
• Submit your application in time. The online admission system will be closed on January 17 at 15:00 (EEST).

Paper documents are not required during the application period but admitted applicants must submit their original degree certificates for verification upon arrival in Finland.

Once you have filled out the online application, required enclosures must be uploaded electronically to the application (recommended file types pdf and jpeg, max. file size 10 MB) by January 17 at 15:00 (EEST). If you cannot upload your attachments online please contact the admissions office for further instructions, admissions@uef.fi. Read more about submitting documents and verification of documents.

There are also country-specific requirements. These requirements are applied on the admitted applicants' only, so during the application period we only require scanned copies of the original documents.

The admission processes in the Master's Degree Programme in Information Technology aims at fair selection of high-quality applicants. Student selection is based on the application documents and evaluation how the applicant’s skills and competences gained by the previous academic studies correspond to the Master's studies applied for. Meeting the minimum application requirements does not guarantee acceptance to the programme.

Applicants will be ranked according to the selection criteria. The 35 applicants with highest points 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. Incomplete applications will not be evaluated.

Evaluation process is based on two rounds.

Round 1:

1. Relevant studies and other background, 0-10 points (0=poor, 10=excellent). Points will be given based on how well the applicant’s Bachelor's degree covers Computer Science core subjects. Both the extend and the grades are considered. At minimum, the applicant has to have a solid background on:

• Programming
• Data structures and algorithms
• Theoretical foundations of computer science
• Databases and data management

Applicants who have received at least 5 points in this round will continue to round 2 and further evaluation.

Round 2:

1. Academic grades of Computer Science or other relevant courses, 0-10 points (0=poor, 10 excellent)

2. Prestige and level of the home university, 0-10 points (0=poor, 10 excellent)

3. Applicant's own explanations about their motivation to apply for studies into this exact programme (motivation letter + introductory video) , 0-10 points (0=poor, 10 excellent)

4. Recommendation letter maximum length 1 A4 page) from teacher who has directly supervised the candidate on some project/work, 0-5 points (0=poor, 5=excellent)

Criteria 4 is used in order to get a better insight on background of each applicant. The final number of points is the total number of points received from round 1 and round 2.

Students who have been accepted will receive the certificate of admission as a pdf copy by email, as soon as the results are public, however at latest on April 12, 2024. Studies will begin in the beginning of September 2024, with orientation programme. Rejected applicants will be informed by email. Please note that we won't be able to answer any queries related to your application status before we have the official decision, so please be patient, you will definitely hear from us in due course of time.

Students who are not citizens of EU/EEA countries are required to pay tuition. Annual tuition fee is 8000 EUR.  All accepted students who are required to pay tuition fee, will receive 50% tuition fee waiver.

Please note that there will be no living cost allowance available for IMPIT students.