How to study at the open university

Studying at a university is characterized by freedom and responsibility. You are free to choose and schedule your studies; which also means it is your responsibility to keep up to date with your schedule: when you should register, when the course starts, when you should return your work or attend an exam.

The extent of studies is measured in credits. One ECTS credit ("study point", opintopiste, op) is defined to be 27 hours of work. By this, a year of full-time studying results in 60 credits. A candidate's degree is three years, and a master's degree two additional years. (Please bear in mind that the open university cannot offer degrees, only parts of degrees: courses and study modules.)

A study module (opintokokonaisuus) is a collection of courses grouped together: for example, basic studies in computer science is a study module made of five computer science courses. You don't have to aim at completing study modules, but they are often easier to put in your CV or to explain to employers; for example, each Finnish university offers their teaching in the three study modules described below, but within each they tend to be comprised of very different courses. You can't and don't need to register for a study module; just register for each individual course and apply for the certificate (see below, under Credits and certificates) once you've completed all of them.

University studies of a specific subject are grouped into three study modules of depth that should be completed in sequence. If you want to participate in an intermediate studies course, you should consider if you have the necessary basic studies skills.

• basic studies (perusopinnot), often c. 25 credits
• intermediate studies (aineopinnot), often c. 35 credits
• advanced studies (syventävät opinnot), even more credits

You can complete some of these modules at the open university, but you cannot attain a degree. For this you should apply to be a full-time degree student (tutkinto-opiskelija); there are yearly exams, and there are special open university routes (avoimen yliopiston väylä) to admit students that have completed enough open university studies with sufficiently good grades. Please note that the programmes taught in Finnish will require proficiency with the Finnish language. See UEF's English-language bachelor's and master's programmes.

A degree student would have one major or pääaine (say, physics), and one or two minors or sivuaine (say, basic or intermediate studies in mathematics and computer science). Their degree may also include some generic studies (yleisopinnot, geneeriset opinnot). This is not important for open university students, except that sometimes the courses offered may be listed as "minor studies".

Studying while at high school

Some Finnish high schools (lukio) and a few secondary schools have an arrangement where their students can take our courses for free, and the courses count towards their high school course total. (And their university degree, should they come study with us.) See this section on our Finnish page for a list of schools that we have such an agreement with.

Your high school's guidance counsellor knows more; talk to them and they'll tell you how to register. (Or if your school's not on the list, tell them to talk to us.)

Evaluation

Different courses are evaluated in different ways: this can include exams, essays, seminars, continuous assessment and other forms. You can find the course's evaluation criteria in the study guide.

Written work should be formatted, sourced and argued correctly. The course teacher will give guidelines for how to format your work.

You can use AI (artificial intelligence) to help you with your studies, but you must always specify and declare it, just as with any other tool or reference. See UEF's page for AI in teaching and research for the full guidelines.

If you have completed similar work elsewhere, you can apply for recognition of prior learning (RPL, osaamisen tunnustaminen / OT, formerly AHOT), but please be aware you still need to purchase a study right for the relevant course. Prior learning can be accepted to partially or fully cover a course or a study module. The RPL application is made through Peppi, and will be handled at the department, not at the open university. You will need to find and attach an official description of your work and your transcript.

Grading

Courses are graded as either pass/fail or from 0 to 5; 0 is a failing grade while 1 is the lowest passing grade.

A study module consisting of several courses is graded as the (sometimes weighted) average of its courses. Pass/fail grades are not included in this calculation. If more than half of a study module's credits are graded as "pass", the study module will be graded as "pass" instead of a numerical grade. There may be department- or faculty-specific differences.

We want your feedback on how well we did. The course teacher may direct you to a course-specific feedback form on course contents, organization and practices, but we'd be grateful if you could also give the open university your views: course-specific or general feedback.

Some courses have exams, and some have project work, essays, or other forms of evaluation without exams. The forms of evaluation are unique to each course. If there is an exam, there will also be a possibility for a re-exam. Be especially careful with if and when you need to register for the exam; registrations can close 10 days before.

Some exams are conducted on-site at the university and some are online, at your own computer.

With on-site exams, there is a time and a place. You should come and wait by the exam room's door; people will be called in by course or by name. Discussion between exam participants inside the exam room is not allowed. Sometimes the exam bundles (blank sheets and the questions) have been placed on desks; these are the places where you should sit. Do not touch or open the exam bundle until the exam starts. Sometimes the sheets are distributed once everybody is in, in which case you should leave at least one empty seat between you and the other participants.

Leave your bag and jacket at the side of the room, and take to your seat only your writing implements and a picture ID. (You'll need to show the latter when you return your answers.) A small purse, snacks, and a drink are usually fine too. Please turn off your mobile phone and leave it in your bag. You absolutely cannot have it with you.

The exam supervisor will say when the exam starts, and will write down the exam end time relative to that moment (on a blackboard, whiteboard, overhead projector, etc.). After this and only after this you can touch your papers.

An exam lasts several hours, and you cannot leave until 30 minutes have passed. After this point late arrivals will not be admitted.

You should bring your own writing implements, but the paper will be provided. Write the date, your name, the name of the course, and your student number on each answer paper so they can be correctly identified.

If you have problems during an exam — you need more paper, you have the wrong set of questions, toilet needs — raise your hand. If you need a toilet visit you will be escorted there and back.

The course teacher will give instructions beforehand on what materials and devices are allowed for your exam: for example, calculators, notes, books, or nothing. Other material, looking at others' work or other collusion will be taken as cheating and you will be removed from the exam.

When you leave the exam, return your papers as instructed (say, different stacks for answers, drafts and unused sheets). You will be asked to sign an attendance sheet and show identification (passport, driver's licence, student card, etc.).

Some exams are conducted online on Moodle or DigiCampus: for example, the exam is open for 24 hours and once you start, you have 2–4 hours to do it on your own computer.

Some exams can be done on the Exam platform, ie. at any institution which has an Exam classroom.

If you have accessibility needs, please be in touch well beforehand. See accessibility, below.

Some exams can be taken on special open university exam days, which are some Mondays, 4 to 8 pm, in Joensuu C1 and Kuopio SN100. These days are for the fall of 2022, the following Mondays: 22.8., 26.9., 24.10., 21.11. and 12.12, and for the spring of 2023, the following Mondays: 16.1., 13.2., 20.3., 24.4., 22.5. and 12.6..

Once you have completed your work, the teacher has three weeks to grade it, plus one week in exceptional circumstances. (Holidays, Christmas, Easter and the summer period 15.6.–15.8. are not included in this time.)

The results will be stored in the student system Peppi. You can get a digitally signed transcript and a student status certificate from the Atomi tab in Peppi.

If your study rights have ended and you can't log in to Peppi, you can reguest a transcript from UEF e-Services.

Signed certificate

Once you have completed all the courses of a study module (please check from Peppi), you can get them assembled/graded into a whole and acquire an official transcript. You can request the grading of and/or a certificate for a completed study module from UEF e-Services. Please note this maybe take up to a month, excluding holidays as above. 

As an open university student, you will be given a university electronic account (UEF-tunnus). You will get an automated message with instructions on how to activate it. (If you do not get this message, contact the IT services.) The same account will be used for all of your studies at UEF.

You will need this account for, for example, Moodle, DigiCampus, email, and the electronic materials of the university library.

Student email

The account includes a student email address. This address is the one used for all communication related to your studies, so please check it regularly or redirect it to your main email.

Your email address will be of the form person@student.uef.fi; the "person" part will be a combination of your first and last name. When you log in to your email at portal.office.com, enter your email address in the form person@uef.fi. (The link can also be found at Kamu, the student knowledge site.)

The university IT services can help you in English and their pages have plenty of information.

For example, if you've forgotten your password, they can help. Please note you will need to change your password every 6 months; you will receive daily notifications about this until you do.

Other services

Both campuses have an Oppari space, where you can print, scan, get help for various practical computer problems (say, Office365), and loan laptops. 

If you want to use Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, etc.), you have a licence for them as a student. Please see Microsoft's instructions for how to install them.

Microsoft Office365 cloud services can be reached through portal.office.com with your UEF account.

If your postal address or phone number changes, please update it on Peppi. We will try email first, but it is good to know how to get in contact with you.

Please note that activating your account in full requires strong identification. You can use your Finnish online banking login for this, visit the IT Services with a picture ID, or have them arrange something else. (For students living outside Finland, the third option applies.) Without this you cannot use all available services.

When your study rights end, you will lose access to:

• the library: immediately
• Moodle, password change: 30 days
• student email: 60 days

You will receive a notification about the expiration in your student email. Please backup whatever you have stored in the university systems before your access ends.

You can check your study rights in Peppi. If you want to end your study right before this, please contact us.

Using the university library's electronic materials may require you to sign in with your account. You can find these materials through their search engine, UEF Primo. You need a physical or electronic library card to lend paper books.

Please see the library's homepage, and their page for information retrieval and training.

Please see the university's page on the rights and obligations of a student.

Please see the page on accessibility in studies.

If you need accessibility arrangements, we recommend starting with contacting our guidance counsellors: avoinyliopisto-ohjaus@uef.fi. They will guide you forward. Once such arrangements have been agreed on, they must be communicated to the teacher at least 10 days beforehand, so please do not leave this to the last moment.

You can study part-time or full-time while unemployed, but your unemployment benefit decisions are made by TE-services, and you should always start the process with them. Please ask them what the limits and requirements for your situation are. We can't do this for you, or give you any promises.

Once you are in agreement with TE-services, register for your courses.

If TE-services need a processed TEM621 form, send it to us by email: jok-ohjaus@uef.fi, or to: Itä-Suomen yliopisto, avoin yliopisto, Marika Tuupainen, PL 1627, 70211 Kuopio. We will take at most 14 days to process your request.

If you are interested in employment fund or trade union benefits for adult students, contact them first, and then us. We'll be happy to help once we know how.

If you need help and guidance, our guidance counsellors can help you. Do not wait for things to get really difficult before you ask for help. University studies can be hard, and it takes some effort to find out the way you learn best. The guidance counsellors (opinto-ohjaaja, opo) can help you with planning, execution, study skills, and making insurmountable problems surmountable. You can contact them through email, or reserve a meeting at this link. The meetings can be through Teams, Zoom, phone, or email, or in person.

Each subject's coordinator (suunnittelija) and study secretary (koulutussihteeri) can help you with that specific subject: the coordinator with contents and choices, the secretary with registration and paperwork.

Once you're on a course each course's teacher knows things best: schedule, exceptions, exercises. (Just be aware they might not notice you're an open university student. Most often this doesn't matter, but tell them if it does.)

If you have questions, please contact:

• our guidance counsellors, at jok-ohjaus@uef.fi,
• each subject's coordinator or study secretary; email and phone number on each course's or study module's page at studyinfo.fi, or
• if you don't know who to ask, avoinyliopisto@uef.fi; we'll forward your message to the right person.

Study skills are important: there's more to studying than staring at a book (or a screen) until you learn a thing.

• Use time management techniques such as pomodoro to make sure you take breaks. Willpower is no substitute for rest and you, much like your electronic device, work better when not on the last 5% of your battery.
• Build yourself a rhythm for studying: maybe there's a time every week or every day you can reserve for your studies.
• Make sure you have the space to study: a place which is quiet and conductive to concentration. (Libraries are great places to study, and the campuses have rooms that can be used by students.)
• Some people use noise-cancelling headphones, and some use music as background noise. (Some can't stand it; whatever works for you is good.) Putting your phone on silent also helps.
• If you have a video lecture to listen to, can you do it while taking a walk, or stretching or doing physical exercises — whatever keeps you focused and awake is good. (Running around during an actual physical lecture is frowned on, so use caffeine.)
• Waiting until you're inspired to study usually doesn't work. Set yourself a timer, and when it rings, study. Getting started is the hardest part, and inspiration is found by doing.
• When you're studying for an exam, don't just try to memorize everything. That's very difficult and usually not necessary. The big outlines and how things connect to each other are more important than rattling out a thousand little facts without any context.
• Memory is something that can be trained just like any muscle; there are techniques and workouts to improve how well you remember things. I'd give a few suggestions here but, uh, I can't recall any right now.
• Guidelines are guidelines. One ECTS credit is supposed to mean 27 hours of work, but that varies from person to person, subject to subject, type of work to type of work. A computer science course can whizz by with your background in computers; a thick book about adult psychology can be slower going. Studying isn't a speed sport, and doing something the fastest or learning something the easiest doesn't really mean anything in end. Sometimes needing to put in more effort makes for better understanding.
• Just because something looks difficult, doesn't mean it is impossible. Some things need to be broken into pieces and learned piecemeal; you can get big walls built by going brick by brick. Some things are genuinely difficult, but you can always try again, ask for help, take a step back and try to understand the context; none of our studies are mysteries, but they are all things that can be understood, and that we want you to understand.
• Remember that you're studying for your own self. You're allowed to do things your own way, as long as it helps you!

If you need help with these things, again, ask us!

We recommend that you write yourself a personal study plan (PSP): just a concrete list of what you will be doing and when. What are the course deadlines; when do you have time to do the work and what do you need to do; how much time do you need.

Degree-getting students study full time, but you have other things to do, so it pays off when you plan ahead and give structure to your studies. You don't want to be up at midnight, writing three essays for a deadline the next morning. Exhausting yourself doesn't help anybody, so plan how much time and energy you'll have and need.

One ECTS credit is defined as 27 hours of work; plan accordingly. The course descriptions also tell what sort of work those hours will be: watching lectures, writing essays, doing calculations? Understand what comes easily to you and what takes more time, and again, plan accordingly.

A concrete plan also lets you look back and see how you are doing, and how much you've accomplished already; that's good for your motivation.