The application period to the Master’s degree programmes taught in English at the University of Eastern Finland closed on Wednesday, 22 January 2020. The university’s 21 Master’s degree programmes attracted a total of 1,905 applicants from all over the world.
The most popular Master’s degree programmes this year were International Business and Sales Management (273 applicants), Information Technology (254 applicants) and Public Health (251 applicants). The number of applicants grew from last year in 12 programmes. Applicant numbers in the Master’s Degree Programme in European Forestry and in the Master’s Degree Programme in Medical Physics grew relatively the most.
The Master’s degree programmes taught in English at the University of Eastern Finland attracted the same number of applicants in 2019 as this year (1,905). In 2018, the number of applicants was 1,343.
According to Academic Rector Tapio Määttä, the university has succeeded in building Master’s degree programmes that are attractive.
“We have also invested in the marketing of our programmes in a completely new way. As a new introduction, we are now using the services of international education agents who advertise foreign universities to prospective students in their home countries. We have also piloted a trained chatbot on our website,” Määttä says.
According to Määttä, future openings to gain growth will target Asia in particular, where there is an interest in high-quality Finnish education and where marketing efforts have already proven successful. The number of applicants from China nearly doubled from last year, growing from 39 to 75. There was even heavier growth in the number of applicants from India, from 63 last year to 139 this year. The greatest numbers of applications were received from Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh. Approximately 88% of the applicants come from non-EU/EEA countries. Last year, approximately 86% of the applicants hailed from non-EU/EEA countries.
The Master’s Degree Programme for Research Chemists witnessed a growth of more than 20% from last year, attracting 130 applicants this year. The programme’s director, Professor Mika Suvanto from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Eastern Finland, says that international students have constituted part of the department’s activities for ten years already, and with considerable positive effects.
“Master's level education brings domestic and international students together and offers everyone an excellent foundation for working in an international environment. For our domestic and international students alike, this creates clear added value in terms of working life skills, among other things. Our international education constitutes a significant resource of expertise for scientific research and for business and industry – not only in chemistry, but in natural sciences at large. The need for this kind of a pool of experts will be highlighted in the future.”
In 2019, a total of 213 international students completed a Master’s degree at the University of Eastern Finland.
“Master’s degrees completed by international students amounted to 13% of all Master's degrees completed at the university. The Master’s degree programmes of the Faculty of Science and Forestry have been particularly successful: 38% of all Master's degrees completed at the faculty last year were awarded to international students,” Määttä says.
For further information, please contact: Academic Rector Tapio Määttä, +358 50 575 1589, tapio.maatta(at)uef.fi