Current issues

At the beginning of the year, the Institute for the Languages of Finland became part of the Finnish National Agency for Education. At the same time, we updated the Agency's strategy to focus our objectives more strongly on raising the level of education and strengthening equality, non-discrimination and inclusion. 

The first joint application for Finnish higher institutions in spring 2026 ended on Wednesday, 21 January. There were about 9,000 starting places to apply to in 440 study programmes. Roughly half of...

The national recommendations for children on the use of digital devices were specified after their circulation for comments in the autumn. The completed recommendations include a tightening of the recommended age limit for getting a smartphone, which is now 13 years.

The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and the Finnish National Agency for Education are launching work at the national level to strengthen parenthood. The Strength from Parenthood project brings parents’ point of view to the development of services and determines shared national principles for supporting parenthood.

The Institute for the Languages of Finland (Kotus) will become part of the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) on 1 January 2026. The reform is part of the Educational and Cultural Administration 2030 project and the Government Programme. Due to the changes, there will be an interruption in our email service from New Year's Eve onwards. Our services will return to normal on 8 January 2026.

Joint press release from the Finnish National Agency for Education and Institute for the Languages of Finland. The beginning of next year will see two new pieces of legislation enter into effect: the...

33,900 applicants participated in the autumn joint application, of which 11,500 were offered admission. More than half were offered admission to their first programme of choice.

Steadily increasing numbers of foreign graduates from Finnish higher education institutions have found jobs in Finland in recent years. In 2023, more than a half of foreign citizens who had completed a degree in Finland had found a job three years after graduation. However, foreigners are less likely to work in expert tasks than Finnish graduates.

The work of the RAY Network shows that the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes respond well to current needs. For young people, participation can have life-changing effects.

Finnish higher education institutions, together with higher education stakeholders, have prepared a set of recommendations to increase international mobility. The recommendations apply in particular to mobility periods abroad that are part of higher education degrees and qualifications. Clear targets for increasing student mobility will be set both at the national and institution level.

The Finnish National Agency for Education's EDUFI Fellowship for foreign doctoral researchers will cease at the end of 2025. The decision stems from the cost-cutting measures of the productivity programme for the administrative branch of the Ministry of Education and Culture, which are targeted at the operations of the Finnish National Agency for Education.

The international partnerships of Finnish higher education institutions strongly support the labour market alignment of the competence produced by partner institutions' qualifications. This is the conclusion of a recent review by the Finnish National Agency for Education of Finnish higher education cooperation in Africa.

The Finnish National Agency for Education's event calendar for autumn offers a wide range of programmes related to international cooperation and internationalisation. Explore the highlights and sign up!

The autumn joint application to higher education ended on Thursday 11 September. Most of the study programmes that participated in the joint application were in universities of applied sciences (UAS)...

The tasks of the Finnish National Agency for Education and their importance have been much debated since Minister of Finance Riikka Purra proposed abolishing the Agency and transferring any tasks to be retained to the Ministry of Education and Culture. It is clear from the public discussion that people are largely unaware of the broad remit of the Finnish National Agency for Education.

On 16 July, the European Commission published its proposal for a new financial framework for the EU for the period of 2028–2034, which includes proposals for future EU financial programmes. The budget of the Erasmus+ programme is proposed to increase by almost 50% compared to the current programme period. In addition to this, the European Solidarity Corps programme would be integrated into Erasmus+.

A survey addressed at member companies and organisations of Education Finland, a programme that operates in conjunction with the Finnish National Agency for Education, found that education exports continued to grow in 2024. The results of this survey indicate that, despite geopolitical instability, interest in Finnish expertise and education solutions is still on the rise.

The Finnish National Agency for Education, the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences are among the participants of the recently launched Erasmus+-funded Future4Alliances project. The project aims to promote cooperation between higher education institutions by creating a favourable environment for European universities alliances in terms of legislation and its application and enhancing the coherence of national/regional funding for European universities alliances.

The European education and youth sector networks and bodies EPALE - Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe, European School Education Platform/eTwinning, Europass, Euroguidance and Eurodesk support the objectives and implementation of the Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps programmes. This year, all of these bodies are celebrating major anniversaries.

The higher education development cooperation programme HEI ICI achieved extensive results during its 2020–2024 programme period. Nearly 40 study programmes and over 300 individual courses in different fields of study were revised in collaboration with Finnish and partner countries' higher education institutions.