EDUFI Winter School for Russian and Ukrainian post-graduate students

The Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) organises a winter school, a one-week cross-disciplinary seminar, in cooperation with Finnish universities every year. Teachers at the winter school are top researchers from Finnish universities, representing different disciplines according to the yearly changing themes of the seminar.

Winter schools can build foundations for future cooperation and many participants have continued to work with Finnish research teams.

The lobby of the Kaisa library of the University of Helsinki

Photo: Satu Haavisto

Who can apply?

You can apply for a place in the winter school if you meet the following criteria:

you are a Russian or a Ukrainian post-graduate student
you have been in touch with researchers in Finnish universities before submitting your application
you are interested in working in a research team in a Finnish university after the winter school
you can work in English.

You can only attend the winter school once. We also require that you have not previously received a CIMO Fellowship, EDUFI Fellowship or the Finnish Government Scholarship Pool grant from CIMO or the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI).

If you have already secured an interest from a Finnish research team to work with you, this will be a significant advantage to your application.

Creativity and problem-solving

In the winter school, you’ll get a chance to work and have discussions with teachers and other students. The working methods developed and used in the winter school will allow you to demonstrate your

knowledge
team working skills
ability to solve problems
academic presentation skills, and
creativity.

The seminar is free of charge

In addition to the seminar, EDUFI will pay for your meals, your accommodation in student lodgings and transport from Helsinki to the location where the winter school takes place.

In addition, you will get a contribution to cover a part of the travel costs between your place of residence and Helsinki.

A good instrument for recruiting talented foreign students to Finland

We collect feedback from both students at the winter school and researchers whose teams winter school participants have later worked in. The winter school is regarded as an excellent catalyst for Finnish research, researcher training and international cooperation.

Students have been very satisfied with the programmes of the winter schools, their working methods as well as the practical arrangements.

“Interesting mixture of lectures and teamwork.”

“Discovering state-of-the-art research and innovations by leading scientists.”

“Pedagogical methods and tasks that encourage different and creative thinking.”

“This course helped me to systematize my knowledge and understand what I didn't understand.”

“Usefulness of multidisciplinary approach: out of the box – thinking…see differences in approaches to same problems.”

“Better understanding of the taxonomy of disciplines: differences and relatedness, new ideas, perspectives and insights, cooperation with people from different academic backgrounds.”

“It was very nice that teachers were around even during leisure time and open to share their experience and get to know the participants better.”

”Thank you for this chance; it possibly will change my life.”