Summer courses in Finnish language and culture in Finland

Courses are available from level A1 to C1 (students' starting level). Completing the course will give you 10 ECTS credits (this applies to contact courses in Finland).

Courses help you activate and develop your language skills in a Finnish-speaking environment. It is especially important to practise speaking during the course. You will also practise listening, reading, writing and grammar.

Tuition, study materials and free-time activities arranged as part of the course are free of charge for you. You don’t need to pay for your accommodation either (see exception: If you study in Sweden or Norway).

The aim is to organise all the summer courses in 2022 as contact courses in Finland. If the COVID-19 pandemic prevents the courses from being organised in Finland in summer 2022, we will organise distance courses instead of contact courses. The courses will be of the same levels as the contact courses but more compact. You will be awarded 3 ECTS credits for them. Participation in a distance course will not affect your chance of being accepted to a summer course the following year.

The deadline for applications to the summer courses is 1 March, 23.59 Finnish time (+2 UTC). After that it is not possible send an application.

Fill in the online application form in Finnish. You will not need any attachments.

Instructions for filling in the application form

Fill in the application form with precision. The fields marked with an asterisk (*) are compulsory.

In the application form, you can select one or two courses that you apply for.

When you assess your knowledge of Finnish, make use of the European language levels – self-assessment grid.

After every page in the form, you can save what you have filled in and continue filling in the form later.

• Click Tallenna ja jatka myöhemmin. After this you receive a link which takes you back to the form.
• Please note! Remember to copy the link so that you can continue filling in the form.
• You can also send the link to your email. Write your email address and click Lähetä.

When you proceed to the next page, click Seuraava. If you want to change something on the previous page, click Edellinen.

18: Tell us about yourself in Finnish (in about 150–300 words).
You can write the text beforehand and copy it here. To write this text, you can use aids such as a dictionary or a grammar book. However, do not translate the whole text with a translation programme.

When you have finished the form, click Lähetä. After this you see a summary page (Yhteenvetosivu) of your answers. Save the page: you can save it in the pdf format, print it or send it to your email.

Tell your teacher that you are applying to a summer course. The teacher will write a statement about you.

In addition, all applicants to summer courses will write two texts.

• The teacher will reserve a time when all students write the texts.
• The texts will be written either at the university or remotely at home.
• You will have a maximum of 1.5 hours to write the texts.
• Write the texts on a computer and send them to the teacher according to the instructions given by the teacher.
• You may use a dictionary, but a translation programme or other aids are not permitted. You must not ask other people to help you or copy a text written by other people.
• It is important that you write the texts yourself, so we can select you to a course at the correct level. The aim is not to write texts that are as good as possible. Instead, the texts should describe your real level of proficiency. 
• If your texts are far too good compared to the number of years you have studied Finnish and to the teacher’s assessment, you will not be selected to the course.
• Your teacher will give you more detailed instructions.

Application forms will be kept for two years. We need your personal information for the selection process of the summer courses and for course arrangements. The information will only be given to the course organiser.

If you have any questions about applying to summer courses, please send email to skk [at] oph.fi.

We will send email to all applicants by 30 April at the latest to inform if they have been selected on a course. 

There are three types of results:

• you are selected on a course
• you are on a reserve list, or
• you were not selected on a course.

If you are on the reserve list, you may still get on a course if somebody else cancels their participation. You will be informed about this during May/June.

Please let your teacher know if you were selected or not. We do not automatically inform teachers.

Please note! If you are admitted to a summer course in Finland, we expect you to take a travel insurance which includes a liability insurance. A liability insurance covers damage that you have caused (e.g. in the dormitory).