32 700 applicants to higher education institutions’ English-taught study programmes and art study programmes

The spring 2022 joint application to higher education ended on Wednesday 19 January. There were approx. 6 000 study places available within approx. 320 study programmes, which is higher compared to last year where there were approx. 5 500 study places within approx. 270 programmes. Two thirds of the study places available are offered by universities of applied sciences and the remaining third by universities.
Overall, there were approx. 32 700 applicants. 3 900 applied to the University of the Arts. Approximately 24 400 applicants were of non-Finnish nationality and a majority of these, 22 500 applicants, came from outside the EU/EEA -area. Biggest nationalities in terms of number of applicants were Finland, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.
Huge differences in competition between fields
The most popular fields by number of applicants were business, administration and law, information and communication technologies and health and welfare.
The toughest competition for study places in higher education was in the fields of arts and culture (15 applicants/study place), services (12 applicants/study place) as well as social sciences (11 applicants/study place).
The fields with the lowest number of applicants per available study place were humanities (3 applicants/study place), natural sciences (6 applicants/study place) and education (6 applicants/study place).
Admission results published in the beginning of June at the latest
During the next few months, higher education institutions inspect applications and organize entrance exams. The first results of the first joint application will be published starting from the end of January and the beginning of February. All results will be published on 3 June at the latest.
Accepted applicants will be automatically informed via e-mail.
The second joint application to higher education in the end of March
The joint application for degree programmes offered in Finnish and Swedish will be arranged 16 to 30 March 2022.
More statistics will be updated to Vipunen Education Statistics Finland service in a few days (Select 2022 as year / start of studies, joint application in Joint/separate application section and application 1/application period 1 in Application period section)
Additional information:
- Planning specialist Risto Hanhinen, risto.hanhinen [at] oph.fi, tel. +358 29 533 1615
- Planning specialist Topias Kähärä, topias.kahara [at] oph.fi, tel. +358 29 533 1758