Students or higher education staff with a disability may be eligible for additional financial support to help them take part in international exchange or internship. This support will be in addition to a mobility grant.
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Special needs grants are intended to enable international exchange and internship in circumstances when a special need causes additional costs that are not covered by other sources. Special need can be an injury, impairment, physical or psychological illness or learning difficulty.

The grant can be awarded to accessible accommodation, assisted mobility or such study-related special arrangements as learning materials. The application process is completely confidential. The application is easy to fill, and the expenses caused by special need can be estimated roughly. As all special needs are unique, all of the applications will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Who is eligible?

You can apply for an special needs grant if you are planning to take part in

  • student exchange
  • internship
  • teacher or staff exchange
  • intensive courses
  • network meetings

Grants are applicable in the following programmes: Erasmus+, FIRST+, Nordplus, north2north and Asia programme. The condition for the grant is participation in one of these programmes.

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Experiences

Watch videos of two students who received special needs grant for their exchange period abroad. 

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How to apply?

Special needs grants have a rolling deadline. The grant application form is enclosed. Students or higher education staff members and the Finnish partner institution shall each fill in their own sections of the form. Higher education institution sends the application to EDUFI.

Grant is applied from EDUFI for both outgoing and incoming participants in FIRST+, Nordplus, Aasia ja HEI ICI programmes.

Grant is applied from EDUFI for outgoing participants in Erasmus+ programme, in global mobility (KA107) the grant is also applied for incoming participants. Other incoming Erasmus+ participants apply for accessibility grant from their national Erasmus Agency. As the need and nature of support varies from one person to another, EDUFI will review each case individually.

EDUFI will award the grant to the Finnish partner institution, which will forward the grant to outgoing/incoming students and staff members.

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Getting ready

If you plan to head abroad, start getting ready in good time, at least 6 months before departure. This applies to individuals and institutions alike. Not only do you need to apply for support, but it also takes time before you have all the necessary information from the host institution, including details of any special arrangements.

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Use the checklist

EDUFI has compiled together with the Finnish ESOK network (Higher Education Access & Disability) a checklist to be used both students and institutions. The enclosed Checklist for Exchange Students and Higher Education Institutions may also serve as a template for institutions’ own guidelines.

More information is also available from the programme coordinators at the Finnish National Agency for Education.

Attachments
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Application forms

Attachments
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Contact us

Erasmus for higher education Programme

Senior Programme Adviser Miia Juusola

miia.juusola@oph.fi

p. 0295 331 765

 

Nordplus for higher education Programme

Kristina Savikurki

kristina.savikurki@oph.fi

p. 0295 338 501

 

FIRST+ Programme

Senior Programme Adviser Mari Pohjola

mari.pohjola@oph.fi

p. 0295 331 746

 

Asia Programme

Programme Manager Sofia Lähdeniemi

sofia.lahdeniemi@oph.fi

p. 0295 338 523

 

north2north Programme

Niina Juuti

niina.juuti@oph.fi

p. 0295 338 558

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