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Apply to an international master’s degree programme

Apply to an international master’s degree programme

Are you interested in applying to an international master’s degree programme at Åbo Akademi University? On this page you find a guide to the application process, and important admission dates. The application period for studies starting in August 2025 is open 8 January – 22 January 2025. To get prepared for applying, read through this page carefully.

There is one admission round per year and studies begin in the following August. The application form will be available in the Studyinfo.fi online portal only during the application period. It is not possible to apply outside the application period.

Remember to also read the programme webpage carefully, to make sure you know all admissions requirements.

Questions about admissions process? Contact admission@abo.fi with ample time to spare before any deadline – we usually answer within a few working days but during holidays like Christmas, New Year and Easter our answering times are longer.

Admissions timeline 2025

8 January
8:00 am (Helsinki time)
Application period opens at Studyinfo
22 January
3:00 pm (Helsinki time)
Application period closes, deadline to make changes to the content in the online application form.
29 January
3:00 pm (Helsinki time)
Deadline to upload enclosures to the online application form.
Beginning of April Admission results and scholarship offers are sent by email.
10 July
3:00 pm (Helsinki time)
Deadline to accept the offered study place.
31 July
3:00 pm (Helsinki time)
Deadline for conditionally admitted students to submit degree certificate and final transcript.
29 August
Deadline for first tuition fee installment and to register as present.
29 August Deadline for admitted students to submit electronically verified documents or certified hard copies (if hard copies are required according to the country specific requirements).

Giving incorrect/false information or failing to provide the university with the required documentation will lead to direct cancellation of the admission.

  • When submitting you application you only need to upload scanned copies of your documents. You do not need to send documents by email or post.
  • The scans should be clear, in color and in PDF-format.
  • You need the following documents:
    • Original bachelor’s degree certificate
    • Original transcript of records of all higher education studies completed so far, including present studies.
    • Diploma supplement, if available
    • Translations of original documents to Swedish, Finnish, or English, if the original documents are not in one of those languages.
    • Proof of language skills, see the English language requirements for information on what documents are accepted.
    • Passport containing information about your name, date of birth, nationality, and photo.
    • Residence permit, required of non-EU/EEA applicants that already reside in Finland or another EU country on permanent basis. Include both sides of the permit.
  • In addition you might want to submit:
    • Relevant original master’s degree certificate and transcript of records
    • Any other enclosure required by the programme. See programme information.
  • Do note that we cannot accept scanned copies of copies, only scan original documents.
  • Read the general requirements for the enclosures and the country-specific requirements.

Not yet graduated from your bachelor?

If you graduate with your bachelor’s degree after the application deadline, you can still apply as long as you will graduate on or before the 31 July 2025. In your application, state the expected graduation date and upload the transcript of records of all studies completed so far. You can then be admitted conditionally, with the condition that you graduate before 31 July and provide Åbo Akademi University with your original bachelor’s degree certificate.

You apply to the international master’s degree programmes via Studyinfo.fi, the application form is only available during the application period (8 – 22 January 2025, 3:00 p.m. GMT+2).

  • You can find a link to the application form on the page of the programme you wish to apply to. The application is submitted at www.studyinfo.fi
  • Fill out only one application per application period. If you fill out multiple applications only the latest will be saved for consideration. Within your application you can apply to up to 6 programmes, the programmes can be from different universities.
  • You can only accept only one study place leading to a bachelor or master’s degree in Finland per academic semester.

Åbo Akademi University offers scholarships for students who are subject to tuition fees.

  • If you are liable for a tuition fee, you can apply for a scholarship covering part of or the whole tuition fee.
  • The application for a tuition fee scholarship is done in the application form.
  • If you want to be considered for a scholarship, simply select “yes” in the application form when asked if you want to apply for a scholarship.
  • In the application you will also find other questions that are assessed by the scholarship granting committee.

  • The application form consists of:
    • Questions about your personal information such as name, date of birth, address etc.
    • Questions about your educational background
    • Questions about your language proficiency
    • Programme specific questions that gauge the applicants’ skills and motivation.
  • Read through the application questions carefully and reserve plenty of time to answer the questions.
  • You save your application by submitting it. After you have clicked submit you get a link by email to the email address you used in your application.
  • Using that link, you can modify your application and question answers up until the application deadline.
  • The application form and all questions need to be answer in English.
  • After the application period has ended you cannot change the content or your answers in the application form. Enclosures can be submitted until a week after the application deadline.
  • If the university need you to provide additional documents to your application, ÅAU will reach out to you via studyinfo.fi with a request for additional enclosures and you will be given 7 days to fulfill the request.
  • Besides possible requests for additional enclosures, you will not receive any separate messages or status updates during the application period or the while the university is processing your application.
  • Do not reach out for an update on your application status, updates will not be provided outside of admissions results or requests for additional documents.

When applying, you only need to submit your enclosures electronically. Do not send your documents by post or e-mail, unless asked to by the admission services.

  • Enclosures should be submitted to your application from within one week after the application deadline.
  • Read instructions for submitting enclosures.
  • Submit the enclosures as PDF-files.
  • Scan your original documents, scans of copies are not accepted.
  • If your original documents is not in English, Swedish or Finnish, you need to provide translations for your documents as well as the originals.
  • Late enclosures are not guaranteed to be considered for your admission.

  • Admissions decisions are published at Studyinfo.fi in the first half of April 2025. Use the link provided to you in your application confirmation to check your application status.
  • You get notified by an automated email from studyinfo.fi if you get admitted, and within a couple of days you will be issued an admissions letter.
  • Read more about the basis of student selection.

If you are admitted as a student, all your educational documents used in the application must be verified. It means that we must receive proof that the educational documents you have uploaded to your electronic application are valid.

Please note: If you have completed your degree at one of the Finnish universities or universities of applied sciences, your degree was completed at the earliest on 1 January 2003, and you have a Finnish personal identification code, you do not need to submit your educational documents, as Åbo Akademi University has electronic access to the required information.

Electronically verified attachments

First, check if your educational documents can be verified electronically by either using:

1. Electronic verification services

If you are able to use an electronic verification services to verify your educational documents, please use this as your first option for verification.

Åbo Akademi University accepts official electronic transcripts (e-transcripts) from a few recognized sources. The transcript must always be verifiable from the service. Below is a list of some common electronic document services that are accepted by Åbo Akademi University:

If your institution uses a service that is not listed here, please contact admission(at)abo.fi, and we will investigate whether we can accept your documents through this service as well.

Please request your electronic transcript to be submitted to admission(at)abo.fi” or select Åbo Akademi University from the list of receivers.

OR

2. By email straight from the awarding institution

  • If your institution does not use any of the electronic credential services listed above to share official educational documents, you may ask that your institution sends your official electronic educational documents by email directly to the Åbo Akademi University to the following email address: admission(at)abo.fi
  • In order for the document to be accepted, certain requirements must be met:
      1. The email must be sent from the issuing institution’s official institutional email account
      2. The sending email must be verifiable on the institution’s public website
      3. The sending email must belong to a person or office that is responsible for issuing official educational documents, for example: registrar’s office, controller of examinations, awards and graduation department etc.
      4. The attached document must be in PDF format
      5. The email must include your application number as a reference number
  • Documents sent by email that do not meet the above requirements are not accepted. Please give the above instructions to your institution’s representative when requesting that they send your documents.

If you can use one of the two electronic verification methods above, you do not need to follow country-specific or general verification listed below.

Exception: Educational documents awarded in China must always be submitted following the country-specific instructions for China.

 

 

If your home institution does NOT use any of the digital credential services mentioned to share documents OR if your home institution will not send copies of your official educational documents by email directly to the Admission Services from an institutional email address, the verification is done in the following way:

Country-specific requirements

Check if the country you have been awarded a degree in is in the list under the “country specific requirements”
(If your have graduated from a Finnish university your degree can be verified in the national database and you do not need to send any hard copies).

  • If the country your degree is awarded in is listed under the country specific requirements, we require you to submit the required documents according to the country specific requirements. Follow the instructions given under the country where your degree has been awarded.
    Deadline to submit hard copies is August 29th 2025

  • If the country your degree is awarded in is NOT listed under the country specific requirements, you must bring all original certificates (or officially certified copies) used in the application to the Admissions Office. Bring them with you as physical documents when you begin your studies. They will then be verified and cross-checked with the copies of the certificates uploaded during the application period. Please do NOT send any original documents to us by mail!

The admission is conditional until original certificates are verified.

Updated 12.11.2024