How to apply?

If you want to be an exchange student at Åbo Akademi University, you must first contact your home university in order to be nominated for the exchange period. The nomination is based on exchange agreements (they can be limited to specific subject areas and a specific campus), or a student exchange programme. Please note that we don’t accept free movers.

The nomination e-mail must be sent to exchange@abo.fi by the nomination deadline.

Please note that the e-mail address of the student, provided in the nomination by the home university coordinator, is the one that will be connected to the online application. Thus, the acceptance letter will also be sent electronically to this same e-mail address.

Once you have been nominated, you will receive an e-mail from Åbo Akademi University with a link to the online application for exchange students. The online application form will be available in late March/September.

Please find our step by step application instruction guide for SoleMove here.

Before you start your application

Before you start your exchange application, please read the instructions below very carefully and make sure that you have all of the necessary documents to complete your application.

Online Application Form

Once you have been nominated to us by your home university, you will receive an email with log in information to our online application form.

You should complete the entire online exchange application in the SoleMove portal. Complete all parts of the application as well as upload the necessary documents that are needed for your application. Please remember to submit the application before the application deadline for your application to be considered. We are not able to accept any applications or supporting documents that are sent via email.

We do not accept late applications.

Documents for your application

In order to submit your application and for us to consider your application, you will be asked to provide specific supporting documents. Please make sure that these documents are in English and are uploaded and submitted before the application deadline and that they are in PDF format.

• Approved Learning Agreement/study plan OR Online Learning Agreement
• Official transcript of records
• A copy of your passport

Please find more information about the documents below:

1. A Learning agreement/study plan:

What is a learning agreement?

A learning agreement is a list of courses that you want to study at ÅAU and is an obligatory part of your application and exchange. The learning agreement at this stage is just a preliminary plan of the courses your want to study and does not guarantee you a place on the course. The learning agreement is also not enrollment to the course, that will happen later when you arrive to Åbo Akademi University, this is just a plan of your studies.

The study plan must be approved and signed appropriately by your home institution. Åbo Akademi University does not need to sign your learning agreement when you submit your application. We will check all learning agreements and study plans after the application deadline. Only your home university needs to sign you learning agreement for you to submit your exchange application.

Which courses can I take?

We recommend that you first read the information that we have gathered on Courses in English for Exchange Students. There you can find information on how you can build your learning agreement for your exchange studies with us.

Use the course information available in the Study Handbook to see which courses you are able to study with us. Please select the campus/faculty you will study at and choose courses from there. You can find a Study Handbook User guide here.

You should include all courses you want to study on the learning agreement including courses at Åbo Akademi University, courses at Åbo Akademi’s Open University, at University of Turku, HILMA online courses and UniPID online courses.

Please note that you must study minimum 50% of your courses at Åbo Akademi University, the rest of your studies can be from the other providers listed above.

How many credits can I take?

Exchange students are expected to study a full time course load of 30 credits for one semester and 60 credits for an academic year.

If you plan to write your thesis during your exchange period, please include the title of your thesis in your learning agreement plus the name of the thesis supervisor at ÅA university in your application. For more information about writing a thesis during exchange please check the following page. 

Where can I find the Learning Agreement?

Erasmus+ and Nordplus students should use the Erasmus+ learning agreement of their home university OR the Online/Digital Learning Agreement. Please contact your home university to get the Erasmus+ learning agreement or for more information on how to complete the Online/Digital Learning Agreement.

Exchange students coming from outside of the EU can use the study plan/learning agreement form of Åbo Akademi University.

2. An official transcript of records

The official transcript of records should be in English, Finnish or Swedish and should include all the courses you have taken at your home university, with the credits and grades, from all your previous years of study. if you are a Masters level student you should upload both your Bachelor and Master transcript of records.

Students should have studied around 60 ECTS/credits at their home university before the exchange studies begin at Åbo Akademi University. These credits should show on the transcript of records that is submitted with the application.

3. A copy of your passport (or your European National identity card).

Please note! We no longer require an English Language Certificate to be submitted with the application. However it is still imperative that exchange students are B2 level in English. It is the sending universities responsibility to make sure that students are minimum B2 level in English when nominated.

Provided that your application is approved, you will receive a letter of acceptance as an e-mail attachment from Åbo Akademi University within two weeks after the application deadline (remember to also check the spam folder). In case of any issues, we will contact the applicant.

If you are unable to accept your exchange period at Åbo Akademi University, please inform International affairs (exchange@abo.fi) in writing, as soon as possible.