Admission Criteria

Bachelor’s Degree Programmes

You can see various admission methods by which applicants are admitted to Bachelor’s degree programmes from Apply to VAMK page.

Eligibility for Bachelor’s Degree Programmes

Provisions on eligibility for universities of applied sciences are contained in the Polytechnics Act (932/2014).

You can apply to a Bachelor’s degree programme if you have completed:

Studies required for graduating from the Finnish upper secondary school or a Matriculation Examination;
International Baccalaureate (IB) degree and/or certificate awarded with 6 subjects.
European Baccalaureate (EB) Diploma;
Reifeprüfung (RP) or Deutsche Internationale Abitur (DIA) degree;
Finnish vocational upper secondary qualification covering 120 credits or 180 competence points or a corresponding earlier Finnish ocational degree covering at least 80 credits;
Finnish post-secondary or higher vocational level diploma;
Finnish vocational upper secondary qualification or a further or specialist vocational qualification as a competence-based qualification, or a comparable previous qualification;
Foreign qualification that provides eligibility for higher education studies in the country in question;
Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree.

Accepted English Language Proficiency Requirements (Joint Application)

English language skills can be proved by the following documents in the International UAS Exam:

1. English language test results:

IELTS Academic*: a minimum total score of 6.0 (Test sections: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking)
TOEFL Academic (iBT)*: a minimum total score of 60 (Test sections: Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing)
PTE Academic*: a minimum total score of 55 (Test sections: Speaking and Writing, Reading, and Listening)
Cambridge English Scale Score: a minimum total score of 169 (Test sections: Reading and Use of English, Writing, Listening, and Speaking)
TELC (The European Language Certificate) English B2-C1 university qualification, completed on or after 1 October 2021: minimum of B2 level (Test sections: Listening/Reading/Language Elements, Writing and Speaking)
Oxford ELLT Global*: (English Language Level Test), completed on or after 1 July 2023: a minimum total score of 6.0 (Test sections: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking)

2. National Certificate of Language Proficiency (YKI) English:

Grade 4 or higher on all the subtests (speaking, listening comprehension, writing, and reading comprehension)

3. Higher education degree completed in English

in an EU/EEA country Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom, or the United States, or a doctoral thesis completed in English in any country.
Please note that your degree must be taught and assessed entirely in English**.
Degrees from international schools or institutions located outside the listed countries, where the degree is completed locally but awarded by an institution from another country, do not qualify.

4. Upper secondary degree completed in English

in an EU/EEA country, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom, or the United States.
Please note that your degree must be taught and assessed entirely in English**.
The degree must also be a qualification that provides eligibility for higher education in the country in which it was awarded.
Degrees from international schools or institutions located outside the listed countries, where the degree is completed locally but awarded by an institution from another country, do not qualify.

5. One of the following grades in the Finnish Matriculation Examination, European Baccalaureate, International Baccalaureate, or Reifeprüfung/DIA:

Finnish Matriculation Examination: English advanced syllabus with a minimum grade C
The whole International Baccalaureate diploma or International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme (IBCP) completed in English
DP Course Results or IB certificate or IB Final Report completed in English
International Baccalaureate final examination: English A HL/SL or English B HL/SL with a minimum grade 4
European Baccalaureate: at least grade 6.00 in L2-level English
Reifeprüfung/DIA diploma (completed in Finland): at least grade 7 in advanced English

* IELTS Academic UKVI, IELTS Online, PTE Academic Online, PTE Academic UKVI and TOEFL iBT Home Edition and Oxford ELLT Digital are also accepted.

**The language of instruction must be clearly stated on official documents (also in cases where the official language of the degree awarding country is English). You can also document this by submitting a certificate/letter from your university / educational institution in addition to your official study documentation. If the applicant’s degree includes courses conducted in a language other than English, the degree might not meet the requirement.

Required Educational Certificates (Joint Application)

Please check the Required Educational Certificates from UASinfo.fi.

Application Fee

The application fees (100 euros) must be paid in connection with submitting the application at Studyinfo.fi . More information at Studyinfo.

Master’s Degree Programmes

Eligibility to apply to a Master’s degree programme is conferred by an appropriate UAS Bachelor’s degree or another appropriate higher education degree and at least two years of subsequent work experience in a relevant field. A relevant field is considered to include both the field being applied to and the field of the previous higher education degree.

Eligibility for Master of Business Administration

Eligible degrees include:

Bachelor of Business Administration
Bachelor of Hospitality Management
Master’s degree in Business or a related field completed at a university

Also accepted are equivalent vocational higher education and post-secondary degrees, as well as Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees completed abroad in the fields of Business Administration or Tourism.

Eligibility for Master of Engineering

Eligible degrees include:

Bachelor of Engineering (UAS) or an equivalent degree in the field of technology.
Master’s degree in a relevant technological field completed at a university.

These qualifications are considered equivalent to vocational tertiary and post-secondary degrees (excluding technician-level qualifications), as well as Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees in technology completed abroad.

Work Experience Requirements

To be eligible for admission, applicants must meet the following criteria:

Minimum of two years (24 months) of relevant work experience, accumulated after the award date of the final degree certificate.
Work experience is calculated in full months. Part-time work is converted to full-time equivalent (150 hours or 20 full working days = 1 month).
Work experience does not need to be continuous or from the same employer.
This work experience must be completed by 31 July 2026 for applicants in the autumn application period.
Work experience gained after completing a Finnish post-secondary or higher vocational level diploma (in any field), but before obtaining a higher education degree, is also accepted. In such cases, at least two years of relevant work experience is still required.
Entrepreneurial experience is accepted if the applicant can provide official documentation confirming coverage under the YEL (entrepreneurs) or MYEL (farmers, forest estate owners, fishers, reindeer herders, and their family members) statutory pension schemes.
Entrepreneurial activities completed abroad must be supported by comparable official documentation.

Required Documents

To apply, you must submit the following documents through Studyinfo. All required documents must be uploaded by the deadline stated in the application form.

1. Valid Passport (Proof of identity)

2. Bachelor’s or Master’s degree certificate

Must be officially certified by the issuing institution
Must be translated into Finnish, Swedish, or English by an official translator
The translator’s stamp must appear on the document
The mandatory appendices must be uploaded to the application by the deadline indicated on the form

3. Certificate of Work Experience

The certificate must be issued by the employer and include: Start and end dates of employment /Job title and description of tasks / Weekly working hours (if part-time) / Employer’s contact information / Employer’s signature and/or official stamp
If the employment is ongoing, a temporary certificate with the date of issue must be provided.
If the certificate is not in Finnish, Swedish, or English, an official translation must be attached. If the name on the certificate differs from the applicant’s passport, a certificate of name change (e.g. marriage certificate) is required.
Work contracts, offer letters, or pay slips are not accepted.

Selection Information

Selection between applicants with equal admission scores

In cases of equal admission scores, UAS applicants will be ranked on the following grounds:

points awarded for the entrance examination;
points awarded for school performance; (applicants with Finnish Matriculation Examination)
points awarded for work experience;
the preferred programme ranking on the application form.

The grounds applied to cases of equal admission scores vary by programme choice, depending on the selection methods used for the programme in question. If these criteria fail to produce a difference between tied applicants, a university of applied sciences may choose to admit all or none of the equally ranked applicants, or the applicants may be automatically ranked by lots drawn by a computer system.

Appeal

An applicant not satisfied with the results of the student selection process should first contact the UAS Admission Services he/she has applied to. If the matter is not resolved, the student may appeal against the decision in writing to the executive board of the UAS in question. Such an appeal must be made within 14 days from the publication of the admission results.

Personal circumstances such as health condition (sickness/injury), difficult life situation, inability to attend entrance examination or misunderstanding are not considered to be a valid reasons for a successful appeal.
Late attachments will not be considered. Required documents and their delivery dates are mentioned in the admission criteria.
Appeal can only be successful if the applicant can clearly point out that the admission criteria has not been followed at Vaasa University of Applied Sciences. Therefore appeal should be well-grounded.