Admissions to the University of Eastern Finland:Language requirements

The University of Eastern Finland offers several international study programs on two campuses, Joensuu and Kuopio; some for exchange students and others for Master's degree students. In addition, faculties may admit international PhD students.

 Language requirements

All applicants must have good skills in English. It is crucial to the admissions process that applicants verify their language skills as required by the programme. If applicants do not submit proof of their language skills by the given deadline, University Admissions Finland (UAF) will not process any other documents from the applicant.

If applicants are applying to more than one programme and verifying their language skills with a language test, University Admissions Finland needs to receive the test result only once. All language test results must be verifiable from the test organizer. However, if applicants can verify their language skills with a previous degree, they must send as many transcripts of records as there are programmes they are applying to.

Language tests

It is up to the applicants to take the language test in time. It should be noted that it may take several weeks before the test results are available.

All language test results must arrive at University Admissions Finland by the application deadline.

Most of the programmes require that the applicants have passing scores in an internationally recognized language proficiency test. In the University of Eastern Finland minimum requirements are:

• IELTS (Academic), overall score of 6.0 - 7 (minimum 5.5-6.5 in writing)
• TOEFL iBT (Internet-based test) score 90-100 (min. 22-24 in writing)
• TOEFL pBT (paper-based test) score of 580-600 (min. 4.0-5.0 in writing)
• PTE 59, 68

TOEFL, IELTS and PTE certificates are valid for two years from the day they are issued and they have to be valid throughout the entire application period. Please note that language requirements may change from year to year, so please check the specific language requirements of each of the Master's Degree Programmes.

IELTS: When requesting the IELTS test center to forward your language test results to UAF, please write down University Admissions Finland as the receiver of the test result. They accept electronic test scores only when they are made available to UAF online by the test organizer.

Paper copies of IELTS score slips are accepted from both the test organizer and the applicant. They do not need to be attested as UAF will always verify the test results with the test organizer. Please note that score slips sent to UAF as e-mail attachments will not be accepted. Also note that after you have taken the test, it usually takes about 13 days for the test results to be published.

TOEFL: When filling out the TOEFL Registration Form, please fill in University Admissions Finland's Institution Code 3138 in the Score Report Recipient field. The TOEFL test score can arrive directly from the test organizer but a copy sent by the applicant is accepted as well. University Admissions Finland will verify the test score from the test organizer.

For CAE and CPE, test results should be addressed to University Admissions Finland. Test scores sent by applicants are acceptable as well, as long as they can be verified by the test organizer. Candidate's ID and secret code should be included. 

For PTE, test score report should be sent directly from Pearson to University Admissions Finland. For PTE Academic, once you receive your test score, send it to University Admissions Finland from your PTE account. Choose Finland as 'Country', 'University Admissions Finland' as 'Institution' and click 'Search'. Then select the university you want to send your results to and confirm your order. After this, we should have access to your test results within 48 hours. Be advised that online language test results will only be accepted from the test organizer.

Applicants might be exempt from submitting the official language proficiency test (please check the requirements of the programme) if one of the following conditions are met:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree was conducted in English in a Nordic or EU/EEA country;
• Bachelor's or Master's degree was conducted in English in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom or United states;
• Secondary education was conducted in a Nordic country or
• the applicant has taken matriculation examination in the English language in Finland.