Faculty of Social Sciences

The Entrance Examination Based-selection of International Applicants in the year 2005

Please note, that the admission criteria for admissions in the year 2005 will be decided by the Faculty Council in December 2004, and changes are possible. Please take a look at this page in January 2005 in order to get the updated information.

The results of the entrance examination held on the 8th of June are ready and have been sent to all examinees on the 9th of July. They are also available at the noticeboard of the Faculty, Unioninkatu 37. The opening hours of the building are from 8 A.M. to 3 P.M. in July and from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. in August.

There were 66 examinees present at the examination and all in all 12 applicants were accepted. The minimum score granting admission was 24 points.

The Council of the Faculty of Social Sciences has established the terms for acceptance for those applicants, who have finished their secondary schooling abroad, i.e. not in Finland, in December 2004.

All applicants who have completed their upper secondary school (lukio) in Finland must take part in the regular entrance examination (in Finnish or Swedish). These include those applicants who have received or are going to receive an IB, EB, Reifeprüfung in Finland or the Finnish Upper Secondary School Diploma in English. All the exceptions to this regulation must be individually discussed with the International Affairs´ Officer of the Faculty. Those applicants, who

are citizens of the Nordic Countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland)
have a permanent residence permit in any of the countries listed above,
have finished your secondary School in the Nordic Countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark but not Finland) and have received a diploma to confirm this.
may take the regular entrance examination (in Finnish or Swedish) if they so choose. NOTE: this does not apply to those applicants, who have finished their secondary schooling in Finland (please see above). The following procedure is used in the admission by entrance examination in the Faculty of Social Sciences and its departments. As for other Faculties, please see the International Applicant´s Guide. It also contains the same information given below in a more detailed form.
The deadline for submitting the applications is the 31st of January 2004. Those applicants who have been invited to take part in the entrance examination in 2002 or 2003 have automatically the right to take part in the entrance examination without applying separately. By this date all the applications with the required appendixes have to be delivered to the Faculty of Social Sciences:

Faculty of Social Sciences
P.O. Box 54
Unioninkatu 37
00014 University of Helsinki
Finland

Those applicants that have submitted all the necessary documents and fill the criteria to be eligible will be invited to the entrance examination, that will be held in June 2004 in Helsinki. The invitations will be sent in Mid-March 2004. Important: if you have not been invited to take part in the examination in the year 2002, 2003 or 2004 you may not take part in the entrance examination. A failure in obeying this rule will lead to automatic disqualification.

Applications that are not complete, there are documents missing or the copies are not certified by the correct authorities will not be processed. Also the requested documents must be in either in Finnish, Swedish, English, German, or French. All translations must confirmed by a sworn/official translator. All photocopies must be officially certified, i.e. they must bear the stamp and signature of an official entitled to attest documents: an authorised university official, a notary public, a commissioner of oaths etc. The University of Helsinki will not attest any documents or photocopies.

Language test scores are accepted only if they are received directly from the organisation that administers the test. The faculties of the University of Helsinki will check the validity of their applicants' documents (diplomas, transcripts, language certificates etc.). The use of forged or invalid documents causes a cancellation of the student's admission.

The application must include enclosed the following documents:

The application itself
You can request an application form by filling in your details at this page. It will be sent to you by email as a .txt, .rtf or .pdf attachment. Note that if you already have a Bachelor´s degree and you do not wish to apply for direct admission, please mention that.
The Statement of Purpose (details in the application itself)
On this statement the applicant should describe his/her motives to study at the University of Helsinki and how his/her studies will be financed. The applicant must explain the reasons behind his/her choice of major subject and how he/she would benefit from studying that major at the University of Helsinki. In addition, the specification how studying at the University of Helsinki relates to the applicant's career objectives is necessary.

A Secondary-school ending certificate, that gives full university eligibility (French Baccalaureat, German Abitur, a combination of two A-levels and three O-levels passes in the British system etc).
All photocopies must be officially certified, i.e. they must bear the stamp and signature of an official entitled to attest documents: an authorised university official, a notary public, a commissioner of oaths etc. The Applicants graduating in the summer of the year 2004 are required to include the most up-to-date transcript of their studies and a certificate from their school stating that the studies will be completed in all likelihood by the summer 2004.

The language certificate (see also the applicant´s guide)

Also an official transcript, if you have been studying at a university-level institution

Applicants with an IB, EB, or Reifeprüfung Diploma
Applicants who have received or who are going to receive an IB (International Baccalaureate), EB (European Baccalaureate), or Reifeprüfung diploma in Finland must take part in the general entrance examination of the Faculty.

Fields of study and their quotas
The maximum intake of B.Soc.Sc. and M.Soc.Sc. degree students by the departments of the Faculty in the entrance examination of the year 2004 are the following:

Social Policy 2
Social Psychology 2
Sociology 2 (Includes General Sociology and Demography as specialisation lines)
Social and Cultural Anthropology 2
Economics 6
Statistics 3
Moral and Social Philosophy 2
Development studies 2

Political Science 6 (Political Science Proper, International Relations and Administrative studies are the specialisation fields
Social Sciences History
Economic and Social History 2
Political History 2

Statistics on admission in previous years
We have gathered some information about the number of applications in previous years as well as the number of admitted students in the entrance examination procedure. These statistics, however, may be incomplete.

All questions should be directed to the Planning Officer of the Faculty of Social Sciences.