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Finnish Univer­si­ties of Applied Sciences will organ­ise their entrance exam­i­na­tions online

Finnish Univer­si­ties of Applied Sciences will organ­ise their entrance exam­i­na­tions online

The univer­si­ties of applied sciences have, in view of the pandemic situ­a­tion, decided that the second joint AMK entrance exam­i­na­tions this spring will be organ­ised online. There were 92 000 appli­cants to the univer­si­ties of applied sciences by the end of the appli­ca­tion period on 1 April. 75 000 of those sought admis­sion in the joint appli­ca­tion examinations.

The deci­sion to organ­ise the exam­i­na­tions online was taken in order to protect the health of appli­cants, staff and their fami­lies. There are no projec­tions for the progress of the Corona pandemic and we are there­fore unable to predict a safe future date for the entrance exam.

The entrance exam­i­na­tions will be organ­ised some­time in early June, at a date to be announced later.

The univer­si­ties of applied sciences have coop­er­ated in devel­op­ing the student selec­tion process for several years and also have the know-how to organ­ise the exam­i­na­tions online.

They feel it is impor­tant that, in addi­tion to selec­tion based on school perfor­mance, there are other ways for appli­cants to be selected for degree programmes.

About half the intake of the univer­si­ties of applied sciences will be filled based on the appli­cants’ school perfor­mance. School perfor­mance will deter­mine between 20 and 80 per cent of selec­tions, depend­ing on the univer­sity. Expand­ing the selec­tion by school perfor­mance would not have guar­an­teed the equal treat­ment of applicants. 

There were 33 000 people among the appli­cants, whose certifi­cates could not be graded the way the matric­u­la­tion certifi­cates and AMK voca­tional certifi­cates (after 1.8.2015) are graded. This group includes people with older voca­tional qual­i­fi­ca­tions, Bachelor’s degrees, post-secondary qual­i­fi­ca­tions, special­ist voca­tional qual­i­fi­ca­tions, foreign degrees and a completed general upper secondary school syllabus without a matric­u­la­tion certificate.

Chang­ing the form of exam­i­na­tion will not change the date of the acad­e­mic sched­ule and there­fore will not impact a student’s right to finan­cial aid.

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Student admis­sions at univer­si­ties of applied sciences: ques­tions and answers

1 How have the univer­si­ties of applied sciences decided to carry out student admis­sions in the spring of 2020?

Univer­si­ties of applied sciences will carry out student admis­sions as previ­ously announced: by selec­tion based on school certifi­cate and entrance exams.

The entrance exam­i­na­tion for the second joint appli­ca­tion system for univer­si­ties of applied sciences will be arranged as a remote exam due to the current emer­gency condi­tions. The reason for this deci­sion is to avoid endan­ger­ing the health of appli­cants and staff and their family members.

2 What does the exam require of the applicant?

The appli­cant must have a working computer with Inter­net connec­tion. The exam soft­ware supports up-to-date versions of the follow­ing browsers:

  • Chrome
  • Edge
  • Firefox
  • Inter­net Explorer 11
  • Safari

Other modern browsers may work, as well.

You must have JavaScript and cookies enabled in your browser.

The soft­ware has been thor­oughly tested with the follow­ing oper­at­ing systems:

  • Windows 10
  • macOS 10.14
  • Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS

Before the entrance exam­i­na­tion, check the infor­ma­tion on the ammattikorkeakouluun.fi website (in Finnish or Swedish).

3 Why was the entrance exam­i­na­tion not postponed?

It is impos­si­ble to predict when the epidemic will end, and the situ­a­tion may vary in differ­ent parts of the country. There­fore, it is impos­si­ble to also predict what would be a safe time for arrang­ing the post­poned entrance examination.

Post­pon­ing the exam would have affected the sched­ule of student admis­sions and thus the begin­ning of the autumn term. This would have made it harder for new students to move to their place of study and find apart­ments and possi­bly affected their student finan­cial aid in early autumn.

4 Why are univer­si­ties of applied sciences not carry­ing out student selec­tion based on school certificate

Univer­si­ties of applied sciences consider it impor­tant that appli­cants have also other routes to the degree programme besides selec­tion based on school certificate.

Univer­si­ties of applied sciences select approx­i­mately half of the students by selec­tion based on school certifi­cate. Depend­ing on the study programme, 20–80 % of the avail­able student places will be filled by selec­tion based on school certificate

The number of appli­cants whose certifi­cates cannot be scored in the same way as certifi­cates for matric­u­la­tion exam­i­na­tion or voca­tional upper secondary qual­i­fi­ca­tions completed after 1 August 2015 is 33,000. This group includes persons with an older voca­tional upper secondary qual­i­fi­ca­tion, a secondary level qual­i­fi­ca­tion, a further voca­tional qual­i­fi­ca­tion, a special­ist voca­tional qual­i­fi­ca­tion, a degree completed abroad or a completed upper secondary school syllabus without a matric­u­la­tion examination.

Extend­ing the selec­tion based on school certifi­cate would not have ensured equal treat­ment of applicants. 

5 Why was the deci­sion to change entrance exams made only now? Why was the remote online exam not announced before the end of the joint appli­ca­tion process?

Infor­ma­tion avail­able on coro­n­avirus and the epidemic is constantly increas­ing and changing.

Univer­si­ties of applied sciences have been coop­er­at­ing on the matter with univer­si­ties, the Ministry of Educa­tion and Culture and the Finnish National Agency for Educa­tion. During the prepa­ra­tion process, the Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Welfare has been provid­ing infor­ma­tion on the epidemic. The deci­sion on exam arrange­ments has been made as soon as it has been possi­ble to do so. 

6 Is the solu­tion now equal and legal for all applicants?

The deci­sion to carry out entrance exams remotely gives all appli­cants the oppor­tu­nity to try to get a student place. Issues of equal­ity and legal­ity are exam­ined very care­fully at all stages of the deci­sion making process.

7 What should an appli­cant do now?

The changes do not require any action from the appli­cants at this stage.

By 30 April, appli­cants will be informed of the date of the entrance exam­i­na­tion and the prereq­ui­sites for partic­i­pat­ing in it.

The changes are commu­ni­cated on Study­info, the Ammattikorkeakouluun.fi website and the website of the univer­si­ties of applied sciences. In addi­tion, appli­cants are asked to follow the email address given in Studyinfo.