The Finnish Monthly 6-Degrees and Higher Education in Finland. (May 25, 2007)

    The cover story in the Finnish monthly 6-Degrees opens with: "The entrance exams to Finland’s universities are tough and gaining admission requires months – sometimes years – of determined study. In the future, university admission may become even more difficult for those students who don’t make it directly from high school."

On average Finnish universities receive about 70,000 applications each year, but only 22,000 students are admitted and while it's tough to get in compared to Australian universities, we're told "Those who get over the initial hurdles can enjoy sufficient resources and few restrictions in their academic career."

And for those who want "just the facts, please"

Facts

• Each year about 35,000 students graduate from high school. 19% of them make it into the university in the same year, and 18 % continue into vocational schools.

• About 60% of each age group eventually gets into university education.

• On average it takes two years before high school graduates are admitted to university.

• In 2006, 36% of the persons admitted to university came straight from high school.

• The average age of graduation is 28.3 years.

• The entrance exams for universities are mostly during May and June.

University admission rates in 2006:

University of Helsinki: 31,687 applications, 12% admitted

Helsinki School of Economics, 3,958 applications, 14% admitted

Helsinki University of Technology, 8,061 applications, 17% admitted

University of Turku, 15,439 applications, 12% admitted

University of Tampere, 19,096 applications, 8% admitted