University of Oulu Fact Sheet
From our fact sheet you can find all necessary exchange related information easily in one place.
University of Oulu
Erasmus code: SF OULU01
PIC code: 999844670
OID: E10208661
Contact: international.office@oulu.fi
Mailing address: International Mobility Services, Academic Affairs, PO BOX 8000, 90014 University of Oulu, Finland
Street address: Pentti Kaiteran katu 1, 90570 Oulu, Finland
Erasmus Institutional Coordinator: Ms Sari Vähäkangas, international.office@oulu.fi
Each faculty has an exchange coordinator who can help prospective students with course related questions and other faculty specific matters. They are also responsible for the Erasmus+ agreements for their faculty.
Please see contact information for the coordinators.
Our academic year consists of autumn and spring terms. Exchange students are accepted for either one term or a full academic year (autumn-spring).
Spring Term exchange dates are 3.1.2025-31.5.2025
Recommended arrival date for exchange students: January 2, 2025
Please note, that PSOAS housing is guaranteed only from the recommended arrival date onward.
Orientation for exchange students: January 3, 2025
Teaching periods:
Please note that there can be exams and assignment deadlines also after the end of period 4.
There will be no teaching
All exchange applicants (study and traineeship) regardless of the exchange programme must be enrolled at a higher education institution.
The required English language level for exchange students is B2 in the CERF scale. This is equivalent to IELTS 6.5. We do not require an official language test document, e.g. TOEFL or IELTS, instead a certificate written by the home university's English teacher is sufficient.
Students should have completed at least one year of university level studies before applying to exchange. Please note, that some courses may have prerequisites that must be taken into account when choosing the courses.
The University of Oulu does not have a specific GPA requirement for incoming exchange students. We trust that our partners nominate students who have the sufficient academic skills needed to study abroad. However, transcript of records are used as one criteria for exchange student selection.
All incoming exchange students must be nominated by their home university's exchange coordinator before the student can apply. Exchange students should be nominated either for one term or a full academic year (autumn-spring). Nominations should be sent through our online nomination form. If you do not have access to the online form, please contact the International Mobility Services at international.office@oulu.fi
Nomination deadlines are:
Please note that due to the high number of incoming students, late nominations are not accepted unless otherwise agreed.
Students applying for traineeship (placement) exchange need to be nominated as well. We strongly recommend you follow the nomination deadlines given above. Regardless, traineeship nominations should be submitted at least three (3) months prior to the planned start of the traineeship exchange.
Nominations should be sent through our online nomination form. If you do not have access to the online form, please contact the International Mobility Services at international.office@oulu.fi
After the nomination has been processed, the student will get access to our online application system SoleMOVE. Students will receive their user ID and instructions by email. All necessary information including required enclosures are to be submitted through SoleMOVE, we do not accept any application documents by email.
Application deadlines are:
Traineeship applications must be submitted through SoleMOVE at least three (3) months before the planned start date. Please note, we don't accept any freemover applicants. Traineeship exchange are always subject to availability and the student must be active in searching for suitable traineeship options.
The recommended course load per term is 30 ECTS. Make sure that students also find out if home institutions have specific requirements on this too. Students are required to choose a minimum of 80% of courses from the faculty or study field to which they are applying to. If student proposes courses from another study field or faculty, the Faculty Exchange Coordinator needs to separately check the availability of those courses. In addition to study-field specific restrictions, it needs to be noted that when choosing courses from another faculty, schedule overlaps are possible.
Students can find available courses from our Courses for Exchange Students catalogue in Peppi system. All courses listed in the catalogue are taught in English.
One can also choose Finnish courses offered by the Language and Communication unit. Those courses are listed in the catalogue under "Language and communication courses". We recommend everyone to take the Survival Finnish course to make their stay as smooth as possible.
Courses are assessed on numerical scale 0-5 (0 stands for fail) or pass/fail. The assessment criteria is given in the course description. For more information on assessment, please see the Assessment Criteria at the University of Oulu page.
Study-field specific restrictions
Faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
Faculty of Education and Psychology
Faculty of Humanities
Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Medicine
Faculty of Science
Faculty of Technology
Oulu Business School
Accepted students will receive their official acceptance letter and information package by email. Students should go through all the materials carefully, as it includes information on residence permits, housing and other important matters.
We aim to send out acceptances in early June for autumn term and full academic year students, and by December for spring term students.
It should be noted, that accepted students have to confirm their exchange in SoleMOVE system. Instructions are provided in the information package.
Exchange students do not pay any tuition fees. However, all students should pay the Student Union fee which entitles you to several student discounts. The Student Union fee is 28.5€ per term (2023-2024). For more information about the fee, please see the Student Union webpage.
Housing for exchange students is available through the local student housing foundation PSOAS.
Students are housed in shared apartments with private bedrooms and shared kitchen and bathroom facilities. The university has reserved a certain number of rooms that are furnished with basic furniture (bed, pillow and duvet, bed linen, table, chair, lamp, wardrobe). Please note that the number of these rooms is limited, so you should make sure you apply for housing as soon as possible.
Please note that tenancy agreements are made for fixed period (one term or two terms) and they are binding, meaning that you are required to pay the rent for the entire agreement period. Should you decide to leave early, note that tenancy agreements are cancelled in force majeure cases only (illness, etc).
More information on housing can be found from PSOAS webpage. In any housing related questions, please contact PSOAS directly at asuntotoimisto@psoas.fi.
All incoming exchange students, both study and traineeship, are required to have a valid health and accident insurance that covers possible accidents and health problems also during your travel to and from Finland. The University of Oulu does not cover medical costs for students.
If you are a citizen of an EU/EEA/EFTA country, you are eligible to apply for an European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which gives you access to the public health care services. Students from EU countries must bring their European Health Card with them. Note that the European Health Insurance Card is not valid during your travels to and from Finland or during any excursions to a third country.
If you are a non-EU/EEA/EFTA national, a health insurance policy is to be taken when applying for a Residence Permit. You can use the the public health care services, but services in private health care are more affordable for you.
Orientation for new exchange students is organised in the beginning of both terms.
Please see the Orientation webpage.
For information on agreements/partners see our SoleMOVE database. Select ‘Exchange destinations and Feedback at UO’ from the top left-hand corner, select your home country, institution, and the type of exchange.