In the spring’s second joint application period for higher education, which concluded on March 27, 2024, the University of Turku emerged as the most popular institution among applicants in Finland.
A record-breaking total of 31,824 candidates applied for the Finnish-language degree programs offered by the university, marking the highest number of applicants the University of Turku has ever received.
This figure surpasses the previous record set in 2021 by 313 applicants, with the record being broken in the last hour of the application period.
The 31,824 applicants submitted a total of 42,198 applications through the opintopolku.fi service, an increase from the previous year’s 39,361 applications.
Mari Kähkönen, the head of applicant services at the University of Turku, described the competition for the highest number of applicants as “incredibly tight and thrilling right up to the closing moments of the application period.”
The University of Tampere and the University of Helsinki followed closely, with 31,631 and 31,273 applicants, respectively, securing the second and third spots.
The University of Eastern Finland and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences rounded out the top five, with 24,389 and 21,432 applicants each. Overall, the joint application process attracted over 144,000 applicants, slightly up from approximately 142,000 the previous year.
Significant increases in applicant numbers were noted in disciplines such as law, political science and political history, logopedics, and automation engineering.
Business studies at the Turku campus were the most sought-after, attracting 5,971 applicants, followed by law (4,187 applicants), medicine (4,178 applicants), and psychology (2,964 applicants), with law experiencing the most significant growth in popularity.
Other programmes, such as political history and political science, saw a remarkable increase in applicants, with growth exceeding 42%, and both logopedics and automation engineering also saw significant increases of over 20% in applicant numbers.
Among engineering programmes, the new production economics programme was the most popular, with 679 applicants.
The University of Turku offered 104 degree programs in this spring’s joint application, 52 of which were aimed at those seeking their first study place in higher education, including bachelor’s, combined bachelor’s and master’s/diploma engineer, or licentiate degrees. “We are thrilled with the success of the University of Turku this spring.
Our multidisciplinary research university offers the opportunity for degrees tailored to individual choices, including minor subject selections. We continuously develop our education to meet the needs of the future and the job market, and our applicants have clearly recognized this.
We are delighted that our university and its programs have attracted such a significant level of interest, breaking records,” stated Vice-Rector Piia Björn.
HelsinkiTimes
