UEF plans to expand tuition waiver for Ukrainian students

The University of Eastern Finland has received 400,000 euros of funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture to expand its provision of tuition-fee free study opportunities in English available through the Open University for beneficiaries of temporary protection. Altogether, the ministry supports higher education institutions by 5.5 million euros in their efforts to provide more study opportunities for beneficiaries of temporary protection.

“It is our responsibility to help those in distress, and education also plays a role in this work. Finland wants to support the reconstruction of Ukraine by means of professional skills,” says Minister of Science and Culture Petri Honkonen.

The Ministry of Education and Culture’s funding constitutes part of Finland’s action plan to support Ukrainian higher education students and researchers.

With the funding received, the University of Eastern Finland will significantly expand its provision of Open University courses taught in English. The Open University will also start offering Finnish as a Second Language studies.

“Our goal is, in one year’s time, to have more than 40 English-taught courses, amounting to more than 200 ECTS, available through our Open University. In the future, this selection of courses will cater to the needs of other immigrants as well,” says the University of Eastern Finland’s Academic Rector Tapio Määttä.

The University of Eastern Finland is currently helping people fleeing the war in Ukraine by, for example, offering Ukrainian students arriving in Finland an opportunity to apply for admission to non-degree studies free of charge, by offering Open University courses free of charge, and by offering opportunities to apply for admission to English-taught Master’s and Bachelor’s degree programmes.

The first Ukrainian students arrived at the University of Eastern Finland already in April. The beginning of September sees altogether 15 students from Ukraine studying on the Joensuu and Kuopio campuses.

“By accepting applications for admission to non-degree studies on an on-going basis, we make it easy for people to apply for a right to study soon after their arrival in Finland. In fact, we are processing several applications as we speak,” Määttä says.

This article was first published on 6 September by UEF.