Eligibility criteria
These admission criteria are valid for student selections made in 2025–2028. However, the faculty reserves the right to make changes to the criteria, if necessary, between admissions rounds. The number of study seats is decided on an annual basis and will be published on Studyinfo.fi before each application round.
ELIGIBILITY
To be eligible for the master’s degree programme, you must have a suitable higher education degree and demonstrate adequate English proficiency in one of the methods described below.
1. A higher education degree that fulfils the following requirements:
The degree must give eligibility for master’s-level degree studies in the awarding country. If your degree qualifies you for doctoral-level studies, you should primarily seek admission to a doctoral programme instead.
The degree can be from a field other than education.
The higher education institution awarding the degree must be officially recognised in the national education system, i.e., listed as a degree-granting higher education institution by the country where it is located or by a relevant international organisation (such as UNESCO).
If the degree used to prove eligibility is incomplete at the time of application, you may be admitted on a conditional basis. In this case, you must graduate and submit officially certified copies of the final educational documents so that they are received by the University by the specified deadline. The deadline will be posted on the University’s website before the application period starts.
If you currently hold a study right in this same master’s programme at the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, you cannot be admitted.
2. English proficiency demonstrated in any of the following ways:
o An upper secondary education completed in English in an EU/EEA country, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand.
o A higher education degree completed in English in an EU/EEA country or one of the following: Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
o A Finnish-medium or Swedish-medium higher education degree completed in a Finnish higher education institution, with a command of a foreign language in English per the Government Decree on University Degrees (794/2004) or the Government Decree on Universities of Applied Sciences (1129/2014). If the degree is still incomplete at the time of application, it must be the same as the one used as the basis for eligibility.
o A higher education degree completed or being completed in Finland, with the English language as a major or specialisation.
o An international English language proficiency test. The approved language tests and minimum results are as follows:
- IELTS Academic, IELTS for UKVI Academic, IELTS Indicator, or IELTS Online: 6.5 (overall score)
- TOEFL iBT, TOEFL iBT Home Edition, or TOEFL iBT Paper Edition: 92 (MyBest score)
- PTE Academic, PTE Academic UKVI, or PTE Academic Online: 62 (overall score)
- Cambridge C2 Proficiency: A, B, C, or C1
- Cambridge C1 Advanced: A, B, or C
IELTS, PTE and TOEFL results must be valid until the end of the application period. Only Cambridge tests completed in 2005 and thereafter are accepted. If the language test result is released after the application has ended, the test report form must be released by and valid on the deadline date for submitting attachments.
o National Certificate of Language Proficiency (YKI) in English: The applicant must have received a grade 5 or higher at the advanced level in all components (speaking, writing, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension). The applicant may combine test results from multiple dates. Only YKI tests completed in 2002 and thereafter are accepted.
The University does not grant waivers for language requirements. If you fail to demonstrate your English skills by one of the above methods, your application will be rejected as ineligible. The University does not consider test report forms received after the specified deadline.
Admissions procedure
Online application, required attachments and interview
The admissions process is divided into two parts: 1) submitting an online application and the required attachments, and 2) participating in an online interview and completing a written assignment (if applicable).
NB: If you use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to aid your application, you must indicate which model (e.g., ChatGPT, Bing Chat) you have used and in what way through proper citations (written assignments) or oral communication (video assignments). However, citations are not necessary if you use AI solely for ideation, proofreading, stylisation or similar purposes.
Claiming AI-generated content as your own without acknowledging it is considered plagiarism. If we detect that a supporting document or assignment has been generated by AI, either wholly or in part, without proper acknowledgement, it will be given zero points.
Phase 1: Application and required attachments
First, you must submit your online application on Studyinfo.fi along with the required attachments by the given deadlines. Applications that are eligible in terms of educational background and include all required attachments are evaluated according to the criteria explained below. Ineligible applications will not be processed further after they have been found not to meet the eligibility criteria/documentary requirements.
Eligible applications will be ranked based on research interests and a motivation video. You must score a minimum of 2.5 points for your research interests to have your motivation video evaluated. To qualify for the next phase, you must score a total minimum of 5 points for your research interests and motivation video, and at least 2.5 points for each.
| Category | Points |
|---|
| Research interests | 0–4 |
| Motivation video | 0–4 |
| Total maximum points | 8 |
Research interests will be evaluated in relation to:
- suitability of the research focus to the faculty’s research profile
- argumentation of the significance of the research interest(s)
- description of suitable research approach and possible methods to conduct this research
- coherence of the writing
Motivation video will be evaluated in relation to your:
- motivation for the field of education
- motivation for applying particularly for this programme
- own professional development through the programme
- future goals
Based on this preselection, approximately threefold of highest scoring applicants in relation to the study seats will be invited to an online interview and to complete a written assignment immediately after the interview. If two or more applicants have equal points from Phase 1, the order will be determined as follows: 1) Research interests 2) Motivation video. If there is still no difference, the order will be raffled. A notification of the result of this phase and detailed instructions will be sent via email to those applicants selected for Phase 2.
Phase 2: Online interview and written assignment
After the first phase, selected applicants are invited to an online interview and to complete a written assignment immediately after the interview. The written assignment will be carried out online in a given time frame. You are responsible for providing yourself with the space, time, and equipment to enable participation in the interview and in the written assignment. More detailed instructions will be provided in the interview invitation.
The interview will take ca. 15–20 minutes per applicant. The focus will be on your motivation video and research interests. More detailed instructions will be provided in the interview invitation.
The academic staff of the programme will evaluate the interview according to the following criteria.
| Category | Points |
|---|
| Knowledge of the field of study | 0–4 |
| Communication and interaction | 0–4 |
| Interest and motivation | 0-4 |
| Written assignment: academic quality and written communication | 0-4 |
| Total maximum points | 16 |
Final selection
Your scores from Phases 1 and 2 are added together to form your final admission score. You must score at least half of the maximum points of Phase 2 and receive at least 1 point from each Phase 2 category to be considered for admission.
Applicants will be ranked according to their admission scores, and the highest-scoring applicants, in accordance with the number of available study seats, will be admitted. If two or more applicants are tied for the last study place, all of them will be accepted. The faculty may also, at their discretion, admit more applicants than there are study places to ensure there will be enough students to start their studies in the programme. There are no arrangements for clearing, i.e., unaccepted study seats will not be reallocated.
All applicants will be notified of the results by email by the date given on the University’s website. Unsuccessful applicants will be informed of the policy and deadline for appealing against the admission decision.
