finland's education system

The Finnish education system

Early childhood education, pre-primary education, comprehensive education, upper secondary education, higher education, applying for education and training, other study opportunities, language training.

The education system includes early childhood education, preschool education, comprehensive education, upper secondary education and higher education. Adult education is intended for adults and it includes a multitude of alternatives from comprehensive to higher education.

In Finland, children are entitled to receive early childhood education before they reach school age. Early childhood education is organised in day care centres and family day care. Children may also participate in open early childhood education together with a parent, for example, at a playground. The goal is to support children’s development and well-being and to promote equality in learning. In early childhood education, children learn, for example, social, linguistic and manual skills and gain different types of information. Children also acquire skills that help them learn more.

A lot of playtime and outdoor activities are included. If the child’s native language is not Finnish or Swedish, he or she will receive support in learning Finnish or Swedish. The child may also receive special needs education, if necessary.

In Finland, municipalities organise early childhood education. It is tax funded and therefore more affordable to families. There is also private early childhood education available in Finland. Trained early childhood education teachers, social pedagogues and childcarers work with children.

Read more about early childhood education on the InfoFinland page Early childhood education .

In Finland, children must attend pre-primary education for one year before compulsory education begins. Pre-primary education usually starts during the year when the child turns six. Municipalities organise pre-primary education and it is free of charge for families. Pre-primary education is given by highly educated early childhood education teachers. Pre-primary education is usually organised from Monday to Friday, four hours a day during school hours. In addition to pre-primary education, the child can also attend early childhood education.

During the time that children are in pre-primary education, they learn skills that are useful in school, such as the alphabet. They are not, however, taught how to read. If the child’s native language is not Finnish or Swedish, he or she will receive support in learning Finnish or Swedish. A typical day in pre-primary education also includes playtime and outdoor activities.

Read more on the InfoFinland page Pre-primary education (Link leads to external service) .

In Finland, comprehensive education normally starts during the year when the child turns seven. All children residing in Finland permanently must attend comprehensive education. Comprehensive school comprises nine grades.

Finnish legislation guides comprehensive education. National curriculum bases and local curriculums are also in use.

Comprehensive education is organised by municipalities and is free of charge for families. There is at least 20 hours of tuition per week for first and second grades and more for higher grades.

All comprehensive school teachers in Finland have a Master’s degree. Comprehensive school class teachers, who teach grades 1–6, are specialised in pedagogy. Grade 7–9 teachers are specialised in the subjects they teach.

Teachers are at liberty to plan their tuition independently based on the national and local curricula. Recently, curricula have emphasised, for example, entities that cover several subjects, investigating daily phenomena and information and communications technology.

Children often have the same teacher for the first six years. The teacher gets to know the students well and is able to develop the tuition to suit their needs. One important goal is that the students learn how to think for themselves and assume responsibility over their own learning.

The teacher evaluates the students’ progress in school. In comprehensive education, all grades are given by the teacher. There are no national examinations as such. Instead, learning results are being monitored with sample-based evaluations. These are usually organised in the ninth grade.

If the child or young person has only recently moved to Finland, he or she may receive preparatory education for comprehensive education. Preparatory education usually takes one year. After it, the student may continue to study Finnish or Swedish as a second language, or an S2 language, if he or she needs support in learning the language.

Adults who have moved to Finland with no comprehensive school leaving certificate from their native country may complete comprehensive school, for example in a general upper secondary schools for adults.

Read more about comprehensive education on the InfoFinland page Comprehensive education .

The most common options after comprehensive school are general upper secondary school and vocational education.

After comprehensive school, all young people have to study until they graduate from secondary education or reach the age of 18.

General upper secondary school

General upper secondary schools provide all-round education which does not lead to any profession. Mostly the same subjects are studied in general upper secondary schools as in comprehensive education, but the studies are more demanding and independent. At the end, students usually take the matriculation examination. General upper secondary school takes 2– 4 years depending on the student. After finishing, students are eligible to apply to universities or universities of applied sciences.

Most general upper secondary schools provide education in Finnish or Swedish language. Larger cities have some general upper secondary schools that provide tuition in other languages, such as English or French.

Adults may take general upper secondary school studies in general upper secondary schools for adults. There, it is possible to either take separate courses or complete the entire general upper secondary school syllabus and take the matriculation examination. Tuition may include contact teaching, distance education, online education and independent studies.

Read more about general upper secondary school studies on the InfoFinland page General upper secondary school .

Vocational education

Vocational education and training is more practice-oriented than general upper secondary school education. Completing a vocational upper secondary qualification takes about three years. In addition, you can complete a further vocational qualification or a specialist vocational qualification during your working career. On-the-job learning is essential in vocational education and training. If students so choose, they can progress from vocational education and training to higher education.

Vocational qualification can also be obtained through apprenticeship training. In this case, students work in jobs within their own field, receive a salary that is at least in accordance with the collective agreement, or a reasonable salary if there are no collective agreements in the field. Students are allowed to complete their studies at the same time.

Read more on the InfoFinland page Vocational education and training .

Preparatory education for programmes leading to an upper secondary qualification (TUVA)

Good language skills are needed in secondary education. If the student’s native language is something other than Finnish or Swedish and his or her language skills are not yet at the level required for general upper secondary school studies or vocational education, he or she can apply to preparatory education for programmes leading to an upper secondary qualification (TUVA).

Read more on the InfoFinland page General upper secondary school and Vocational education and training .

After finishing your upper secondary studies, you can progress to higher education. In Finland, higher education is provided by universities and universities of applied sciences. Universities and educational institutes decide on student admission.

Studying in an institute of higher education may be free or subject to a charge. You will be charged tuition fees if you are not an EU or EEA citizen or a family member of an EU or EEA citizen and are studying towards a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in an English-language degree programme.

More information is available on the InfoFinland page Foreign students in Finland .

Universities of applied sciences

The education provided by universities of applied sciences is more practice-oriented than that offered by universities. Tuition also includes on-the-job learning. Completing a Bachelor’s degree in a university of applied sciences takes 3.5–4.5 years. If you also want to complete a Master’s degree, you must first acquire two years of work experience from the same field. Read more on the InfoFinland page  Universities of applied sciences .

Universities

University tuition is based on scientific research. Completing a Bachelor’s degree in a university takes about three years and Master’s degree about two more years. Universities organise English language tuition in some of their degree programmes. However, the teaching language of most degree programmes is either Finnish or Swedish.

Once you have completed a Master’s degree, you can apply for a right to complete further studies and earn a Licentiate’s or Doctoral degree.

Read more on the InfoFinland page Universities .

InfoFinland page Applying for education and training includes information on applying to upper secondary and higher education in Finland. If you are planning to study in Finland, more information is also available on the InfoFinland pages Foreign students in Finland .

In Finland, there are also many educational institutions offering persons of all ages studies which do not lead to a degree. Most of these studies are intended for adults. These liberal adult education institutes include adult education centres, summer universities, study centres and sports institutes.

The studies provide all-round education. You can study languages, arts, crafts and communications, for instance. Normally the student has to cover some of the expenses of the education.

However, in certain situations studying at these institutions may be free of charge. Education is non-chargeable if, for example, education in reading and writing and other language training have been approved as parts of your integration plan.

If you would like to study Finnish or Swedish, read more on the InfoFinland page Finnish and Swedish language .

Local information

See your municipality’s information

Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful?

The country’s achievements in education have other nations, especially the United States, doing their homework

LynNell Hancock

Photographs by Stuart Conway

It was the end of term at Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School in Espoo, a sprawling suburb west of Helsinki, when Kari Louhivuori, a veteran teacher and the school’s principal, decided to try something extreme—by Finnish standards. One of his sixth-grade students, a Kosovo-Albanian boy, had drifted far off the learning grid, resisting his teacher’s best efforts. The school’s team of special educators—including a social worker, a nurse and a psychologist—convinced Louhivuori that laziness was not to blame. So he decided to hold the boy back a year, a measure so rare in Finland it’s practically obsolete.

Finland has vastly improved in reading, math and science literacy over the past decade in large part because its teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around. This 13-year-old, Besart Kabashi, received something akin to royal tutoring.

“I took Besart on that year as my private student,” Louhivuori told me in his office, which boasted a Beatles “Yellow Submarine” poster on the wall and an electric guitar in the closet. When Besart was not studying science, geography and math, he was parked next to Louhivuori’s desk at the front of his class of 9- and 10-year- olds, cracking open books from a tall stack, slowly reading one, then another, then devouring them by the dozens. By the end of the year, the son of Kosovo war refugees had conquered his adopted country’s vowel-rich language and arrived at the realization that he could, in fact, learn .

Years later, a 20-year-old Besart showed up at Kirkkojarvi’s Christmas party with a bottle of Cognac and a big grin. “You helped me,” he told his former teacher. Besart had opened his own car repair firm and a cleaning company. “No big fuss,” Louhivuori told me. “This is what we do every day, prepare kids for life.”

This tale of a single rescued child hints at some of the reasons for the tiny Nordic nation’s staggering record of education success, a phenomenon that has inspired, baffled and even irked many of America’s parents and educators. Finnish schooling became an unlikely hot topic after the 2010 documentary film Waiting for “Superman” contrasted it with America’s troubled public schools.

“Whatever it takes” is an attitude that drives not just Kirkkojarvi’s 30 teachers, but most of Finland’s 62,000 educators in 3,500 schools from Lapland to Turku—professionals selected from the top 10 percent of the nation’s graduates to earn a required master’s degree in education. Many schools are small enough so that teachers know every student. If one method fails, teachers consult with colleagues to try something else. They seem to relish the challenges. Nearly 30 percent of Finland’s children receive some kind of special help during their first nine years of school. The school where Louhivuori teaches served 240 first through ninth graders last year; and in contrast with Finland’s reputation for ethnic homogeneity, more than half of its 150 elementary-level students are immigrants—from Somalia, Iraq, Russia, Bangladesh, Estonia and Ethiopia, among other nations. “Children from wealthy families with lots of education can be taught by stupid teachers,” Louhivuori said, smiling. “We try to catch the weak students. It’s deep in our thinking.”

The transformation of the Finns’ education system began some 40 years ago as the key propellent of the country’s economic recovery plan. Educators had little idea it was so successful until 2000, when the first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues, revealed Finnish youth to be the best young readers in the world. Three years later, they led in math. By 2006, Finland was first out of 57 countries (and a few cities) in science. In the 2009 PISA scores released last year, the nation came in second in science, third in reading and sixth in math among nearly half a million students worldwide. “I’m still surprised,” said Arjariita Heikkinen, principal of a Helsinki comprehensive school. “I didn’t realize we were that good.”

In the United States, which has muddled along in the middle for the past decade, government officials have attempted to introduce marketplace competition into public schools. In recent years, a group of Wall Street financiers and philanthropists such as Bill Gates have put money behind private-sector ideas, such as vouchers, data-driven curriculum and charter schools, which have doubled in number in the past decade. President Obama, too, has apparently bet on compe­tition. His Race to the Top initiative invites states to compete for federal dollars using tests and other methods to measure teachers, a philosophy that would not fly in Finland. “I think, in fact, teachers would tear off their shirts,” said Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal with 24 years of teaching experience. “If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.”

There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland’s schools are publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians. Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town. The differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world, according to the most recent survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this,” said Olli Luukkainen, president of Finland’s powerful teachers union.

Ninety-three percent of Finns graduate from academic or vocational high schools, 17.5 percentage points higher than the United States, and 66 percent go on to higher education, the highest rate in the European Union. Yet Finland spends about 30 percent less per student than the United States.

Still, there is a distinct absence of chest-thumping among the famously reticent Finns. They are eager to celebrate their recent world hockey championship, but PISA scores, not so much. “We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test,” said Pasi Sahlberg, a former math and physics teacher who is now in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture. “We are not much interested in PISA. It’s not what we are about.”

Maija Rintola stood before her chattering class of twenty-three 7- and 8-year-olds one late April day in Kirkkojarven Koulu. A tangle of multicolored threads topped her copper hair like a painted wig. The 20-year teacher was trying out her look for Vappu, the day teachers and children come to school in riotous costumes to celebrate May Day. The morning sun poured through the slate and lemon linen shades onto containers of Easter grass growing on the wooden sills. Rintola smiled and held up her open hand at a slant—her time-tested “silent giraffe,” which signaled the kids to be quiet. Little hats, coats, shoes stowed in their cubbies, the children wiggled next to their desks in their stocking feet, waiting for a turn to tell their tale from the playground. They had just returned from their regular 15 minutes of playtime outdoors between lessons. “Play is important at this age,” Rintola would later say. “We value play.”

With their wiggles unwound, the students took from their desks little bags of buttons, beans and laminated cards numbered 1 through 20. A teacher’s aide passed around yellow strips representing units of ten. At a smart board at the front of the room, Rintola ushered the class through the principles of base ten. One girl wore cat ears on her head, for no apparent reason. Another kept a stuffed mouse on her desk to remind her of home. Rintola roamed the room helping each child grasp the concepts. Those who finished early played an advanced “nut puzzle” game. After 40 minutes it was time for a hot lunch in the cathedral-like cafeteria.

Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7. “We have no hurry,” said Louhivuori. “Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?”

It’s almost unheard of for a child to show up hungry or homeless. Finland provides three years of maternity leave and subsidized day care to parents, and preschool for all 5-year-olds, where the emphasis is on play and socializing. In addition, the state subsidizes parents, paying them around 150 euros per month for every child until he or she turns 17. Ninety-seven percent of 6-year-olds attend public preschool, where children begin some academics. Schools provide food, medical care, counseling and taxi service if needed. Stu­dent health care is free.

Even so, Rintola said her children arrived last August miles apart in reading and language levels. By April, nearly every child in the class was reading, and most were writing. Boys had been coaxed into literature with books like Kapteeni Kalsarin (“Captain Underpants”). The school’s special education teacher teamed up with Rintola to teach five children with a variety of behavioral and learning problems. The national goal for the past five years has been to mainstream all children. The only time Rintola’s children are pulled out is for Finnish as a Second Language classes, taught by a teacher with 30 years’ experience and graduate school training.

There are exceptions, though, however rare. One first-grade girl was not in Rintola’s class. The wispy 7-year-old had recently arrived from Thailand speaking not a word of Finnish. She was studying math down the hall in a special “preparing class” taught by an expert in multicultural learning. It is designed to help children keep up with their subjects while they conquer the language. Kirkkojarvi’s teachers have learned to deal with their unusually large number of immigrant students. The city of Espoo helps them out with an extra 82,000 euros a year in “positive discrimination” funds to pay for things like special resource teachers, counselors and six special needs classes.

Rintola will teach the same children next year and possibly the next five years, depending on the needs of the school. “It’s a good system. I can make strong connections with the children,” said Rintola, who was handpicked by Louhivuori 20 years ago. “I understand who they are.” Besides Finnish, math and science, the first graders take music, art, sports, religion and textile handcrafts. English begins in third grade, Swedish in fourth. By fifth grade the children have added biology, geography, history, physics and chemistry.

Not until sixth grade will kids have the option to sit for a district-wide exam, and then only if the classroom teacher agrees to participate. Most do, out of curiosity. Results are not publicized. Finnish educators have a hard time understanding the United States’ fascination with standardized tests. “Americans like all these bars and graphs and colored charts,” Louhivuori teased, as he rummaged through his closet looking for past years’ results. “Looks like we did better than average two years ago,” he said after he found the reports. “It’s nonsense. We know much more about the children than these tests can tell us.”

I had come to Kirkkojarvi to see how the Finnish approach works with students who are not stereotypically blond, blue-eyed and Lutheran. But I wondered if Kirkkojarvi’s success against the odds might be a fluke. Some of the more vocal conservative reformers in America have grown weary of the “We-Love-Finland crowd” or so-called Finnish Envy. They argue that the United States has little to learn from a country of only 5.4 million people—4 percent of them foreign born. Yet the Finns seem to be onto something. Neighboring Norway, a country of similar size, embraces education policies similar to those in the United States. It employs standardized exams and teachers without master’s degrees. And like America, Norway’s PISA scores have been stalled in the middle ranges for the better part of a decade.

To get a second sampling, I headed east from Espoo to Helsinki and a rough neighborhood called Siilitie, Finnish for “Hedgehog Road” and known for having the oldest low-income housing project in Finland. The 50-year-old boxy school building sat in a wooded area, around the corner from a subway stop flanked by gas stations and convenience stores. Half of its 200 first- through ninth-grade students have learning disabilities. All but the most severely impaired are mixed with the general education children, in keeping with Finnish policies.

A class of first graders scampered among nearby pine and birch trees, each holding a stack of the teacher’s homemade laminated “outdoor math” cards. “Find a stick as big as your foot,” one read. “Gather 50 rocks and acorns and lay them out in groups of ten,” read another. Working in teams, the 7- and 8-year-olds raced to see how quickly they could carry out their tasks. Aleksi Gustafsson, whose master’s degree is from Helsinki University, developed the exercise after attending one of the many workshops available free to teachers. “I did research on how useful this is for kids,” he said. “It’s fun for the children to work outside. They really learn with it.”

Gustafsson’s sister, Nana Germeroth, teaches a class of mostly learning-impaired children; Gustafsson’s students have no learning or behavioral issues. The two combined most of their classes this year to mix their ideas and abilities along with the children’s varying levels. “We know each other really well,” said Germeroth, who is ten years older. “I know what Aleksi is thinking.”

The school receives 47,000 euros a year in positive discrimination money to hire aides and special education teachers, who are paid slightly higher salaries than classroom teachers because of their required sixth year of university training and the demands of their jobs. There is one teacher (or assistant) in Siilitie for every seven students.

In another classroom, two special education teachers had come up with a different kind of team teaching. Last year, Kaisa Summa, a teacher with five years’ experience, was having trouble keeping a gaggle of first-grade boys under control. She had looked longingly into Paivi Kangasvieri’s quiet second-grade room next door, wondering what secrets the 25-year-veteran colleague could share. Each had students of wide-ranging abilities and special needs. Summa asked Kangasvieri if they might combine gymnastics classes in hopes good behavior might be contagious. It worked. This year, the two decided to merge for 16 hours a week. “We complement each other,” said Kangasvieri, who describes herself as a calm and firm “father” to Summa’s warm mothering. “It is cooperative teaching at its best,” she says.

Every so often, principal Arjariita Heikkinen told me, the Helsinki district tries to close the school because the surrounding area has fewer and fewer children, only to have people in the community rise up to save it. After all, nearly 100 percent of the school’s ninth graders go on to high schools. Even many of the most severely disabled will find a place in Finland’s expanded system of vocational high schools, which are attended by 43 percent of Finnish high-school students, who prepare to work in restaurants, hospitals, construction sites and offices. “We help situate them in the right high school,” said then deputy principal Anne Roselius. “We are interested in what will become of them in life.”

Finland’s schools were not always a wonder. Until the late 1960s, Finns were still emerging from the cocoon of Soviet influence. Most children left public school after six years. (The rest went to private schools, academic grammar schools or folk schools, which tended to be less rigorous.) Only the privileged or lucky got a quality education.

The landscape changed when Finland began trying to remold its bloody, fractured past into a unified future. For hundreds of years, these fiercely independent people had been wedged between two rival powers—the Swedish monarchy to the west and the Russian czar to the east. Neither Scandinavian nor Baltic, Finns were proud of their Nordic roots and a unique language only they could love (or pronounce). In 1809, Finland was ceded to Russia by the Swedes, who had ruled its people some 600 years. The czar created the Grand Duchy of Finland, a quasi-state with constitutional ties to the empire. He moved the capital from Turku, near Stockholm, to Helsinki, closer to St. Petersburg. After the czar fell to the Bolsheviks in 1917, Finland declared its independence, pitching the country into civil war. Three more wars between 1939 and 1945—two with the Soviets, one with Germany—left the country scarred by bitter divisions and a punishing debt owed to the Russians. “Still we managed to keep our freedom,” said Pasi Sahlberg, a director general in the Ministry of Education and Culture.

In 1963, the Finnish Parliament made the bold decision to choose public education as its best shot at economic recovery. “I call this the Big Dream of Finnish education,” said Sahlberg, whose upcoming book,  Finnish Lessons , is scheduled for release in October. “It was simply the idea that every child would have a very good public school. If we want to be competitive, we need to educate everybody. It all came out of a need to survive."

Practically speaking—and Finns are nothing if not practical—the decision meant that goal would not be allowed to dissipate into rhetoric. Lawmakers landed on a deceptively simple plan that formed the foundation for everything to come. Public schools would be organized into one system of comprehensive schools, or  peruskoulu , for ages 7 through 16. Teachers from all over the nation contributed to a national curriculum that provided guidelines, not prescriptions. Besides Finnish and Swedish (the country’s second official language), children would learn a third language (English is a favorite) usually beginning at age 9. Resources were distributed equally. As the comprehensive schools improved, so did the upper secondary schools (grades 10 through 12). The second critical decision came in 1979, when reformers required that every teacher earn a fifth-year master’s degree in theory and practice at one of eight state universities—at state expense. From then on, teachers were effectively granted equal status with doctors and lawyers. Applicants began flooding teaching programs, not because the salaries were so high but because autonomy and respect made the job attractive. In 2010, some 6,600 applicants vied for 660 primary school training slots, according to Sahlberg. By the mid-1980s, a final set of initiatives shook the classrooms free from the last vestiges of top-down regulation. Control over policies shifted to town councils. The national curriculum was distilled into broad guidelines. National math goals for grades one through nine, for example, were reduced to a neat ten pages. Sifting and sorting children into so-called ability groupings was eliminated. All children—clever or less so—were to be taught in the same classrooms, with lots of special teacher help available to make sure no child really would be left behind. The inspectorate closed its doors in the early ’90s, turning accountability and inspection over to teachers and principals. “We have our own motivation to succeed because we love the work,” said Louhivuori. “Our incentives come from inside.”

To be sure, it was only in the past decade that Finland’s international science scores rose. In fact, the country’s earliest efforts could be called somewhat Stalinistic. The first national curriculum, developed in the early ’70s, weighed in at 700 stultifying pages. Timo Heikkinen, who began teaching in Finland’s public schools in 1980 and is now principal of Kallahti Comprehensive School in eastern Helsinki, remembers when most of his high-school teachers sat at their desks dictating to the open notebooks of compliant children.

And there are still challenges. Finland’s crippling financial collapse in the early ’90s brought fresh economic challenges to this “confident and assertive Eurostate,” as David Kirby calls it in  A Concise History of Finland . At the same time, immigrants poured into the country, clustering in low-income housing projects and placing added strain on schools. A recent report by the Academy of Finland warned that some schools in the country’s large cities were becoming more skewed by race and class as affluent, white Finns choose schools with fewer poor, immigrant populations.

A few years ago, Kallahti principal Timo Heikkinen began noticing that, increasingly, affluent Finnish parents, perhaps worried about the rising number of Somali children at Kallahti, began sending their children to one of two other schools nearby. In response, Heikkinen and his teachers designed new environmental science courses that take advantage of the school’s proximity to the forest. And a new biology lab with 3-D technology allows older students to observe blood flowing inside the human body.

It has yet to catch on, Heikkinen admits. Then he added: “But we are always looking for ways to improve.”

In other words, whatever it takes.

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LynNell Hancock | READ MORE

LynNell Hancock writes about education and teaches at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Stuart Conway | READ MORE

Stuart Conway is a photographer based in southeast England.

Finnish education system

The finnish education system.

The Finnish education system consists of

• early childhood education and care
• pre-primary education
• primary and lower secondary education (basic education)
• general upper secondary education
• vocational education 
• higher education
• adult education

Compulsory education applies to all 6–18-year-olds. It includes pre-primary, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education.

After 9 years basic education there is general upper secondary or vocational upper secondary education and training.  General upper secondary lead to matriculation examination and vocational to vocational qualification. 

Higher education system in Finland

The Finnish higher education system comprises universities and universities of applied sciences. Universities engage both in education and research and have the right to award doctorates. Universities of applied sciences are multi-field institutions of professional higher education. Universities of applied sciences engage in applied research and development.

First and second cycle higher education studies are measured in credits. Study courses are quantified according to the work load required. One year of full-time study is equivalent to 1600 hours of student work on average and is defined as 60 credits. The credit system complies with the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).

Higher education qualifications in Finland are referenced at levels 6, 7 and 8 both in the National Qualifications Framework as well as in the European Qualifications Framework.

Attached files explaining the Finnish education system

• EDUFI's Finnish education in a nutshell brochure
• Diagram of the education system in Finland
• Education in Finland - presentation
• Teachers and principals in Finland - presentation

Early childhood education and care

Primary and lower secondary education (basic education), general upper secondary education, vocational education and training, higher education on minedu site.

The Finnish education system & education services and solutions

Photo: Sakari Piippo

A OECD study in 2018 estimated that many jobs in developed countries could be lost during digital transformation. There exists an urgent need to educate and train people to meet the requirements of future jobs.

Finland has one of the highest-quality education system in the world, as shown by consistently high rankings in third-party international studies. For example, Finland is ranked #1 by the Economist in their Educating for the future index, while the OECD says Finland is #2 in the world for the highest performing graduates. Finland has achieved this success despite only spending slightly more per student than the average in OECD countries.

Teachers are valued in Finnish society. They are highly educated and trusted to do what is best for every student. Personalized help is common: the Smithsonian notes that nearly 30% of children receive some kind of special help during their first nine years of school.

Schools are given a great deal of autonomy. They are not micromanaged nor tightly controlled from a centralized authority. In fact, there is a high level of trust and division of responsibilities between the national and local authorities.

Finnish education pays attention to the entire school environment. For example, high-quality free lunches have been provided to students since 1948.

Early childhood education in Finland is about play and social interaction. This promotes the joy of learning. A strong early beginning in learning promotes the development of cognitive, social, language and numeracy skills, as well as a motivation and joy to continue learning.

Finnish vocational education is a dynamic part of continuous learning. It is developed in close cooperation with industries and emphasizes broad competences, flexible study paths and work-based learning.

Many people around the world are fascinated about the Finnish education system and want to learn more. Finnish schools and education methods have become a popular topic in news stories.

Finnish education institutions and companies are eager to work with all international partners in education, share what they know and collaborate for new innovations in learning.

FACTS AND STATS

The Economist ranked Finland #1 in their Educating for the future index (2019).

The OECD says Finland is #2 in the world for highest performing graduates (2019).

68.7% of adult Finns participated in informal learning during the past year, compared to the EU average of 59.9%, according to Eurostat.

Finnish education exports are a small sector of the economy but have grown 49% in the last five years, according to Education Finland.

90% of teachers in Finland are satisfied with their work, and 92% say positive aspects of their job outweigh the negative ones, according to a survey commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

The Finnish education system & education services and solutions

Finland has enormous strengths in education which can also be shared with other countries. The national core curriculum is localized and there is a high level of trust between the national and local school authorities. Finnish education institutions and companies are eager to work with all international partners in education, share what they know and collaborate for new innovations in learning.

This presentation offers some basic information about Finland’s education system, teachers, and education export.

This presentation is made with the Finlandica font. You can easily download the font here. This will help you to view the presentation in its intended glory.

Edited: 10.8.2022

Related files

Video: This is Finland

General video of Finland presented through music, three minutes and 15 seconds in length. The video begins with a young girl…

Edited: 26.1.2021

More materials are added after this section.

Finland – a basic presentation

Finland – The Country of Happiness Get to know Finland with this presentation covering basic facts, happiness and equality, nature, economy,…

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#1 country for future skills education

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Finland has a proven track-record as the home of world-class education. The Finnish school system has been built on the egalitarian principle of good quality universal education, which is inclusive and comprehensive. In fact, the learning gap of the weakest and the strongest pupils in Finnish schools is one of the narrowest in the world.

Highly competent and motivated teachers are the cornerstone of the Finnish education system. In Finland, teachers are not only experts in their own subject area, but also experts in teaching and learning. Finnish teacher training places special emphasis on the study of pedagogy: learning the art of teaching, tailored to how different people learn.

Finnish degrees and qualifications are held in high regard all around the world. Therefore, they serve as a certificate of high level of competence and dedication. Finland also enjoys one of the most advanced and expansive selection of educational technology for all levels of education, ranging from formal to extracurricular learning.

We are not too shy to say thay Finland has the best education system, and we are ready to share our know-how with the world. Understanding that this kind of transformation worldwide requires a shift of perspective and a mindset of partnership and collaboration, we invest in capacity building, curriculum development and re-modelling entire education systems, through varied consultancy services aimed at governments, schools and education authorities or at private institutions and actors.

We believe this leads to an inspiring, yet efficient and productive, learning environment where students have real independence, an active role in what and how they learn, and genuinely hold a key to unlocking their own potential.

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Excellent learning outcomes, top quality teacher training, innovative digital solutions, our offering.

• Finnish Education in a Nutshell brochure (pdf) (pdf, 2.76 MB)
• Education in FInland - Key to the Nation's Success (pdf, 6.04 MB)

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• Education at a Glance

Education at a Glance 2023

Oecd indicators.

Education at a Glance is the authoritative source for information on the state of education around the world. It provides data on the structure, finances and performance of education systems across OECD countries and a number of accession and partner countries. More than 100 charts and tables in this publication – as well as links to much more available on the educational database – provide key information on the output of educational institutions; the impact of learning across countries; access, participation and progression in education; the financial resources invested in education; and teachers, the learning environment and the organisation of schools.

The 2023 edition includes a focus on vocational education and training (VET), examining participation in VET and the structure of VET programmes. This edition also includes a new chapter - Ensuring continued learning for Ukrainian refugees - which presents the results of an OECD 2023 survey that collected data on measures taken by OECD countries to integrate Ukrainian refugees into their education systems.

English Also available in: German , French

• Spotlight on Vocational Education and Training
• Education at a Glance 2023 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes
• https://doi.org/10.1787/e13bef63-en
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This country note provides an overview of the key characteristics of the education system in Finland. It draws on data from Education at a Glance 2023. In line with the thematic focus of this year’s Education at a Glance, it emphasises vocational education and training (VET), while also covering other parts of the education system. Data in this note are provided for the latest available year. Readers interested in the reference years for the data are referred to the corresponding tables in Education at a Glance 2023.

• Click to download PDF - 943.94KB PDF

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Author(s) OECD

12 Sept 2023

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What US Schools Can Learn From Finland’s Approach to Education

Four strategies for creating a positive school culture that focuses on the whole student and fosters long-term, holistic well-being.

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By Vanessa Wilkins & Emily Corrigan Nov. 6, 2019

What happens when a country decides that one of its most precious natural resources is its children? Finland’s educational system provides a clue. New scores on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test are set for release in December 2019 and will draw the attention of education leaders as a measure of which countries best educate their children. American students ranked 31st on the most recent iteration of the exam, which tests 15-year-olds around the world on multiple subjects. Finland, on the other hand, has won international acclaim since it first topped PISA’s charts in 2000. Not only did it remain there several rankings in a row, but also its students displayed remarkably low variability across schools ( 8 percent versus 30 percent OECD-wide ) and within schools. In other words, even Finland’s below-average schools still prepare students to succeed in their personal and professional lives.

How Finland has achieved these results makes it particularly relevant for US reformers. Rather than focusing efforts on new schools, programs, and technology, it has taken a sustainable approach that leverages education infrastructure and spending similar to that of the United States. In 2016, the Finnish National Education Agency reported that Finland spent the equivalent of about $10,000 per student on basic education— less than the US average and about half of what top-spending states dole out. Furthermore, Finland’s success cannot be attributed solely to societal differences. As Columbia University’s Samuel Abrams has noted , Finland’s scores have surpassed those of other Nordic countries despite similar levels of child welfare, social support, and homogeneity. Improvements within the last few decades are products of sound policy and practices.

Finland has approached education reform as a strategy to leverage the country’s scarce natural resources. As one Finn put it, “We have only our forests and our people.” Accordingly, its approach has been holistic, student-centered, and focused on teachers as the main driver of quality. It has defined education as a way to “support pupils’ growth into humanity and into ethically responsible membership of society and to provide them with knowledge and skills needed in life.” Culturally, this manifests in a focus on student well-being in all of its facets. American education reform, on the other hand, has focused on increasing standards and accountability measures ever since the 1983 Nation at Risk report identified failing schools as a primary threat to American economic dominance.

On the surface, Finnish schools don’t look very different from the traditional American model. Students, grouped by age, visit a brick-and-mortar building and learn from a teacher in a classroom for a defined period of time. Yet underlying the Finnish system are fundamental differences in policy that produce better outcomes for students. Ironically, many of these effective practices stem from American research and thought leadership, at least according to Finnish education expert Pasi Sahlberg . Finland can therefore provide a helpful blueprint to implement what we already know works within the schools we have now, while American innovators continue to experiment with new models for the future.

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In November 2018, our organization, Future School Lab , organized an expert-led tour of Finnish schools and meetings with education leaders as part of HundrED’s Education Innovation Summit . When we reflected on the experience, we came away with four main reforms any US state or school could implement to make sustainable improvements within the current system.

1. Articulate a Target Profile for Graduates That Informs Education Policy

Finnish education is based on a clearly stated vision of target abilities, rather than prescriptive, content-based curriculum. In 2016, following a co-creation process that included public input and 30 working groups, the Finnish government defined seven transversal skills and knowledge areas important to students’ success in life:

• Thinking and learning to learn
• Cultural competence, interaction, and self-expression
• Taking care of oneself and managing daily life
• Multi-literacy
• Information and communications technology competence
• Working life competence and entrepreneurship
• Participation, involvement, and building a sustainable future

These competencies are aspirational rather than fixed benchmarks; they define a relevant vision of how all students can function in society, rather than specific content knowledge. Local municipalities and schools adapt this curriculum to their context and classrooms, and since there are no national achievement tests, the Finnish National Agency for Education can focus on effectively integrating this shared vision into curriculum and school policy, rather than on accountability.

In the United States, some schools, districts, and even a few states are beginning to reorient education toward the development of a more-holistic set of skills, similar to Finland. The Mastery Transcript Consortium , founded by a group of elite private schools with increasing public school membership, for example, is cocreating a digital transcript that reflects each student’s skills, strengths, and interests far beyond the course completion version schools use today. And to help schools looking to articulate a more-holistic vision for their graduates and engage communities in a visioning process, Transcend Education (with which the authors are affiliated) has created a database that provides research-based measures to evaluate learning outcomes for social-emotional skills like empathy and sense of purpose.

2. Recruit Talented Teachers, Train Them Well, Then Give Them Autonomy

Finland attributes its success in education to getting the right people to become teachers, developing them into effective instructors, and putting systems and supports in place to ensure that all children benefit from excellent instruction. Teacher training programs are competitive (admitting about 1 in 10 students) and rigorous. The profession is highly regarded despite average pay as compared to other OECD countries, and according to the Finnish National Agency for Education , 90 percent of teachers report being satisfied with their job.

These high marks are due in part to the trust and autonomy Finnish teachers have. Local governance elevates their voices in policymaking. School boards must, by law, include teachers alongside parents, classified staff, and students. Freed from teaching to the test, teachers can focus on project-based learning (called “phenomenon-based learning” in Finland), and other, deeper learning approaches that we know work for students but that American teachers sometimes avoid for fear of sacrificing content standards.

Finnish teachers also have more time. Because school days are shorter and teachers spend fewer hours in classroom instruction— about 55 percent of US teachers’ annual hours —they devote more time to preparing lessons, collaborating with colleagues to create engaging projects, and meeting with parents and kids.

In the United States, on the other hand, districts struggle to recruit and retain qualified teachers. Recent teacher walkouts reflect frustration over more than pay and insufficient school funding. Seventy-one percent of teachers in a 2015/2016 survey reported a lack of influence over what they teach, 50 percent said they lacked support and encouragement from administration, and 62 percent didn’t experience a great deal of cooperation among colleagues.

To develop a larger pool of qualified teachers, schools can make use of alternative pathways to certification by recruiting high-potential teachers with skills and lived experiences that are relevant to students. For example, Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon, recruited award-winning journalist S. Renee Mitchell through a professional track that leveraged her career experience but required college courses to learn classroom skills. Mitchell quickly became an important role model and impactful educator. She entered the school, one of Oregon’s most diverse, as its only black teacher, and created the nationally recognized I Am M.O.R.E. program to elevate the voices of students who have experienced trauma. In the longer term, policy makers need to create and fully fund career pathway programs for promising teachers from all backgrounds. Beyond recruitment, we need to invest in ongoing training and support systems, and give teachers time and autonomy to collaborate and integrate new methods and ideas.

3. Give Students Rights and Agency Over Their Own Learning

In Finland, the 1998 Basic Education Act entitles students to pre-primary education, a safe learning environment, and instruction that includes guidance counseling and learning support. In our experience, teachers and administrators routinely referenced children’s rights to explain shorter days, healthier lunches, less homework, and 15 minutes of physical activity for every 45 minutes of class. Legislation based explicitly on students’ rights not only informs practices, but also supports underlying expectations of how education should work. This model places students at the center, creating a decision-making framework that prioritizes their learning and interests over pleasing parents or reporting high test scores. It also justifies giving students more of a say in the policies that affect them. After all, who better to advocate for student interests than students themselves? As a result, students in Finland have real responsibility, including authority over parent-teacher meetings and positions on school boards, and teachers expect students to be the primary agents in their own educational journeys.

In the United States, a missing parent permission slip can exclude a child from the best field trip of the year or an important learning opportunity in class. Such policies reflect the expectation that students should receive the education given to them, rather than take a proactive role in it. Perhaps one way to engage students and encourage them to take ownership of their own education and school experience is to quite literally give them ownership. Some districts, such as Los Angeles, have already introduced ballot measures that would lower the legal voting age to 16 for school board elections. Others have given students voting positions on school boards and site councils. In Maryland, student board members have advocated for their young constituents by introducing resolutions to dismantle student ranking systems and diversify schools by redrawing boundaries. Absent legislative changes, individual schools can develop student ownership by giving students voice and choice in how they learn. The Achievement Gap Institute at Harvard University’s “ The Influence of Teaching ” provides a useful study of teaching practices that drive student agency.

4. Align Schools and Social Support Services

In Finland, education legislation guarantees free pupil welfare, meaning it integrates health care referred to in the Public Health Act, and mental and social services referred to in the Child Welfare Act. This legislation forms the basis for Student Welfare Committees comprised of principals, special education teachers, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and counselors. Committees meet regularly to discuss individual students and staff, and to create personalized support plans. These may include emotional or academic support services or intensive supplemental support, which benefits 10 percent of Finnish students. While a similar 14 percent of students receive special education services in the United States, what’s unique in Finland is the integration of health and welfare into the school day for both students and staff. School psychologists and social workers on the Welfare Committees meet with students individually and then make referrals to outside services as needed. During school, all students and staff eat free, healthy meals prepared on site, and active, outdoor play and social breaks throughout the day are the norm.

Many schools and programs in the United States, such as Communities in Schools , have already created successful local partnerships with social service providers. However, the onus is on schools to find and partner with community resources and creatively meet students’ needs. Funders and policy makers should support the coordination and development of wrap-around services to take the burden off of schools, and foster community and family engagement, which we know helps students succeed.

A Path Forward for All Kids

Educators and policy makers interested in adapting Finnish approaches to the American context must be mindful to create culturally competent learning environments that serve all children. Finnish policies are intended to promote equity by balancing socio-economic diversity across school boundaries, providing native language services to immigrants, and reducing barriers to nutritious food, health, and social services that contribute to disparities in the United States. However, student rights in Finland prevent the disaggregation of data to determine whether these inclusive measures truly do result in better outcomes for immigrants and historically underserved populations. Any effort to improve educational outcomes must include data-driven equity practices and community-led solutions.

Finally, reforms to our current system must coincide with new solutions for excellence and equity. In the United States, collaboration between public and private sectors, and a cultural emphasis on leadership and entrepreneurship have led to the creation of completely new school models in small pockets across the country. The best of these models may help determine the future of education and better prepare kids for the demands of a rapidly changing workforce. However, until we can test and scale them, they are only a drop in the ocean of the American school system. We need to simultaneously make improvements within our current system to better serve all students.

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Teachers and trust: cornerstones of the Finnish education system

Jaime saavedra, hanna alasuutari, marcela gutierrez bernal.

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Finnish education system

Table of contents, national administration of education and training.

In Finland, the national administration of education and training has a two-tier structure.  The Ministry of Education and Culture  is the highest authority and is responsible for all publicly funded education in Finland. It is responsible for preparing educational legislation, all necessary decisions and its proposed share of the state budget.

The Finnish National Agency for Education  is the national development agency responsible for early childhood education and care, pre-primary, comprehensive and upper secondary education (vocational or general) as well as adult education and training. Higher education is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Culture. 

The quality management of Finnish education

The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC) is an independent expert organisation that evaluates Finnish education and early childhood education and care (ECEC). FINEEC produces evaluation-based information to support decision-making on education policy and the development of education. FINEEC’s statutory tasks also include supporting ECEC providers, and other education, and training providers as well as higher education institutions in matters concerning evaluation and quality management.

Education system in Finland

Education in Finland is built on offering everyone equal opportunities to education. Education from pre-primary to higher education is mostly free of charge in Finland.

The Finnish education system consists of:

• early childhood education and care  for children before compulsory education,
• pre-primary education  for children in the last year before compulsory education,
• nine-year basic education  (comprehensive school), which is compulsory,
• upper secondary education , which is either general upper secondary education or vocational education and training, and
• higher education provided by universities and universities of applied sciences.
• Furthermore, adult education is available at all levels.

Figure 1. Structure of the Finnish education system, from Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland, 2022 . Bigger picture of the Finnish education system PDF 62kB .

The figure shows that after compulsory basic education, which ends at approximately age 18, people can choose different education  paths of adult and continuous education. There is no ‘dead-end’ in the Finnish education system. Students from general upper secondary schools, vocational institutes and universities of applied sciences can apply for continuous education in universities and proceed up to a doctoral degree. The system allows students to craft their own study paths and fosters autonomy.

Finland participates in the  European Qualifications Framework (EQF) . The aim is to make international mobility easier and to advance a shared understanding of educational levels and competences based on the learning outcomes of each level.

Qualifications frameworks | Finnish National Agency for Education (oph.fi)

Higher education in Finland

Higher education in Finland is provided by universities and universities of applied sciences (UAS). UASs offer bachelor’s and master’s studies. Universities offer also doctoral studies. 

Universities and UASs offer professional specialisation programmes and non-degree studies as modules or stand-alone courses through open-university or open-UAS initiatives and through continuous education. These study formats are also planned to enable lifewide learning.

Higher education is tuition-free for Finnish, EU and EEA students, and it provides a scholarship system for students coming from outside these regions.

Higher Education in Finland | okm.fi

From a policy perspective, the aim of higher education institutions in Finland is to reach a high international standard and to attend to local concerns at the same time, in addition to enjoying autonomy in teaching and research.

Higher education is seen as an instrument to build and enhance society, contributing to the creation of a skilled workforce and renewing the cultural and social spheres. Higher education is a vehicle for achieving social welfare and promoting equality, and institutions should therefore have admission systems and programmes designed to include youth and immigrants.

As science education is meant to advance the competence level of citizens, higher education institutions must work with other stakeholders in society to make scientific knowledge visible.

Science policy aims to make science in Finland internationally competitive, improve science’s infrastructure in the country and protect the openness of science and research.

Policy and Development in Higher Education and Science | okm.fi

Guiding principles of Education in Finland

Ministry of Education and Culture Strategy 2030  describes three impact objectives and their priorities. The Ministry’s has three goals: ‘enable better skills, knowledge and competence for all, to take creative, inquiry-based and responsible action that renews society, and to ensure equal opportunities for a meaningful life.’

The Finnish education system is built on the values of equity and inclusivity, which support Finland’s welfare society. The  system  features positive attitudes towards education, highly educated and strongly committed teachers, a decentralised system of locally designed and implemented curricula, individual support for learning and well-being, multi-professional cooperation, a supportive and encouraging assessment system (without national testing), no school-ranking lists, no inspection systems, and an efficient library system.

Autonomy and trust at the institutional level means that schools have freedom to complement the national core curriculum with regionally relevant components and to decide how teaching and research is conducted. This follows with individual teacher's opportunity to design classroom pedagogy and activities to best meet the learning goals at hand.

Special education and individualised study plans, free meals and school transportation are also a means to promote inclusiveness and equal access to education in lower levels of schooling. The system offers publicly funded, free-of-charge education from pre-primary education to the doctoral degree level.

Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland (okm.fi)

Finnish National Agency for Education (oph.fi)

Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC)

Home | Education Finland

Higher education and research - OKM - Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland

Steering, financing and agreements - OKM - Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland

Policy and development in higher education and science - OKM - Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland

Additional readings

Education for Inclusive Peace (valtioneuvosto.fi)

Lonka, K., Makkonen, J., Berg, M., Talvio, M., Maksniemi, E., Kruskopf, M., Lammassaari, H., Hietajärvi, L., & Westling, S. K. (2018). Phenomenal Learning from Finland . Edita.

KAPPAS! Assessment of learning outcomes in Finnish higher education (MEC 2018–2020)

This Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) funded project assesses students in universities and universities of applied sciences for their study skills and transferable (workplace) skills. The results of the research may be used in the development of teaching and higher education.

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9 reasons Finland's schools are so much better than America's

by Libby Nelson

If there’s any consensus on education in the US, it could be this: other countries are doing it better. And in the doing-education-better sweepstakes, Finland has long been the cold and snowy standout.

In 2001, the world was stunned when Finland ended up at the top of international rankings after a standardized test administered to students in developed countries . Finland’s dominance continued unabated for a decade (although it slipped in 2012 ). Endless articles, and some books, all have the same basic gist: what can the United States learn from Finland?

Finland might be a popular example because, no matter your general beliefs on education policy, you can find something to back them up. The result turns into a policy wonk buffet — nearly everybody can a policy lesson to learn from Finland’s success, or a factor that explains why it isn’t replicable in the US. Even if some of those lessons directly contradict each other.

Here are 9 reasons that have been cited to explain Finland’s success.

1) Finland’s teachers have high status, professional support, and good pay

Becoming a teacher in Finland is hard, but they enjoy more autonomy and professional development. ( Shutterstock )

Teachers in Finland with 15 years’ experience make about as much as the typical college graduate with a bachelor’s degree; in the US, they make less than that . And the workload is also less demanding. Teachers in Finland teach about four hours a day, with another two hours of professional development , and they develop their own curriculum based on a set of national guidelines. The leadership ranks of education are also drawn from former teachers. The result, writes Pasi Sahlberg , a Finnish teacher and researcher who has become a one-man promotional machine for the country’s schools, is “an inspiring and respectful environment in which teachers work… Parents and authorities regard teachers with the same confidence they do medical doctors. Indeed, Finns trust public schools more than any other public institution, except the police.”

American teachers unions point to the high status and professional flexibility for Finnish teachers as something they’d like to have themselves. They also often note that nearly all Finnish teachers are unionized and the unions are relatively powerful . They argue that to improve schools, the US should focus on treating teachers the way Finland does — with more professional support and greater respect — rather than using students’ standardized test scores to reward and grade teachers, a trend the Obama administration has encouraged.

2) Finland has more selective and rigorous schools of education

One reason teaching in Finland is prestigious is becoming a teacher isn’t easy. Finland, like the US, used to have a large number of teachers’ colleges. But in the 1970s, Finland dramatically changed how teachers were trained. Teacher education became the responsibility of the country’s eight universities , and teachers are required to earn masters’ degrees. It takes five years of teacher education to become a teacher, and only about one in 10 applicants to teacher education programs is accepted. Secondary teachers get a master’s degree in the content area they’re going to be teaching, and all master’s degree recipients have to write a research-based dissertation.

This is the other side of the argument about teaching: education reformers in the US argue that Finnish teachers get more respect because they earn it through a rigorous, selective entry process. The policy lesson they draw isn’t that teachers should be treated like they are in Finland — it’s that the teacher corps in the US needs to be more like Finland’s. Groups like the National Council on Teacher Quality argue that teachers’ colleges aren’t selective or rigorous enough . About half of all new teachers come from the bottom third of college graduates, as measured by SAT or ACT scores, according to a 2010 McKinsey report.

On the other hand, the fact that Finnish teachers are so intensely trained also appeals to opponents of programs like Teach for America . A popular saying among opponents of the two-year program is that there is no “Teach for Finland,” because in Finland, teaching is a lifelong career with a long and rigorous training program.

3) Finland doesn’t give standardized tests

( Shutterstock )

The most common praise for Finland (pushed by Sahlberg and others) goes something like this: Finland has no national standardized tests and no rewards or punishments for schools that pass or fail them — and yet they still outperform American students on international exams. Students in Finland take one standardized test at the end of high school. The rest of the time, teachers are responsible for setting expectations and evaluating whether students can meet them. The nation doesn’t monitor the quality of schools in any way.

Some people argue that the success of Finnish schools without standardized testing means that testing shouldn’t be necessary in the United States, either – and that it’s possible for the US to improve its educational performance in other ways.

4) Finland emphasizes subjects other than reading and math

Finnish kids get plenty of recess , more than an hour a day; US kids get less than half an hour. Oh, and students do less than an hour of homework per night all the way through the equivalent of American middle school. Arts and crafts are required — both boys and girls learn needlework, embroidery, and metalwork .

It’s not clear how much this has to do with the success of the Finnish school system, but Samuel Abrams, a visiting scholar at Columbia University, argued in the New Republic that these subjects allow students to apply science and math skills in the real world. They’re also an example of what some parents fear has been lost in the US as teachers spend more time preparing students for standardized tests.

5) Finland has a history of tight oversight for schools

Finland doesn’t have a national curriculum now, and Finnish education experts brag about how much autonomy teachers get in the classroom. But that wasn’t always the case. In the 1960s and 1970s, Finland totally overhauled its education system . The change to teacher training was part of this, but the country also worked with teachers to develop a mandatory national curriculum and there were national inspections to check on student learning. That tight national control remained in place for two decades, until it was eased up in the 1990s — the national curriculum is now described as being more like guidelines than a tight prescription for what teachers should teach in the classroom.

Unlike the lack of testing, this is a Finnish tradition that American supporters of education reform, particularly standards like the Common Core, embrace. They argue that Finland can only give teachers the autonomy they have now because of the generation of tight oversight that preceded it.

6) It’s easier to learn to spell in Finland

(Shutterstock)

This is the most unusual explanation for Finland’s success yet. At The Atlantic, Luba Vangelova argues that the difficulties of learning to read and write English are holding American students back because other languages — including Finnish — are more straightforward.

Masha Bell, the vice chair of the English Spelling Society, says that Finnish is phonetically much simpler than English because there aren’t dozens of arcane spelling rules and exceptions ( i before e except after c, for example) to memorize. Once you know the alphabet and how letter sounds correspond with the written word, learning to read is fairly simple. A study found that in Finnish and other European languages, children can read a list of familiar words after about a year of reading instruction; in English, it took nearly three years.

In other words, Finnish children have an advantage: even though they don’t start school until age 7, and even though the Finnish language is very complex for English-speakers to learn, it’s relatively easy for native speakers to learn to read and write.

7) Finland has low child poverty and state support for parents

Finland doesn’t spend as much on education as the United States. But that overlooks a vast social safety net for families, particularly low-income families, that doesn’t exist here, either. Baby Finns start their life with a “ baby box ” of supplies from the Finnish government. Child care is heavily subsidized, and most children attend some kind of early childhood education before mandatory schooling starts at age 7.

Finland also has one of the lowest child poverty rates in the world, around 5 percent (it’s over 20 percent in the US). Parents get a monthly allowance to help them care for their children — 100 euros for the first child and more for additional children. Matt Bruenig at Demos has an overview of Finland’s extensive child welfare programs .

Perhaps as a result, Finland has very small gaps between rich and poor students’ test scores; in the US, those divides are much bigger. Schools in Finland also offer other services, like dentistry and psychological counseling, according to the OECD. These “wraparound services” are something that teachers’ unions argue the United States needs more of — although the attempt to create Finland-style community schools generally hasn’t resulted in higher test scores.

8) Finland’s schools aren’t better — they’re just homogenous

Some people argue that Finland’s schools aren’t actually better — they’re just serving a much smaller, much more homogenous population. Finland is tiny — the entire country has just 5.4 million people, fewer than New York City. About 5 percent of its residents are immigrants, much lower than the United States.

Schools in the US where most children aren’t poor are actually better than low-poverty school systems in Finland. But high-poverty schools in the US struggle in part because of a toxic legacy of segregation, unequal funding, and unequal opportunity. “For a lot of kids who don’t score well on these tests, you go back six generations and you have people in bondage,” Jack Schneider, a historian of education, told Vox in October.

Finland, which essentially reinvented its school system from scratch in the second half of the 20th century, has none of that baggage. In some ways, the United States has two school systems — well-funded, high-performing suburban schools serving the middle class, and struggling urban school systems where students are overwhelmingly poor and from disadvantaged backgrounds. While Finland has a few schools educating low-income immigrants with an excellent track record of success ( this Smithsonian article features a visit to one ), those schools are fewer and farther between than they are in the US.

9) Finland is culturally different

Another thing Finland has a lot of: saunas. (Shutterstock)

This is another version of the “Finland does better because it’s Finland” argument — that Finnish society is just different than American society, and that as a result lessons are harder to translate. Finnish adults are among the most literate in the world, and the country’s libraries are treasured institutions . That, as much as an easier language to spell, could explain stellar reading results. Finland also doesn’t have a school sports culture like the US’s. And children are more independent; helicopter parenting is just not really a thing .

There are other differences that influence social policy, but aren’t limited to them. Rick Hess, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, is skeptical that Finland can teach the US anything because its society is so different. His list of differences (most tongue-in-cheek) include long winter nights that leave plenty of time for studying and more children in two-parent families.

Finnish test scores dropped in 2012, but the fascination with its education system hasn’t faded. The bottom line seems to be that something in Finland is working — but it might be impossible to ever figure out what.

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THE FINNISH EDUCATION SYSTEM

Equal opportunities for all

Finnish education in a nutshell

Education lies at the heart of society.

Education is one of the cornerstones of the Finnish welfare society. We pride ourselves on an educational system that offers equal opportunities for education for all. Education from pre-primary to higher education is free of charge in Finland. The new core curricula for pre-primary and basic education adopted in 2016 focus on learning, not steering. Finnish teachers are highly educated and strongly committed to their work.

The Finnish education system are grouped into levels of education. The Finnish system has no dead ends. Learners can always continue their studies on an upper level of education. Read more

                                                                                            Ministry of Education and culture

The Finnish education system, Ministry of Education and Culture

Finnish education – Equal opportunities for all

Learn more about the world-known education system by watching a video

The video is made by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.

Compulsory education in Finland

Education was made compulsory 1921.

All children residing permanently in Finland are required to attend comprehensive school. Compulsory education lasts ten years. It starts at the age of six and ends at the age of fifteen. Almost all schools are public, there are very few private schools in Finland. Most pupils go to a municipal school near their homes.

Education from pre-primary to higher education is free in Finland. The textbooks and education materials are free. In addition to that pupils also get a free school meal every day. Health care services are free as well.

The school hours vary somewhat from year to year, but the autumn term begins in mid-August and ends a few days before Christmas. The spring term begins on the first weekday after 1 January and ends in the beginning of June.

One of the most successfull education systems

Finnish youth are the best young readers in the world.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international study that was launched by the OECD in 1997. It aims to evaluate education systems worldwide every three years by assessing 15-year-olds’ competencies in the key subjects: reading, mathematics and science. To date over 70 countries and economies have participated in PISA.

Finland has been among the top countries in PISA ranking since the first assessment in 2000. According to the newest PISA global education survey results, Finland is the only country in which girls are more likely than boys to be top performers in science.

What is so special about Finnish education?

• Teaching is a very popular profession
• No inspections
• No national exams
• No teacher evaluation
• Teachers feel valued by society
• Short school days
• The amount of homework is low

                                                                                  Finnish National Board of Education

What are the secrets behind the excellent learning results?

You are warmly welcome to visit our educational environments and learn with us. Cooperation and the sharing of know-how is the key to success!

Brochures and other materials related to education

Are you looking for information on education in Finland? The page of Ministry of education and culture gives a list of the Ministry’s links to brochures, publications, videos and other presentations on education in Finland.

More brochures in different languages relating to education you can find on the webpages of the Finnish National Agency for Education .

News and events

Workshopit: koulutusvientitoimijoiden koulutus ja koulutusvientistrategioiden kirkastaminen, afrikkateemaiset virtuaalikahvit 9.6.2020 klo 11-13, 7.5.2020 kansainväliset kilpailutukset -koulutuswebinaari, development of education ecosystem in joensuu’s innovation environment 2016-2019, 10.2.2020 koulutusmatkailun aamukahvit, visitors from st.petersburg, educamp 2019 for chinese teenagers, 13.9.2019 koulutus: sopimukset, b2e-innovaatio-ekosysteemi ja yhteiset tuotteet, 200 kiinalaisen leirikoulu joensuussa ja kontiolahdella.

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How does Finland’s top-ranking education system work?

Photo credit: Emmi Korhonen / AFP/ Getty Images

• Finland has been a top contender on every Program for International Student Assessment survey.
• The country built a comprehensive education structure designed to offer citizens free education with no dead ends.
• The inspiration for Finland’s approach was American education research and philosophers such as John Dewey.

Finland’s education system enjoys a lot of buzz lately. It is considered one of the best education systems in the world. It routinely outperforms the United States in reading, science, and mathematics. And it has been a top performer since the first Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) triennial international survey back in 2000 .

But ask someone what’s so great about Finland’s schools, and you’ll typically be supplied with a factoid or three. They have shorter school days. They don’t do standardized tests. They all must be smart because the Finnish language is a nightmare.

While these facts are true — except for that last one — they miss Finland’s well-raked forests for its trees. Finland’s education system works because its entire structure has been around several core principles. First and foremost, equal access to education is a constitutional right. Another important principle is that one should be allowed to choose their educative path, which should never lead to a dead end.

Here’s how Finland’s education system works to meet those principles.

Finland’s early education is designed around concepts of learning through play.

(Photo: University of the Fraser Valley / Flickr)

Early childhood education

Imagine you’re a Finnish parent (or you are one, in which case, hyvää päivää ). You’ve received state-sponsored maternity leave , a maternity grant, and even a wee-baby care box that doubles as a bed, so you can enjoy those first precious months in one of best countries to raise children . Now, you’re starting to think about your child’s education.

Don’t worry, you have time. Finnish children aren’t required to go to school until age 6, when pre-primary education begins. You are free to spend those early years playing, teaching, and bonding with your little one. If you want to start your child’s education earlier, the Finnish system offers an expansive early childhood education and care (ECEC) program, too.

The program adopts a “learning through play” model to promote “balanced growth,” according to the Finnish National Agency for Education’s website . Although guided by the National Core Curriculum for ECEC, your local municipality handles ECEC services and has broad autonomy, allowing resident administrators to make the calls regarding budget, class size, and educational aims.

There will be a fee, but one that is heavily subsidized. Parents foot roughly 14 percent of the total bill, but the burden placed on individual households is based on income and number of children. The program is evidently popular, as Finland’s enrollment rate for children ages 3 to 5 stands at nearly 80 percent.

Finland education is designed to to support children’s “growth towards humanity and ethically responsible membership of society.” Photo credit : Lucelia Ribeiro on Flickr

Basic education (plus a free meal)

When your child turns 7, it’ll be time for basic education. Finland doesn’t divide its basic education into elementary and junior highs. Instead, it offers single-structure education for nine years, 190 days per year. As with ECEC, policymakers leave plenty of room for local school administrators and teachers to revise and revamp the curriculum to meet the needs of their unique student body.

“The ideology is to steer through information, support and funding,” writes Finnish National Agency for Education (which sets core curricula requirements). Their stated goal for basic education is “to support pupils’ growth toward humanity and ethically responsible membership of society and to provide them with the knowledge and skills needed in life.” This latitude includes what tests to give, how to evaluate student progress and needs, and even the ability to set daily and weekly timetables.

Such autonomy may sound scary to some parents. What if your child spends all day learning phenomenological regressions of the Konami Code? (Though that would be fascinating ). Finland’s parents, however, don’t have such concerns as teaching is a highly respected and professional field in Finland.

Most teachers hold a master’s degree, and basic-ed teachers are required to hold them. Eighty percent of basic-ed teachers also participate in continuing professional development. This level of learning and continuous development ensures Finland’s educators are steeped in the science of teaching — ironically, drawing inspiration from the American pedagogy of yesteryear.

“It is understandable that the pragmatic, child-centered educational thinking of John Dewey has been widely accepted among Finnish educators,” Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish educator and scholar, wrote for the Washington Post . “Many Finnish schools have adopted Dewey’s view of education for democracy by enhancing student’s access to decision-making regarding their own lives and studying in school.”

Nor are schools left entirely to their own devices. The Finnish National Agency for Education promotes self-evaluation and improvement for both schools and their teachers. In terms of basic education, it’s true that Finland does not use national standardized tests; however, they do implement national evaluations of learning outcomes.

However, Finland’s evaluations are sample-based, not comprehensive. They are also not tied to school funding nor used to rank schools. Instead, the evaluation looks to assess the school’s qualifications and are then provided to the administrators for developmental purposes.

Oh, did we mention that school meals are free to all children? And that guidance and counseling are built in as part of the curriculum? Because they are .

Finnish students in Helsinki. Photo credit: Ninaras / Wikimedia Commons

Upper-secondary education in Finland

After basic education, your child can choose to continue to upper-secondary education. While not compulsory, 90 percent of students start upper-secondary studies immediately after basic. Because of Finland’s devotion to no dead ends, the other 10 percent can choose to return to their education later at no cost.

Upper secondary is split into two main paths, general and vocational, and both take about three years. General education takes the form of course work, but students have a lot of freedom to decide their study schedules. At the end of general, students take the national matriculation exam, Finland’s only standardized test. Their scores are used as part of their college applications.

Vocational education is more job focused and incorporates apprenticeships as well as school learning. About 40 percent of students start vocational education after basic. This path ends with competence-based qualifications after the student completes an individual study plan.

It’s worth noting that students aren’t locked into these paths. As part of Finland’s devotion to education and decision-making, the two are permeable so students can discover new interests or create a path that threads between the two.

University of Oulu’s Pegasus Library in Linnanmaa. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Higher education and beyond

With your child exceling in upper secondary, you’re probably worrying that your child’s nest egg may not be sufficient for higher education . Not to worry. Higher education, like basic and upper secondary, is free.

Remember, equal access to education is a constitutional right in Finland. Students are only required to pay for books, transportation, and other school supplies — and student financial aid is readily available.

Finnish colleges are divided into two types: universities and universities of applied sciences. Universities focus on scientific research, while universities of applied sciences emphasize practical applications. Students usually receive a bachelor’s degree in four years of full-time study, comprising studies, electives, and a project. Master’s degrees take five to six years, and as a rule, students are admitted to study for a master’s right away.

If your child chose the vocational path, they can continue their education at a university, typically a university of applied science. But again, Finland’s educational paths are highly adaptable.

It will come as no surprise that Finland supports robust adult education to promote social equity and a competent labor force. Companies can purchase in for staff development, and labor training is provided for the unemployed. While not free, adult education is (and sorry if we’re getting a bit repetitive) highly subsidized with costs dependent on personal circumstances.

How is Finland able to provide such comprehensive, universal education for all citizens? Simple: Everybody is on board. Beyond enshrining the right to education in their constitution, the Finnish people value education and put in the time to build a system that adheres to the best education research (80 percent of which comes from the U.S.; hello irony, my old friend).

If other countries want to follow Finland’s model, they needn’t photocopy its education model; however, they will need the country’s gusto for education’s importance.

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• Study in Finland /

Finland Education System

• Updated on  
• Nov 22, 2022

Revered as the best education system in the world , Finland has meticulously curated an apparatus for academia and learning that is at par with almost all countries around the globe. Bordering Sweden , Norway , and Russia by land and Estonia by sea, the country is home to a unique mix of modern and natural with its clean and sophisticated towns blossoming with coniferous forests in the countryside. Emerging as an intellectual in the domain of education, the Finnish education system is meant to have cracked the code of imparting quality education and following the motto of eternal learning. Have you ever thought about why Finland has the best education system in the world? Through this blog, let’s explore what makes Finland’s education system unique as well as how it is designed. 

This Blog Includes:

Finland education system ranking, top 10 reasons why finland has the best education system, finland education system facts, finland education policy, schooling in finland, early childhood education and care (ecec), pre-primary education, basic education , upper secondary education, higher education (universities/universities of applied sciences), adult education, finland education statistics, free education in finland, restructuring of higher education in finland , finland education system ppt, list of popular universities in finland, top public universities in finland, cost of studying in finland, best cities in finland, student visas for finland .

Click here to download Finland Education System PDF!

Finland is, no doubt, one of the best countries to study. So, let’s check out some of the rankings that the country has received:

• Finland is the 8th most educated country in the world.
• In Education ranking by Countries, Finland has a total score of 1.631K ranking in 3rd position in 2021.
• Finland has the highest ranking in High School Completion Rate.
• World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive study ranks Finland as having the most well-developed education in the world.

Now being admired as the best of them all, the Finnish education system wasn’t always like this. If we go back in time, it happened almost 50 years ago when the Finnish government examined the education system and added better, progressive though untested reforms that would prove to be imperative in the future years. That’s when the whole structure was redeveloped going from the basic early education stage to the higher education level, it got recreated with the motto to equip students with incremental life skills.

Here are the top 10 reasons why Finland has the best education system in the world:

• Free Education Access (from Pre-Primary to Higher) to Finnish Citizens as well as to those coming from EU /EEA countries because education is considered an equal right for everyone.
• Implementation of a holistic teaching and learning environment that aims to emphasise equity over excellence.
• No standardized testing system as students is graded individually with a grading system created by their teacher. Also, overall progress is mapped by the Ministry of Education by sampling groups of varied ranges of schools.
• Finnish children begin their academic journey at an older age, i.e. only when they turn seven years old do they commence their schooling and before that learning is made free-flowing.
• The “bar is higher for teachers”, i.e. only master’s degree holders (from specialised teaching schools) can opt for teaching positions and even then an individual principal is allotted to every teacher to keep a tab on their progress.
• Exemption from the Artificial Parameters of Academic Progress by removing any kind of competition between academic institutions but rather cooperation is made the norm.
• Better Alternatives to the Same-Old Degree those planning for a college education can choose from professional options, be it vocational schools, university education or training classes.
• Focuses on fostering cooperation over competition in schools by inculcating the skills of teamwork, collaboration and team spirit in students.
• Emphasis on foundational basics is an important reason why Finland has the best education system in the world because students are provided with the time and scope to build the best foundation and basics at their own pace.
• Only 9 years of compulsory education are there in Finland’s education system and after that students are encouraged to find out what’s best for them academically and career-wise.

Explore New Zealand Education System !

Want to know why Finland has the best education system in the world? Well, here are the top characteristics of Finland’s Education System:

• The minimum age for starting elementary education in Finland is 7 years thus Finnish kids get to enjoy their childhood and kickstart their learning with their families rather than spending excessive time in schools.
• Finnish teachers formulate their grading systems for the students rather than relying on class exams and standardised tests.
• The only mandatory test that Finnish students give is at the age of 16.
• Finnish teachers only spend around 4 hours every day teaching in the classroom while they devote 2 hours every week to professional development.
• The school system in Finland is wholly 100% state-funded.
• Graduates from the top 10 percentile can only apply to become a Teacher in Finland.
• Every teacher in Finland is a master’s degree holder which is completely subsidized by the country’s government.
• On average, the starting salary of a teacher in Finland is somewhere around $29,000.
• Teachers are considered equivalent in status to doctors and lawyers in Finland.
• In 2018, the literacy rate in Finland was 99.0% .
• Finnish students spend only 20 hours a week at school.
• Every student in Finland can speak 2-3 languages .
• No competition between Finnish schools since every academic institution has the same facilities as any other.
• Students get to learn new things in schools from baking and industrial works to music and poetry .
• For every 45 minutes of learning in schools , Finnish students get to spend every 15 minutes playing or doing leisure activities .
• Finnish students receive free healthy meals from their schools.
• Every Finnish student is provided special services that fit their special needs and requirements.
• The Finland education system also fosters the teacher-student relationship as every student gets the same teacher for up to 6 years in their school.
• The students get very less homework and almost finish up everything they get during school hours only.
• The Finnish schools have mixed ability classes to nurture diverse interests and hobbies.

Click here to know all about Studying in Finland!

The uniquely created Finland Education Policy is one of the key reasons why Finland has the best education system in the world. Here are the important features of Finland’s Education Policy:

• The main aim of Finland’s Education policy is to ensure that every citizen has equal educational opportunities to avail.
• The most important focus of the education policy is emphasised quality, efficiency, equity and internationalization.
• It is founded on the principles of ‘Lifelong Learning and ‘Free Education.
• Finnish teachers are provided with the autonomy they need but they are fully trained and shortlisted only with higher qualifications which are usually a master’s degree.
• Teachers are also intensively involved in creating the best curricula as well as learning plans for students.
• Finland’s education system fosters an environment of trust between educators as well as the community.
• Students are motivated to work on collaborative projects especially through interdisciplinary projects and specialisations.

The Finnish Education System contains nine years of compulsory basic education, early education and care, pre-primary education, upper secondary education, higher education, and finally adult education. The description of all these levels has been given below.

• Early Childhood Education and Care (Provided to the students before the beginning of compulsory education)
• Pre-Primary Education (1-year duration for 6-year-olds)
• Basic Education (Compulsory 9-year education for children aged 7-16))
• Upper Secondary Education (Vocational Education and Training / General Upper Secondary Education)
• Higher Education (Education offered by Universities / Universities of Applied Sciences )

Now, let’s explore these levels of education in further detail:

This level of education aims to support the development, learning and well-being of a child while giving them plentiful learning opportunities. Local Authorities and Municipalities are tasked with the responsibility of regulating the mechanism of Early Children’s Education and Care. At this level of the Finland Education System, only municipal daycare cover is charged which mainly relies on family income as well as the number of children. Taking approval of the Finnish National Agency for Education, the National Curriculum Guidelines (NCG) is designed for the ECEC level and also constitute of open early childhood education activities which are conducted by municipalities for kids and their families.

Playing a vital role in the continuum expanding from ECEC, this stage aims to enhance the children’s opportunities for learning and development. For the children in the country, participation in pre-primary education has been made compulsory, since 2015. Also, another significant feature of the Finland education system under the stage of Pre-primary education is that the guardian of the kid must ensure their participation in different types of activities at this level. With the approval of the Finnish National Agency for Education, the National Core Curriculum for Pre-Primary Education guides the planning and implementation of the contents of Pre-Education.

In the Finland Education System, Comprehensive Schooling or Basic Education is where the compulsory education of 9 years begins for all children aged between 7 and 16. It strives to support the student’s growth towards becoming an ethically responsible member of society as well as imparting them the essential knowledge and skills needed in life. Further, all the schools providing basic education follow a national core curriculum which constitutes the objectives and core fundamentals of varied subjects, and the local authorities, such as municipalities and other education providers, maintain the Comprehensive Schools and often create their curricula as part of the national framework.

After the basic education stage of the Finland education system, students are given the choice between pursuing general and vocational education. General Education usually takes three years to complete and does not qualify students for pursuing any particular profession or occupation. After completing the General Upper Secondary Education, the students have to take the Finnish matriculation examination to be eligible for various educational universities or universities of applied sciences for bachelor’s degrees. 

The other route which students of Finland can choose is Vocational Upper Secondary Education and Training in which students are provided with basic skills required in their chosen field by allotting them to workplaces through an apprenticeship agreement or a training agreement. The institution facilitating the program curates a personal capability development plan for its students, drafting the content, schedule, and schemes of study. After concluding this level, the students are eligible to opt for further studies at universities or universities of applied sciences to enter the higher education stage in Finland’s education system.

Under the higher level of the Finland Education system, the academic institutions are bifurcated into regular universities and Universities of Applied Sciences. There are various postgraduate degrees as well in higher scientific and artistic education, i.e. licentiate and doctoral degrees. The time duration to complete a bachelor’s degree in regular universities is 3 years and the master’s program is of 2 years. Whereas, the students who pursue their higher education at Universities of Applied Sciences in Finland, are awarded UAS Bachelor’s and UAS Master’s degrees. 

In Finland’s education system, the degrees offered by the Universities of Applied Sciences usually take between 3.5 and 4.5 years to get completed. Those students who want to pursue UAS Master’s program in these universities must have completed their bachelor’s degree or any other suitable degree along with having 3 years of relevant work experience in their field.

Must Read: Finland Student Visa

Adult education and training in Finland’s Education System are added to provide education leading to a qualification, degree studies, apprenticeship training, further and continuing education updating and extending the professional skills, studies in different crafts and subjects on a recreational basis, and much more. For this stage of education, the training is either paid by the student or the employer facilitating apprenticeship training, staff development, or labour policy education. Adult education is provided by educational institutions mainly for working professionals, private companies, and workplaces.

Also Read: Japan Education System

Around 93% of graduates in Finland from academic or vocational high schools, 17.5% points higher than the US, and 66% of them choose to opt for higher education, the highest rate in the European Union. Yet Finland spends around 30% less per student than the US.

Finland does not just boast quality education but also offers free education for many students. The public universities in Finland are divided into regular universities and universities for applied sciences. These universities have no tuition fees for students coming from EU/EEA countries and Switzerland. Although Non-EU/EEA country students have to pay the tuition fees, programs taught in Finnish or Swedish are free for international students as well. 

The Ministry of Education has called for system-wide reorganisation as a result of globalisation and increased competition for dwindling younger age groups. Since 2006, all higher education institutions have started exchanging collaboration methods. Within 10–15 years, the total number of institutions is likely to shrink dramatically. The University of Eastern Finland was formed in 2010 when the University of Kuopio and the University of Joensuu merged to become the University of Eastern Finland. On August 1, 2009, three local institutions in Helsinki, notably the Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki School of Economics, and Helsinki University of Art and Design, united to form Aalto University. Several applied science universities have also announced mergers. Within universities, new forms of collaboration such as consortia and federations have been introduced (e.g., the University of Turku and Turku School of Economics Consortium). Traditional institutions and universities of applied sciences are forming partnerships (e.g., the University of Kuopio and Savonia University of Applied Sciences formed the Northern Savonia Higher Education Consortium). In general, system-wide change in Central Europe , the United States , Spain , and Hungary follows a similar pattern.

Several universities in the country have earned international accreditation and are on the wish lists of many students. Examine the following list of universities in Finland, along with their respective QS Rankings for the year 2023:

Listed below are the top public universities offering academic degrees to international students –

• University of Helsinki
• Abo Akademi University
• Aalto University
• Tampere University
• University of Jyväskylä

Finland’s public institutions did not charge tuition fees until 2017. However, there have been attempts at the government level since the 1990s to impose tuition fees on students from outside the European Union/EEA . Those ideas have been met with opposition from student organisations. Students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) have had to pay at least 1,500 euros a year to study in Finland since the autumn semester of 2017, while students from the EEA continue to study for free. Non-European students’ tuition fees typically range from roughly EUR 6,000 to EUR 18,000 (INR 5.19 – INR 15.58 Lakhs) per year, depending on the university and programme.

While planning to pursue higher studies in Finland, students might be confused about the cities. Well, to help you with that, we have listed the best cities in Finland in this section, to help make your university selection process easier –

As an Indian student wanting to study in Finland, you need to have a valid passport and a visa to enter a new country. The Single-entry visa enabled entry to the Schengen zone once and for up to 90 days in any 180 days while the Double-entry visa increases your entry to twice. Other than this, there is a Multiple-entry visa granted for various consecutive visits to the Schengen area and the total duration of the stay cannot exceed 90 days in 180 days and this is valid for a maximum of 5 years. In case you wish to extend the validity of your visa while in Finland, you need to contact the local police authorities there.

Finland ranks third in the Education Ranking by Countries in 2021, with a total score of 1.631K. Finland has the highest rate of high school completion in the world. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, Finland has the best-developed education system in the world.

Finland has been named one of the world’s happiest and most prosperous countries, and The Economist just named it the best country in the world for higher education.

In Finland, for example, students spend just around 5 hours per day in school and have little homework outside of school. Students in many Asian countries, however, attend school for longer days, and many attend private “cram schools” for hours each day outside of official school hours.

Regular universities and universities of applied sciences are the two types of public institutions in Finland. They are all tuition-free for students from the EU/EEA and Switzerland. Non-EU/EEA students enrolled in English-taught degrees must pay tuition.

The fact is that in a country with one of the best education systems in the world, there is hardly any homework. Finnish people think that, aside from homework, several other factors might improve a child’s academic achievement, such as eating supper with their family, exercising, or getting a good night’s sleep.

Thus, the Finland education system strives to emphasize equal educational opportunities imparting every pupil with the essential life skills and core knowledge of basic disciplines while giving them the necessary liberty at the latter stages to experiment, explore and follow their callings.

If you are intending to study in Finland but are confused about how to go about it, let our Leverage Edu experts guide you in finding a suitable program and university as well as kickstarting the application process promptly so that you get to embrace an incredible experience in the intellectual land of opportunities.

Team Leverage Edu

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• Society ›
• Education & Science

Education in Finland - statistics & facts

Basic education, upper secondary education, higher education, key insights.

Detailed statistics

Expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP in Finland 2000-2022

Expenditure on education system in Finland 2000-2022

Number of students in educational institutions in Finland 2023, by institution

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Educational Institutions & Market

Student well-being in primary and secondary education in Finland 2023

Number of completed university degrees in Finland in 2023, by gender and university

Further recommended statistics

• Basic Statistic Number of educational institutions 2023, by type of institution
• Basic Statistic Number of students in educational institutions in Finland 2023, by institution
• Basic Statistic Population with educational qualification in Finland 2022, by level of education
• Basic Statistic Population with educational qualification in Finland 2022, by education field
• Basic Statistic Expenditure on education system in Finland 2000-2022
• Basic Statistic Expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP in Finland 2000-2022
• Basic Statistic Expenditure on education system in Finland 2022

Number of educational institutions 2023, by type of institution

Number of educational institutions in Finland in 2023, by type of institution

Number of students in educational institutions in Finland in 2023, by type of institution

Population with educational qualification in Finland 2022, by level of education

Number of people with educational qualification in Finland in 2022, by level of education (in 1,000s)

Population with educational qualification in Finland 2022, by education field

Number of people with educational qualification in Finland in 2022, by field of education (in 1,000s)

Expenditure on education system in Finland in selected years from 2000 to 2022 (in million euros)

Expenditure on education system as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in Finland in selected years from 2000 to 2022

Expenditure on education system in Finland 2022

Expenditure on education system in Finland in 2022, by type of education (in million euros)

• Basic Statistic Number of comprehensive schools in Finland 2013-2023
• Basic Statistic Number of pupils in comprehensive schools in Finland 2023, by type of school
• Basic Statistic Number of pupils in comprehensive schools in Finland 2023, by region
• Basic Statistic Expenditure on primary education per pupil in Finland 2012-2022
• Basic Statistic PISA student performance in Finland 2000-2022, by subject and score
• Basic Statistic PISA student performance in Finland 2022, by subject and gender

Number of comprehensive schools in Finland 2013-2023

Number of comprehensive schools in Finland from 2013 to 2023

Number of pupils in comprehensive schools in Finland 2023, by type of school

Number of pupils in comprehensive schools in Finland in 2023, by type of school

Number of pupils in comprehensive schools in Finland 2023, by region

Number of pupils in comprehensive schools in Finland in 2023, by region

Expenditure on primary education per pupil in Finland 2012-2022

Expenditure on comprehensive school education per pupil in Finland from 2012 to 2022 (in euros)

PISA student performance in Finland 2000-2022, by subject and score

PISA student performance in Finland from 2000 to 2022, by subject and score

PISA student performance in Finland 2022, by subject and gender

PISA student performance in Finland in 2022, by subject and gender

• Basic Statistic Number of upper secondary schools in Finland 2013-2023
• Basic Statistic Number of upper secondary schools in Finland 2023, by type of school
• Basic Statistic Number of students in upper secondary general education in Finland 2013-2023
• Basic Statistic Number of students in vocational education in Finland 2012-2022
• Basic Statistic Number of students in vocational education in Finland 2022, by field of education
• Basic Statistic Expenditure on upper secondary education per student in Finland 2012-2022

Number of upper secondary schools in Finland 2013-2023

Number of upper secondary schools in Finland in from 2013 to 2023

Number of upper secondary schools in Finland 2023, by type of school

Number of upper secondary schools in Finland in 2023, by type of school

Number of students in upper secondary general education in Finland 2013-2023

Number of students in upper secondary general education in Finland from 2013 to 2023

Number of students in vocational education in Finland 2012-2022

Number of students in vocational upper secondary education and training in Finland from 2012 to 2022

Number of students in vocational education in Finland 2022, by field of education

Number of students in vocational upper secondary education and training in Finland from in 2022, by field of education

Expenditure on upper secondary education per student in Finland 2012-2022

Expenditure on upper secondary school education per student in Finland from 2012 to 2022, by type of education (in euros)

• Basic Statistic Number of registered university students in Finland 2012-2022
• Basic Statistic Number of university students in Finland 2023, by university
• Basic Statistic Number of new university students in Finland 2023, by university
• Basic Statistic Number of completed university degrees in Finland 2023, by university
• Basic Statistic Number of completed university degrees in Finland in 2023, by gender and university
• Basic Statistic Number of students and graduates in polytechnic universities in Finland 2023
• Basic Statistic Number of students in polytechnic universities in Finland 2023, by gender and field
• Basic Statistic Number of admitted students to universities of applied sciences in Finland 2023
• Basic Statistic Number of university of applied science graduates in Finland 2023, by education field

Number of registered university students in Finland 2012-2022

Total number of students registered at university in Finland from 2012 to 2022

Number of university students in Finland 2023, by university

Number of students registered at university in Finland in 2023, by university

Number of new university students in Finland 2023, by university

Number of new students registered at university in Finland for the academic year 2023, by university

Number of completed university degrees in Finland 2023, by university

Number of completed university qualifications and degrees in Finland in 2023, by university

Number of completed qualifications and degrees at universities in Finland for the academic year 2023, by gender

Number of students and graduates in polytechnic universities in Finland 2023

Number of students and graduates in universities of applied sciences in Finland in 2023, by gender

Number of students in polytechnic universities in Finland 2023, by gender and field

Number of students in universities of applied sciences in Finland in 2023, by gender and field of education

Number of admitted students to universities of applied sciences in Finland 2023

Number of admitted students to universities of applied sciences in Finland in 2023, by institution

Number of university of applied science graduates in Finland 2023, by education field

Number of completed degrees and qualifications at universities of applied sciences in Finland in 2023, by field of education

• Premium Statistic Student well-being in primary and secondary education in Finland 2023
• Premium Statistic Share of comprehensive school pupils who have been bullied in Finland 2023
• Premium Statistic Share of students who have been bullied in upper secondary education in Finland 2023

Well-being of students in primary and secondary education in Finland in 2023

Share of comprehensive school pupils who have been bullied in Finland 2023

Share of pupils who have been bullied at comprehensive school in Finland in 2023, by frequency

Share of students who have been bullied in upper secondary education in Finland 2023

Share of students who have been bullied at general upper secondary and vocational schools in Finland in 2023, by frequency

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