One-place-per-student provision
According to the provision, a student may accept only one study place in a degree programme included in joint applications leading to a higher education degree during any one academic term. The purpose is to ensure admission to higher education institutions for as many students as possible. Higher education degrees are Bachelors' degrees and Masters' degrees awarded by universities, and Bachelor’s degrees and Master’s, awarded by polytechnics. The provision applies to all degree studies in higher education included in joint applications regardless of how the studies are provided. The provision does not apply to the Police College of Finland and the Åland Polytechnic. Neither can the provision be applied to studies completed in foreign higher education institutions.
The academic term (1 August - 31 December or 1 January - 31 July) is the essential time framework for the implementation: the provision does not prevent acceptance of a place in another degree programme during another different academic term. Although you could postpone the commencement of studies for a year, or interrupt your studies, you would still be unable accept another place for a degree programme starting in the same academic term.
Acceptance of the study place offered
Right to wait for a reserve place
Criteria for rectifying the confirmation of acceptance
Examples
Acceptance of the study place offered
The outcome of all the student selections for programmes commencing in the spring of 2011 will be announced on 26 Nov 2010 for universities and 30 Nov for polytechnics, at the latest. Higher education institutes announce the acceptance in writing. In addition to the notification of the acceptance you will receive a confirmation form of acceptance. Take particular care to deliver the form within the time prescribed to the higher education institute from which you have accepted the study place offered. Otherwise you will forfeit the study place.
The confirmation form of acceptance is binding and irrevocable and it cannot be altered.
If you have applied for more than one degree programme leading to a higher education degree, find out the results of all the selections to which you have applied before sending the confirmation form. Do not send the form until you are sure about your situation. However, do note that the confirmation forms arriving after the prescribed time limit are not considered.
Those admitted by the set date in November 2010, shall return the signed confirmation form of acceptance to the higher education institution concerned on 10 December 2010 by 4.15 pm at the latest, to confirm his/her study place.
Right to wait for a reserve place
The date of acceptance determines whether you have the right to wait for the study place that you are placed in reserve for. You have this right, if you have been accepted by 20 July 2010 at the latest, to a higher degree programme that commences in the autumn of 2010.
The right to wait for a reserve place is in force until 17 August 2010. If you are admitted to the reserve place by 17 August, this will become your final study place. If you are not admitted to the reserve place by that time, your final study place will be the place that you had confirmed acceptance of in case of not being accepted to the reserve place. You are allowed to wait only for one reserve place and you cannot change the reserve place you have applied for in the confirmation form.
Please note that reserve study places are not necessarily available in all degree programmes at universities. If you are not sure that the degree programme you prefer has reserve places available, it is advisable to contact the higher education institution in question before announcing the reserve place in the confirmation of acceptance form.
If you have applied for those degree programmes where student selections take place through the national joint application system of polytechnics or through joint selection systems that are arranged in some fields at universities (technology, economics, etc.), you have to place the degree programmes in the order of preference when filling in the application form. You are not allowed to change the order of preference after the application time has ended. In these kinds of application or selection systems you are allowed to wait in reserve only for the degree programmes that have been placed in a higher order of preference than the one you have already been admitted to, or for degree programmes elsewhere you are in reserve for.
The higher education institution will inform those admitted on 20 July 2010 or later about the date for submission of the confirmation of acceptance. Those admitted on 20 July 2010 or later do not have the right to wait for a reserve place.
Please note, that there is no right to wait in reserve for the degree programmes commencing in the spring.
Criteria for rectifying the confirmation of acceptance
The confirmation of acceptance can only be rectified if the applicant has acted according to incorrect or insufficient guidelines that he/she had received from the higher education institution before he/she confirmed the acceptance of the study place. In these cases the applicant submits an explanatory claim in writing, including the criteria for rectification, to the higher education institution where he/she has sent the confirmation of acceptance.
Examples
Example 1:
A person who has accepted a place in a degree programme starting in autumn 2010 postpones the commencement of studies because of being drafted or conscripted into the armed forces. However, he / she is not allowed to accept another place starting in the academic autumn term 2010. If the person wishes, however, he/she can accept another study place that starts in the spring 2011, at the earliest.
Example 2:
A person who has accepted a place in a degree programme starting in the autumn 2010 interrupts his studies already during the same term. However, he/she is not allowed to accept another study place commencing during the same academic term. The next time he / she is allowed to accept the place is in the spring of 2011 at the earliest.
Example 3:
A person has applied for a degree programme at a polytechnic and a university, and he prefers to have a study place in the polytechnic. At the beginning of July he is admitted to the university, but finds out that he is also on a waiting list for a reserve place in the polytechnic. He will send the confirmation form of acceptance to the university by the time prescribed including the information that he accepts the study place only in the case that he is not admitted to the polytechnic degree programme. He will also state on the same form the exact name of the degree programme of the polytechnic he is waiting for. By the 17th of August 2010, the applicant is admitted to the polytechnic. Because it takes place within the waiting period, his final study place will be in the polytechnic and the study place in the university will be cancelled.
Example 4:
A person has applied for four polytechnic degree programmes through the joint application system and for one university degree programme. In his application form for the polytechnics' degree programmes he has placed the polytechnics' degree programmes in order of preference. In the middle of July he is admitted to the polytechnic degree programme that he had placed second in order of preference in his application form. He has the right to wait in reserve for the study place he prefers, but has to notify it in the confirmation form that he gets with the notification of admission. He is allowed to choose either the degree programme of the polytechnic or the university as the place he or she is waiting in reserve for. However, if the prospective student chooses the polytechnic degree programme as the place he is waiting in reserve for, it can only be the degree programme that had been put in a higher order of preference than the one he or she has already been admitted to, in this case the polytechnic degree programme that was first in order of preference in his application form.
The registers used in the implementation of the One-place-per-student provision
The implementation of the one-place-per-student provision will be checked with the help of the universities’ applicant and enrolment register (HAREK) and the polytechnics’ applicant and study place register (AMKOREK). The registers are maintained by the Finnish National Board of Education.
The applicant has the right to check his/her personal data from the registers. The request has to be in writing. An applicant or a person admitted to a university or a polytechnic is able to check his/her personal data from the polytechnic or the university he/she has applied for or has been admitted to. A person who has applied to several institutions can check his/her personal data from the registrar.
The registered information can be disseminated to education authorities, Statistics Finland, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA), the employment authorities and providers of student health care. In addition, the registrar can also disseminate registered names and addresses, with the applicant's permission, for marketing and education-related information purposes. There is more information about processing personal data at the Internet address, www.tietosuoja.fi/1560.htm (in English).
Legislation
- Act on Student Selection Register and Matriculation Examination Register 1058/1998
- Universities Act 558/2009
- Decree Amending the Universities Decree 75/1999
- Polytechnics Act 351/2003 (564/2009)
- Polytechnics Decree 1044/2009
- Postgraduate Polytechnic Degrees Act 645/2001
- Act on Personal Data 523/1999
Additional information
- polytechnics and universities
- National Board of Education, tel. +358-40 348 7555 (National Board of Education switchboard)
