Photo: Satu Haavisto

Education system

The Finnish welfare society is built on education, culture and knowledge. We see education as a key factor in enhancing our competitiveness. The key aims in Finnish education policy are quality, efficiency, equity and internationalisation.

Therefore the Finnish education system offers everybody equal opportunities for education, irrespective of domicile, sex, economic situation or linguistic and cultural background.

Our education system consists of:

• one year of voluntary pre-primary education
• nine-years basic education (comprehensive school)
• upper secondary education, comprising vocational and general education
• higher education at higher education institutions.

The language of tuition is either Finnish or Swedish as Finland is officially a bilingual country. Additionally the Finnih higher education institutions provide close to 500 degree and non-degree programmes in English. See the International study programmes database.