How to apply for exchange studies at Tampere University

Latest updates by the International Mobility Services:

• COVID-19 update for nominated students (28 May 2020): Tampere University has made the difficult decision on suspending both incoming and outgoing student mobility in autumn 2020. At the moment, there are no plans to offer virtual mobility in the autumn semester 2020. Despite the challenging times, we are looking forward to welcome exchange students in the spring semester 2021 (January - May 2021).

More information:

• Tampere University: Latest updates
• YLE News: Latest COVID-19 news from Finland

You are eligible to apply if you are studying as a degree student at a university which has a valid agreement on student exchange (such as Erasmus+, Nordplus, ISEP, north2north, QSEP, FIRST+, Ge4 or bilateral student exchange) with Tampere University (including active agreements with the University of Tampere, UTA, and Tampere University of Technology, TUT).

Our Erasmus+ code is SF TAMPERE17.

Once we have received nominations from our partner universities or exchange programmes, we will send the link to the online application form by email to the nominated students. We will not publish the link to the online application on our website and cannot consider paper applications.

Special restrictions:

Studies within the Degree Programme in Architecture on the Hervanta campus are almost exclusively on master's degree level. Applicants should therefore have completed their bachelor's degree (or be at least in their 4th year of study) when starting their exchange study period at Tampere University.

For studies within the Degree Programme in Languages, specialisation in English Language on the city centre campus, the English language proficiency requirement is C1. In addition, all students are required to take and pass a language proficiency evaluation test organised by the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences (ITC) at the beginning of the semester.

For other restrictions and studies in other languages, please see the special requirements on the Courses for exchange students at Tampere Universite website.

Visiting or non-degree freemover students:

You can participate in an exchange only if there is an official agreement between your home university and Tampere University. Unfortunately Tampere University does not accept students outside of these agreements (usually known as visiting or non-degree freemover students). If your university does not have an agreement with Tampere University please inquire your own international office about what other universities your university has agreements with, or about developing an agreement with Tampere University.

More information: International University / Tampere Universities

Students need to fill in the online application form and submit it with all the required application documents before the deadline.

Please note that the application is complete and will be processed only after you have followed all the steps of the application system and entered all the required information. Before filling in the online application form, please read carefully the list of required documents and language requirements.

Student exchange application periods:

• 1 April - 15 May for autumn semester and whole academic year applications
• 16 September - 15 October for spring semester only

The nomination deadline is two weeks before the application deadline. For detailed nomination instructions, please see the information provided below in the Nomination instructions section.

All required documents have to be submitted in English, Finnish or Swedish. Unless your documents are issued in English, Finnish, or Swedish, an official translation into one of these languages must be included. All required documents must be uploaded into the online application system by the application deadline. For programme-specific requirements, please read the Eligibility criteria.

Exchange students must upload the following documents:

• Official academic transcript of your university records issued by your home university. The document should be signed and stamped by a university official and cover the full length of your studies. If you have completed your bachelor's degree and you are applying for master's level studies, please upload your bachelor's degree transcript as well.
• Motivation letter (max. 1 page). Describe why and what you wish to study at Tampere University. Write about your knowledge in the subjects you have taken in your previous studies with reference to the studies you are applying for. Write about your objectives for studying at Tampere University and about your goals after your study period in Tampere. Provide any further information that you feel may be relevant to your application (max. 5,000 characters). The language of the motivation letter is English, however, if you apply to the study module of Finnish Language and Culture, please write your motivation letter in Finnish and if you apply to the Degree Programme in Languages, specialisation in Scandinavian Languages, please write your motivation letter in Swedish.
• Preliminary study plan. Please list the courses you are planning to take at Tampere University. Students studying on our Hervanta campus prepare their study plan in our online system and students studying on our city centre or Kauppi campuses may use our Study Programme / Learning Agreement template (pdf). Your final acceptance to the courses will be confirmed after your arrival. Exchange students are expected to select the majority of their courses from the hosting degree programme. Acceptance to courses of other degree programmes and faculties cannot be guaranteed, and usually some prior studies in these fields are required. More information: Preliminary study plan for exchange students.
• Proof of knowledge of English according to the language requirements of Tampere University.
• Passport-size photo
• Portfolio. Students of architecture on our Hervanta campus need to attach a portfolio (.pdf) to the online application. The portfolio should give a clear and concise summary of your skills. Your portfolio should start with the most recent project and include projects in a variety of scales, preferably from urban planning or design to architectural details. Building design projects should have clear plans and sections in addition to perspectives or other visualisations. The portfolio layout should be legible on most common computer screens.

The required level of knowledge of English at Tampere University is B2 on Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

How to prove my knowledge of English?

No proof of knowledge of English is required if you have taken:

• A bachelor's degree in English in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom or the United States, excluding online degrees, with having stayed in the respective country when studying for the bachelor's degree
• Secondary education in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom or the United States.

Also those applicants who are not required to take a language test must have a knowledge of academic English corresponding to the level of our language test score limits.

All other exchange students must submit certificates by the application deadline as follows:

• Certificate of knowledge of English (B2-C1) written by university staff, preferably your English teacher

             OR

• a score report of one of the following language tests:
  • TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) - 92/Internet-based, 580/paper-based
  • IELTS Academic (International English Language Testing System) - 6.5 with no individual score below 5.5
  • PTE Academic (Pearson Test of English) - 62
  • C2 Proficiency (CPE) - Level C1
  • C1 Advanced (CAE) - Grade C

Copies of the test scores are accepted. Please keep in mind that test results are valid only for two years.

If you apply to a non-English degree programme on the city centre campus (Finnish, English, Swedish, Russian, French or German), please see the additional requirements.

If you have a diagnosed illness, learning difficulty or disability, we can make special arrangements to support your studying at Tampere University. Examples of such reasons are deafness, visual impairment or other sensory impairment, dyslexia, panic disorder or Asperger’s syndrome. Please include this information in your application form. For more information, please see Accessibility and special arrangements.

Students coming to Tampere University through the Erasmus+, Nordplus or north2north programmes also have the opportunity to apply for an accessibility grant. Please contact your Erasmus+, Nordplus or north2north coordinator of your home university for more information. If you come to Tampere University through an other agreement, please inquire about the possibility of applying for an accessibility grant from your home university.

If you have special requests concerning student housing, please contact directly the Tampere Student Housing Foundation (TOAS).

All applicants must be officially nominated by their home university or student exchange programme coordinator to mobility.tau [at] tuni.fi. Our new Erasmus+ code is SF TAMPERE17. The nomination must include the following information for each student, required fields are indicated with *:

• Name of the sending university*:
• Erasmus+ code of the sending university:
• Erasmus+ subject area code:
• Family name*:
• Given name(s)*:
• Date of birth* (dd.mm.yyyy):
• Email*:
• Semester and campus applying for*:

The link to the online application form will be sent to the nominated students by email. We will not publish the link to the online application on our website and cannot consider paper applications.

Nomination deadlines:

• 30 April 2020 for autumn semester 2020 and whole academic year 2020-21 applications
• 30 September 2020 for spring semester 2021 only

The decisions on acceptance of exchange students are made by the host faculty or by the International Mobility Services. The selection process takes approximately one month after the application period has ended.

Successful applicants will receive an electronic Letter of Acceptance from the University. Accepted students will be able to download and print the Letter of Acceptance themselves from the Mobility-Online system – we will not send hard copies (nor official invitation letters) unless requested.

A letter of invitation from a representative of your study programme is not sufficient to grant you the right to study at Tampere University. Unsuccessful applicants will be notified by email.

The academic year at Tampere University is divided into two semesters consisting of two teaching periods each. All new exchange students are required to attend the Welcome Week programme.

Autumn semester 2020 (1 Aug - 20 Dec)

• Arrival and registration: 10 Aug - 14 Aug
• Welcome Week: 17 Aug - 20 Aug
• Teaching period I:  24 Aug - 11 Oct
• Teaching period II: 19 Oct - 6 Dec

Spring semester 2021 (4 Jan - 12 May)

• Arrival and registration: 1 Jan - 4 Jan (tentative)
• Welcome Week: 4 Jan - 8 Jan
• Teaching period III: 11 Jan - 28 Feb
• Teaching period IV: 8 Mar - 12 May

No courses or exams will be arranged on the following days:

• Independence Day, 6 December
• Christmas break, 23 December 2020 - 10 January 2021
• Easter break, 31 March - 6 April 2021
• May Day, 1 May 2021
• Ascension Day, 13 May 2021

Tampere Summer School 2020 will be organised remotely. The most up-to-date information is available on the web page Tampere Summer School. Summer school courses are free of charge for exchange students of Tampere University.

1. Please start your application with the application link you have received by email
   • Your first step is to fill in the basic application information and your personal data
   • After completing the basic information of your online application form, you will receive a new email with the personal registration link to the Mobility-Online application portal (at the bottom of the email)
   • If you do not receive the email with your personal link within a few minutes, please check your junk email folder
   • Save your login information and update your password
2. Your next step is to login to the Mobility-Online application portal with the personal registration link and your username and password
   • Your second step is to go through the Application Workflow and complete your application by following all the necessary steps in your application workflow
   • Please, upload all the required documents to the Mobility-Online application workflow
   • For more details about the required application documents and language certificate requirements, please see the Required application documents section above
   • For more details regarding your preliminary study plan, please go to Preliminary study plan for exchange students
3. Submit your application
   • After you have completed all the steps and uploaded all the required documents before the given deadline (15 May 2020). It is recommended to submit your application as early as possible, if you have to apply for a residence permit for studies
4. After submitting your application, we will check your application and your preliminary study plan
   • You will receive comments to your study plan, if some changes are required. All changes must be made in the Mobility-Online portal only by logging in and updating your study plan
5. The selection process takes approximately 3-6 weeks after the application period has ended
   • Successful applicants will receive an electronic Letter of Acceptance from the University, which you will be able to download and print from the Mobility-Online portal. Rejected applicants will be notified as well