Courses for exchange students at Tampere University

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Tampere University

Although the two higher education institutions in Tampere formed a new community in January 2019, the course selection and registration still follows the rules of the campus you are applying to. Despite some limitations, there are many English-taught courses open to students from all campuses and other institutions.

In order to prepare your preliminary study plan, first double-check which campus you are applying to and your home university has an agreement with. If you are unsure which one is correct, contact your exchange coordinator. See: Available campuses and study fields for exchange students.

Please note that our three campuses are not really close to each other. All campuses are accessible by public transport and approximate travel times by bus or tram are:

Hervanta <> city centre campus 25-35 minutes
Hervanta campus <> Kauppi campus 25-40 minutes
city centre campus <> Kauppi campus 10-20 minutes

For more details and public transport schedules, please see Nyssen reittiopas.

City centre and Kauppi campuses

You can search for teaching and courses available at Tampere University via the Curriculum page. The courses can be found by filtering to the course units. When browsing courses, please use the filter Target Group: Exchange Students. For each course, you should also confirm the main language of instruction, the required prerequisites (if any), the completion options, the campus and the teaching period.

For more information, detailed instructions, Q & A and contact information, please go to the Student's Guide: Registration for courses and study practices for exchange students.

Special requirements

Courses from the Degree Programme in Languages, specialisation in English Language are only for students who are advanced in English (C1 level) and pass the proficiency evaluation test held in Tampere usually during the Welcome Week. Exchange students hosted by any other degree programme or specialisation have a limited access to the English specialisation courses. These students may take a maximum of 10 ECTS in the English specialisation during their exchange. However, there are no proficiency tests or limits for Language Centre's courses.
Courses from the Licentiate's degree in Medicine are mainly in Finnish and acceptance of exchange students is limited to the exchange agreements of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology (MET).
For studies within our non-English language programmes on the city centre campus, the language requirements are as follows:
- Degree Programme in French Language: B2 French
- Degree Programme in Languages, specialisation in German Language: B2 German
- Degree Programme in Languages, specialisation in Russian Language: B2 Russian
- Degree Programme in Languages, specialisation in Scandinavian Languages: B2 Swedish; students are required to prepare a motivation letter in Swedish and take and pass a Swedish proficiency evaluation test organised by the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences (ITC) at the beginning of the semester
- Study module in Finnish Language and Culture: B2 Finnish; students are required to prepare a motivation letter in Finnish and to take and pass a Finnish proficiency evaluation test organised by the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences (ITC) at the beginning of the semester

Hervanta campus

The study fields are available for exchange students whose home university originally had an agreement with Tampere University of Technology.

You can search for teaching and courses available at Tampere University through the Curriculum page. The courses can be found by filtering to the course units and by filtering to the location Hervanta campus and to the target group exchange students.

For more information and detailed instructions, please go to the Student's Guide: Registration for courses and study practices for exchange students.

The exchange students admitted to Tampere University Pori campus can select courses from their interdisciplinary Course catalogue page. Tampere University Pori campus operates under the University Consortium Pori (UCPori) to which Turku School of Economics also belongs. The city of Pori is located 100 km from Tampere, and therefore the students admitted to Pori cannot attend courses at the campuses located in Tampere.

Special requirements

Courses from the Master's Degree Programme in Sustainable Architecture are mostly for students majoring in architecture, and whose home universities have an agreement with the Faculty of Built Environment / Sustainable Architecture.
Thesis and project work always require a special arrangement. The master's thesis (30 ECTS) process takes often at least 7-12 months and is not usually possible to complete in one semester. Students who want to complete their thesis during the exchange study period will only be admitted as exchange students if they have a designated supervisor for their thesis already at the time of applying. Unfortunately, we are not able to help with finding a suitable supervisor. Students who succeed in finding a placement and a supervisor will need to apply as exchange students via the normal procedure and before the deadline.

Cross-institutional studies

As an exchange student at Tampere University, you are expected to choose a majority of the courses from one study field/faculty/campus. However, you are entitled to choose some courses from a selection of courses offered at Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) and Police University College (Polamk).

You can apply to TAMK or Polamk courses through the cross-institutional studies platform after your arrival in Tampere and completed registration with the University. Please notice that an application does not guarantee a place on a course. When you plan to register for courses on different campuses or at TAMK, make sure to check the schedules in order to have enough time to get from one campus to another as some campuses are quite far away from each other.

For more information and detailed instructions, please go to the Student's Guide: Registration for courses and study practices for exchange students.

Online studies networks: courses for exchange students

Tampere University has joined several online studies networks which offer a wide range of courses that combine the expertise of different universities. There are no course fees, but please note the application periods and possible prerequisites for each course. The online courses are open to all Tampere University exchange students.

Asianet - courses on Asian studies

Asianet offers courses at the bachelor’s, master’s and PhD levels. All courses are organised through the Moodle online learning environment. The courses comprise lectures, book exams, online exercises and essays.

The course topics cover East, Southeast and South Asian societies, cultures and economics. In addition, the Asianet annually organises Asian Studies Days, which provide a national platform for discussions and networking in Asian studies. The goal of the network is to complement and strengthen teaching, doctoral education and expert activities on Asia at the network’s member universities.

Contact person: see contact page

Circumpolar Studies - courses on issues of the Circumpolar North

Learn about the lands, peoples and issues of the Circumpolar North and prepare yourself for advanced study or professional employment in fields such as sustainable resource management, self-government, Arctic engineering and northern tourism. Special emphasis is given to matters concerning indigenous peoples of the Circumpolar North. The courses are offered online and on-site at participating UArctic member institutions. More information:

Application period: July-August (autumn semester), October-December (spring semester)

Pre-registration is required and space is limited. The complete application instructions are published in the intranet's student news and on this page during the application period. Remember to also contact your home institution to confirm the credit transfer of Circumpolar Studies courses.

Courses in the autumn semester 2022

The application period will open in summer 2022

At least the following course will be available for exchange students, the CS 100 course is the introduction course and has no prerequisites:

CS 100: Introduction to the Circumpolar World

All courses are delivered online and are worth 6 ECTS credits each. The language of instruction is English and each course is organised by a Canadian or American university.

Eligibility, credit transfer and an academic transcript

Credits will be recorded at the offering institution and may be transferred on request to Tampere University’s academic transcript after completion of the course. The original academic transcript will be issued by a Canadian university and will be sent to Tampere University in 6-8 weeks after the end of the course. Studies completed in the Circumpolar Studies programme may be added to the transcipt of Tampere University, but it might take some time and might be ready in winter 2023. The completed course might be counted to your degree, but remember to discuss the credit transfer with your home university.

How to apply, autumn semester 2022

Please submit your signed (either digitally or by hand) and scanned registration form (will be published later) before the deadline as a PDF file by email to Igor Tanskanen. Unsigned registration forms will not be accepted.

Please use your TUNI email address (if possible) and fill in the form on your computer as handwriting can be difficult to read. Space is limited - Tampere University will nominate you as a candidate and UArctic will make the final selection of students.

If you have any questions regarding the courses or the registration please email to circumpolarstudies [at] trentu.ca.

Contact person at Tampere University: Igor Tanskanen

Finland Futures Academy - courses on futures research

UniPID - courses on sustainable development

UniPID offers virtual courses on sustainable development and promotes multidisciplinary global development-related education, research and universities’ social impact. The network offers a diverse range of five-credit virtual courses that are free to all students of UniPID member universities and can be counted towards both bachelor’s and master’s level degrees. Apply at UniPID.fi.

Contact person: Anna Wansén-Kaseva