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Living costs

Planning a budget for your studies is important as all the students must fund their studies and living expenses themselves. It is important to make arrangements for adequate funding for the entire period of your studies before leaving your home country.

All degree students must fund their studies and living expenses themselves. Make sure that you have adequate funding and enough of financial means to pay for possible tuition fees, your studies and living expenses for the entire period of your study.

Cost of liv­ing in Tampere

The monthly living costs for a student in Tampere for basics such as food, accommodation and transportation are on average 700-950 euros, depending on your personal spending habits.

Examples on typical monthly expenses:

  • Student accommodation 200–500 € (do note that renting from the private market is likely to cost from €600 upwards)
  • Local transportation starting from 44€ (based on the cost for 30 days mobile ticket for students, see Nysse for more info)
  • Food 200-400€ (estimate includes one average priced student meal per weekday and groceries at €35–85/week)

You can check some specific examples of living costs in Tampere on websites like Numbeo

Healthcare fee for students

Degree students are entitled to use the services of the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) and must pay an annual health service fee to Kela (Social Insurance Institution of Finland) for each year as an attending student. The healthcare fee entitles you to general health, dental and mental health services.

Stu­dent union membership fees

All Tampere University Bachelor’s and Master’s degree students are members of the Student Union (TREY) and therefore obligated to pay the the Student Union membership fee. The membership entitles you to various benefits, discounts and services offered directly or indirectly by the Student Union. For the whole academic year 2023-2024, the fee is 65 euros. For students coming for one semester only, the fee is 32,5 euros for autumn semester and 32,5 euros for spring semester.

Doctoral students can also join to the Student Union, but their membership is voluntary and as their membership does not include all services, the fee for doctoral students is smaller.

At TAMK degree students can choose whether they wish to join the Student Union (Tamko) and you can choose an annual payment of 42 euros or a multiyear membership (see pricing: link to Tamko website). Multiyear membership is the cheapest and easiest membership option for degree students. Half a year memberships are meant for exchange students.

Other costs

There are also occasional expenses such as costs of study material or course books. It is usually not necessary to purchase books as most of the course books are available from the University Library. Therefore, the cost of study material should remain relatively low.

Finnish Immigration Service requires sufficient financial resources from students applying for residence permit. More information on the requirements is available on their website.

Please note that international students who come to Finland only for their studies are usually not covered by the Finnish social security, and thus not entitled to the financial aid for students by the Finnish government. For more information, please visit the Kela website.