Eligibility to bachelor’s degree programmes

You can apply to a bachelor’s degree programme if you have completed one of the following:

- the studies required for graduating from the Finnish upper secondary school or a Matriculation Examination;
- an International Baccalaureate (IB) degree and/or graduated from IB high school
- a European Baccalaureate (EB) Diploma;
- a Reifeprüfung (RP) or Deutsches Internationales Abitur (DIA) degree;
- a Finnish vocational upper secondary qualification covering 120 credits or 180 competence points or a corresponding
- earlier Finnish vocational degree covering at least 80 credits;
- a Finnish post-secondary or higher vocational level diploma;
- a Finnish vocational upper secondary qualification or a further or specialist vocational qualification as a competence
- based qualification, or a comparable previous qualification;
- a foreign qualification that provides eligibility for higher education studies in the country in question;
- Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, postgraduate licentiate and doctoral degrees.

Diak does not use discretionary admission.

The applicant must submit the attachments proving their eligibility by the deadline in order to be considered in the admission process.

Required documents

Applicants who are required to submit supporting documents attach their document copies to the application form at Studyinfo.fi.

You can either

attach the documents when filling the application form or
submit your application without any attachments and revisit your application form to submit your attachments by 28 January 2026, 3pm Finnish time, by using the link you received in your email after submitting your application, or by logging in to My Studyinfo

Please see the admissions criteria for our bachelor’s degree programmes for more information on required attachments and deadlines for submitting them.

Discretionary eligibility

Diak may only use discretionary selection for a person who is a refugee or has status comparable to a refugee and who, due to their situation, cannot submit certificates proving their eligibility by the deadline. Such an applicant may participate in the entrance examination and be selected as a student if they are assessed as eligible based on the information in the Verification of Educational Background form. The filled form and potential attachments are used as basis for making the decision on whether the documentation on the previous degree/educational background is sufficient.

If you wish to be considered for discretionary eligibility, please fill in the form and submit it along with a copy of the decision on asylum or a residence permit granted on the basis of a need for protection to Diak’s admission services by 28 January 2026, 3pm.

We recommend that you use SecMail Secure email for sending the documents. Contact details for Admission Services and the Secmail link are on the Admission Services webpage.

Please note that an asylum seeker who has not yet been granted a decision may verify their status by presenting an identity card with a photograph granted by Migri.

In addition, when required by the degree programme, they must present a fee-based (€20) pending application by Migri that states that the applicant is permitted to legally reside in Finland during the time when their case is being processed, i.e. until a lawful decision has been made on the case.

A person with refugee status i.e. asylum = Residence outside of one’s country of origin or country of former habitual residence owing to a justified fear of being persecuted in the country concerned. The reason for persecution must be the person’s origin, religion, nationality, membership in a certain social group, or political opinions. It is also assumed that because of the person’s fear, they are unwilling to turn to the country concerned for protection.

A person whose status is comparable to a refugee is a person provided with subsidiary protection = the person faces a risk of being subjected to the death penalty, execution, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in their home country or country of former habitual residence. A permit may also be issued if the person is unable to return to their home country or country of former habitual residence without being exposed to serious and individual threat as a result of an armed conflict in the country concerned.

Document forgery and misuse may lead to criminal responsibility and belongs to police authority.

Language skills and certificates

Nursing

Applicants to the Bachelor’s degree programme in Health Care, Nursing are required to have skills in Finnish. The minimum requirement is level B1 on the Common European framework for languages. Your Finnish and English skills are assessed in the entrance exam. You do not need to have a Finnish or an English language proficiency certificate.

Social Services

International UAS Exam

In order to be invited to the International UAS Exam and to be selected based on the International UAS Exam selection method, the applicants have to prove their English language skills either by an internationally recognized language test or previous studies. More information on the accepted ways of proving your English language skills can be found at UASinfo.fi.

Entrance examination organised by Diak

If you are planning to apply through Diak’s own entrance examination organised in Finland, you do not need a separate English language proficiency certificate.

Selection method

We do not currently use certificate-based selection (todistusvalinta) or SAT-based selection in our English-taught bachelor’s degree programmes.

Nursing

The only selection method is an entrance examination organised by Diak. Both parts of the exam are organised at Diak’s Helsinki campus.

Social Services

There are two selection methods: the International University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Exam and an entrance examination organised by Diak.

Applicants do not need to choose on the application form which selection method they would like to participate in. Applicants can participate in both the International UAS Exam and Diak’s own entrance examination and be offered admission through any of these selection methods.

Health requirements

Applicants who apply for studies in the field of Social Services and Health must consider whether their health condition enables their successful practical studies and work placement.

For more information, please visit the UASinfo.fi website.

Tuition fees

For more information, please visit our Tuition fees and scholarships webpage.

Admitted applicants who are required to pay the tuition fee must pay the full tuition fee for the first academic year by 9 July 2026. If you accepted from the waiting list, you are required to pay your tuition fee in seven days after being accepted from the waiting list.

Original qualification certificates

If you applied with a qualification completed outside Finland and are offered admission to Diak, your admission is conditional until we have verified the qualification you applied with. You can see at Studyinfo whether your admission to Diak is conditional.

Please see information on the verification process at Submitting original documents.