The next application period for the Master programmes in Swedish is 11.3.2025 – 25.3.2025 at 15:00 (Helsinki time).
Please note that this information does not apply to the admission to our international master’s degree programmes.
The admission to the Master’s level studies requires a completed bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a, for the master’s degree, relevant field. In addition to the general requirements, the faculties have set specific requirements described under each programme.
Most of the programmes on the master-level require good knowledge of Swedish language prior to admission. Please see the information about language requirements in Swedish for more information. If you are applying to a programme that requires Swedish for admission, please see the information available in Swedish.
Applicants to the Master programmes taught in Swedish or English must have a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field that is equivalent to a Finnish university Bachelor’s degree ( kandidatexamen). Unless stated differently in the department specific information, as a rule of thumb the applicant should have the equivalence of 60 ECTS credits in the major subject (60 credits equals at least one year of full-time studies). In other cases applicants can be required to do supplementary studies before admission or as part of the Master’s degree. The applications are assessed individually.
A Finnish Polytechnic (university of applied sciences) degree gives eligibility to apply to master-level studies. However, please note that a degree from a Finnish polytechnic is not the same as a University Bachelor’s degree (kandidatexamen). Therefore you might required to do supplementary studies in order to be able to follow a specific course within the programme. Supplementary studies are given along side the degree studies and you’ll be registered as a full-time degree student from the beginning.Supplementary studies can not exceed 60 credits and are not always offered as part of the master’s degree.
If you are formally eligible for studies your degree certificates and transcripts of records will be assessed individually by the academic board of the programme in order to determine whether the profile of the previous studies match the academic requirements of the sought programme.
An applicant who has already completed a master’s degree, where the content of the studies is the same as the one offered in the programme that the applicant is applying to, is eligible to apply but cannot use this qualification to gain extra merit in relation to other applicants.
If you have sought to a master’s degree programme identical or almost identical to the degree that you already have, the department can reject admission with the objection that there is no new learning aspect that would motivate admission (as you already have the qualification that you are applying to). If you already have a master level qualification within the same area as the programme you are applying to, you should in the motivation in the application form specify the reasons for applying in relation to the new learning aspect.
Also note that credits from one master’s degree cannot be transferred into another new master’s degree.
How to apply
You can apply to one of our programmes if you meet the academic and language requirements of that programme. Below are listed those programmes to which you can apply on the basis of knowledge in English language. Please note that the programmes in foreign languages assess the application on the basis of previous studies within the language in question. For a complete list of programmes, please see our information in Swedish.
If you are currently studying for a bachelor’s degree but will graduate by 31.7.2025, you are eligible to apply.
Conditional admission
To be conditionally admitted means that you can accept an offered study place, but that you cannot register for the academic year (i.e. enroll as present) before you fulfill the conditional requirement. You can see in your application in Studyinfo if you have been conditionally admitted (i.e. offered a study place conditionally), and what the conditional requirement is in that case.
A common condition is if you receive your degree (e.g. bachelor’s degree) after the application period. In that case you will need to upload a transcript of records of your current studies to your application before 1.4.2025 at 15:00 (Helsinki time) and you may complete your application with a transcript of records of your current studies until the 30.5.2025 at 15:00 (Helsinki time). Only enclosures received by this date are taken into consideration by the faculty if you are applying for a master’s programme and have marked in your application at Studyinfo.fi that you will graduate after the application time.
If you have not received your degree certificate by this date, your application will be processed conditionally. The degree that grants your eligibility must be issued no later than 31.7.2025 and submitted to studinfo@abo.fi. Do note that you cannot enroll as present before you have submitted your degree certificate.
When we have checked that you fulfill the conditional requirement(s), we will update the status of your application to no longer be conditional, after which you can register for the academic year.
Please note that if you have not fulfilled the conditional requirement(s) within the deadline, your admission decision will be annulled.
In addition to the master programme taught in Swedish which are listed below, Åbo Akademi University also offers a number of International master degree programmes taught in English. The application to these programmes is open in January.