Restoration of right to study

A student who has lost the right to study after failed enrolment as attendant or non-attendant student, can apply for a restoration of right to study.

The Importance of Enrolment

A student must enrol for attendance or non-attendance every academic year.  A student who has lost the right to study after failed enrolment, can apply for a restoration of right to study, provided that the time of right to study has not yet ended.

Also a student who has an obligation to pay tuition fees and who has lost the right to study after not paying the fee and not enrolling for non-attendance, or after having the tuition fee refunded to him/her, can apply for the restoration. However, in this case some limitations apply.

The decision on the restoration is made by the Director of Education. As a rule the restoration can take effect as from the beginning of the next semester.

The semesters that a student has neglected to enrol as attendant or non-attendant are counted together as a non-attendance time. If the maximum amount of semesters for non-attendance has already been used, the time of absence caused by failed enrolment shortens the right to study time.

Study time is based on the extent of the degree you are completing:

  • 210 cr – 3,5 years
  • 240 cr – 4 years
  • 270 cr – 4,5 years
  • 60 cr – 2 years
  • 90 cr – 3 years

Right to study time is your study time + 1 extra year.

The maximum time for non-attendance depends on the time when the student was admitted to the studies. If s/he was admitted

  • before summer 2015, the maximum amount of semesters for non-attendance is 4 (2 academic years).
  • during or after summer 2015, the maximum amount of semesters for non-attendance is 2 (1 academic year), except for statutory reasons (completion of military service, civilian service or voluntary military service for women in Finland; or maternity, paternity or parental leave).

Applying

Handling fee for the application

There is a handling fee of 50 euros charged for the application (Council of State Decree 932/2014 3 §). The fee is payed electronically when submitting the application. The fee is not refunded even if the application is not accepted. The possible payment methods are Finnish online banking credentials and VISA, MasterCard or American Express credit cards.

Enclosures to application

Enclose an up-to-date transcript of records in your application in pdf-form. If you have not begun the studies as an attending student before losing the right to study, you don’t need any attachments to the application.

Before filling in the application

Please have your transcript of records in electronic form, if applicable, and the information needed for making the network payment ready before filling in the application. The application, attachments and payment are all submitted at once and it is not possible to return to the application later.

Note! If you are liable to pay tuition fee, the deadline for the payment is 7 days after the date of the decision.

Application form for restoration of right to study

After submitting the application

You will receive a confirmation of the sent application by email automatically. If you do not receive the confirmation email, please check that your email has not blocked it as spam. The application with paid handling fee is delivered to the Student Affairs Office and then to the responsible person in the degree programme for further processing. You will be notified of the decision by email.

Tuition fees and scholarships

Your liability to pay tuition fee for the studies is checked when you apply for restoration of right to study and you must attach an exempting document to the application form, if you have one. The documents exempting from tuition fees are listed here.

Note that according to current legislation, a continuous residence permit card in Finland, Type A permit issued for purposes other than studies does not automatically exempt you from tuition fees. If your first residence permit in Finland was granted for the purpose of studying, you are required to pay tuition fees, even if you later obtained a continuous residence permit (type A) on other grounds. If you have a continuous residence permit (type A) based on family ties, and your family member originally came to Finland on a residence permit granted for studying, you are also required to pay tuition fees.

You will receive instructions for paying the tuition fee by email from the student affairs office when the restoration of study right has been granted. The tuition fee must be paid in full within 7 days from the notice of decision. The Early Bird scholarship is not available in this case.

The scholarship scheme that was valid at the time of admission is followed throughout the whole study time, also when the study right is restored.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please contact the Student Affairs Office through Xinfo service.

Go to Xinfo