Scholarships and Student Financial Aid in Finland

Kela financial aid: built for residents, not incoming students

Kela, Finland's Social Insurance Institution, pays a study grant, a student loan guarantee and a housing supplement to eligible students in higher education. For 2025, the study grant for a higher education student living independently is 279.38 EUR a month, according to Kela .

The catch for most readers of this guide: Kela states plainly that if you have come to Finland to study and you are not a Finnish citizen, you generally do not qualify for this aid. Kela's own eligibility page lists the exceptions: you can qualify if you have a family member working in Finland who is an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen or a UK citizen covered by the withdrawal agreement, or if you originally moved to Finland for a reason other than study, such as work or family ties, and later registered permanent residence. A European student who arrives specifically to start a degree does not meet these conditions in most cases, so budget as if Kela aid is not available to you unless you fall into one of these exceptions.

No government scholarship program

Study in Finland , the official national guide, states directly that Finland runs no national or government scholarship program for international students. Be skeptical of any website or ad promising a fully funded government scholarship for Finland. All real scholarship money in Finland comes from individual universities, not the state.

University tuition waivers

If you are liable for tuition (any nationality outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland), your main funding option is a scholarship awarded by the university itself, usually structured as a partial or full tuition waiver rather than a cash grant. Coverage varies a lot by institution:

• University of Eastern Finland caps its standard tuition waivers at 30 percent (up to 50 percent for some cohorts); its 100 percent waiver is reserved for students granted temporary protection status.

• University of Helsinki awards mostly 50 percent tuition fee waivers.

• Aalto University runs Excellence Scholarships covering the full tuition fee for qualifying admitted students.

These scholarships almost always cover tuition only, not rent, food or other living costs, so plan separate funds for daily life even if you win full tuition coverage. If you are an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen, you already study tuition-free, so university tuition waivers are not relevant to you, and you should focus your search on savings, family support, or funding from your home country instead.

How to search for scholarships

Scholarship availability sits on the programme level, not the university level. Search your target programme on Studyinfo.fi and check its own page for scholarship details, since some universities let you apply for a scholarship alongside your admission application, while others only open scholarship applications after you accept a study place. Build the scholarship search into the same timeline as your admission application, not as an afterthought once you already hold an offer.

Other funding to check

Look outside Finland too. Many European countries run their own outbound scholarship or loan schemes for citizens studying abroad, administered by your home country's ministry of education or student finance body rather than by Finland. Check your home country's student finance portal before you assume Finland itself is your only funding source.

The Kela student loan guarantee

Beyond the study grant, Kela offers a state guarantee on a student loan taken from a Finnish bank, which makes the bank willing to lend to a student with no credit history or income. This guarantee follows the same eligibility rule as the study grant: it applies to Finnish citizens and to non-citizens who meet the residence conditions covered above, not to a European student who arrives in Finland purely to study. If you do qualify, a student loan still needs repaying after graduation, so weigh it against your expected income and treat it as a last-resort supplement rather than your first funding choice.

Erasmus+ and exchange funding

If you are coming to Finland for a semester or year as an exchange student rather than a full degree, check whether your home university runs an Erasmus+ exchange agreement with a Finnish partner. Erasmus+ mobility grants provide a monthly stipend for the exchange period and are handled through your home university's international office, not through Kela or the Finnish institution you visit. This route only covers a fixed exchange period and does not apply to students enrolling in a full Finnish degree programme.

Building your funding plan

Add up your sources before you commit to a Finnish degree. If you are an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen, tuition is off the table, so your plan centers on covering monthly living costs through savings, family support, part-time work, or funding from your home country, since Kela aid is unlikely to apply. If you are liable for tuition, apply for a university scholarship at the same time as your admission application, confirm exactly what it covers, and build a separate living-cost plan on top of it, since even a full tuition waiver leaves rent, food and daily expenses for you to fund yourself.