The application round to the international degree programmes of the University of Turku ended on 22 January. The University received a record number of applications: 2,008 in total from over a hundred countries, whereas last year the number was 1,376. The number of applicants increased by 52 percent.
The application round to the international degree programmes ended on 22 January and the Admission Services are happy to announce that the number of applications to the the University of Turku rose by 632 when compared with spring 2019, which is a 46-percent increase.Altogether 171 people applied to the international Bachelor’s degree programmes that were open for application for the first time.
In the joint application round for the international degree programmes, the applicants could apply to a maximum of three programmes at the University of Turku, and there were altogether 1,743 individual applicants, which is a 52-percent increase from the 1,146 applicants in 2019. As before, the University received applications from over a hundred different countries. 76 percent of the applicants came from outside EU and EEA. The University had most applicants from Pakistan (249), Bangladesh (125), India (110), Nigeria (109), Ghana (73), China (63), Iran (61) and Nepal (52). Most applications from within the EU and EEA countries came from Finland (307).
This year, there were 15 degree programmes open for application, which is two more than last year. The most popular programmes were Global Innovation Management, Information and Communication Technology, and Biomedical Sciences which received 848 applications. The same programmes have been among the most popular ones for the last three years.
An exception to the application round are the Information and Communication Technology Bachelor’s degree programme organised together with the Fudan University in China and the Software Engineering Master’s degree programme in Namibia, in which the application is open until mid-May. The applicants to these programmes are not included in the numbers mentioned above.
Shorter Application Period – More Applicants
According to the Head of Admission Services Mari Kähkönen, this year’s application round was significantly shorter than previously when the application lasted for two months. This year, however, the application was open only for two weeks due to changes in the national application system.
– We noticed already earlier that most applications are left during the first and last few days of the application period. Now during the shorter round, there were no “quiet” days and we still received more applicants.
Due to the increase in the number of applicants, the demand for application counselling has also been high. The chatbot Aura, which was launched in last autumn, has been busy answering thousands of questions – and of course the Admission Services has replied to the more difficult inquiries.
– We have recently increased the visibility of our degree programmes in education portals and social media as well as through our student ambassadors. Next, our aim is to contact the accepted students so that they commit to the offered study place, says Kähkönen.
> The international degree programmes that were open for application during the application round 2020
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