Registration for New Bachelor and Master Degree Students

Student Union membership is compulsory for undergraduate students and voluntary for exchange and PhD students (Universities Act 558/2009, 46§).

Registering as attending is done by paying the Student Union membership fee

• If you have to pay tuition fees, the payment must be done first. In that case, please send the receipt of the payment to admissions[at]utu.fi so we can activate your right to register in Studyinfo. 

There are two options to pay the student union membership fee

• Go to https://studyinfo.fi using the link you have received and used for accepting the study place. Follow the registration/payment instructions.
• If you can’t pay the Student Union fee in Studyinfo, please let us know (admissions[at]utu.fi). We can also give you details for the bank transfer.

Have you already registered with the University of Turku?

• If you have already registered as a current Bachelor/Master level student at the University of Turku for the academic year 2025-2026, and you now have a new right to study, please still finish the registration in the Oili enrolment service. This will do the registration of your new study right.
• The Student Union membership fee will not be charged twice, but the Oili enrolment service will recognise the amount you have already paid. There is a delay of a few working days before the information is transferred. If you have only registered for your other study right a few days earlier, please wait a few more days so that the information about the TYY membership fee is also transferred to your new study right and you can register without paying the membership fee.

You will need a UTU account and access to the Student Register Peppi as soon as you start your studies, so you should register at least one week before the beginning of your studies. This will give you time to activate your UTU account and register for courses in Peppi, for example.

Accept your new study righyt and register with the University of Turku via Studyinfo, even if you are already registered with the University of Turku for another study right.

• If you have already registered as a current Bachelor/Master level student at the University of Turku for the academic year 2025-2026, and you now have a new right to study, please still finish the registration in the Oili enrolment service. This will do the registration of your new study right.
• The Student Union membership fee will not be charged twice, but the Oili enrolment service will recognise the amount you have already paid. There is a delay of a few working days before the information is transferred. If you have only registered for your other study right a few days earlier, please wait a few more days so that the information about the TYY membership fee is also transferred to your new study right and you can register without paying the membership fee.

If the previously granted study right is still valid, it will be shown to you in Peppi.

• Registration with the University of Turku is made on a study-by-study basis. 
• You can register as attending for one study right and non-attending for another. 
• Remember that if you have obtained a new study right to complete a degree, you can only register as absent if you have a statutory reason for your absence. Also read in advance the instructions for registering as absent and submitting documents.
• If you do not register with your study right it consumes the attendance time of that study right.
• If you do not register for one of your study rights and wish to re-register after the registration period or after an interruption in registrations, you will be charged a re-registration fee (even if you have enrolled in one of your other study rights).

Please ask for more information about the student center Disco.

• Be sure to include your study right number or Finnish social security number/Date of Birth in your message.
• The message sent from the utu e-mail address is secure.

Who must pay the healthcare fee for students in higher education?

• Students in universities of applied sciences and academic universities who are entitled to use the services of the Finnish Student Health Service (YTHS) will pay a healthcare fee to Kela.
• Students who are liable to pay the fee are students who have registered as attending and who are completing a bachelor's or master's level university degree.
• You do not have to pay the healthcare fee if you have social security coverage from another EU/EEA country or from Switzerland or the United Kingdom. Even if you do not have to pay the fee, you can still use the services of the Finnish Student Health Service. Read more: How should I proceed if I have social security coverage in another EU/EEA country or in Switzerland or the United Kingdom? (Kela's update from 1 July 2022) 
• Incoming exchange students, students in open university and students in tailor-made, customer-specific training programmes are not entitled to use the services of the Finnish Student Health Service, and thus they do not have to pay the healthcare fee. 

No bill will be sent on the healthcare fee, and thus the student has to pay the fee to Kela on his or her own initiative.

• The fee must be paid even if you do not use FSHS services.
• The amount that must be paid is defined in a Government Decree and may vary from year to year.
• The fee is paid to Kela once per term, i.e., twice a year. 
• The due date depends on when you have registered with the university:
  • The due date for the autumn semester is 15 November, if you have registered to attend by 30 September. If you register for the autumn semester 1.10. or after, the due date is 31.12.
  • The due date for the spring semester is 15 March , if you have registered to attend by 31 January. If you register for the spring term 1.2. or after, the due date is 31.7.

How to pay

• A. If you have Finnish online banking credentials:
  • The healthcare fee can be paid via Kela's e-service (in Finnish): Hakemukset ja ilmoitukset > Korkeakouluopiskelijan terveydenhoitomaksu
  • On the e-service, you will be directed to your online bank to effect the payment, or you can print the payment details for later use.
• B. If you cannot use the e-service for instance because you do not have Finnish online banking credentials:
  • Please pay the fee to Kela as a bank transfer. Please see Kela's webpage for the payment details.
• Please read more information on payments at Kela website.

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Information on the services and the service network of the Finnish Student Health Service is available on the website of the Finnish Student Health Service.

This is an option for you if you can’t start your studies yet due to one of the following reasons.

According to the Universities Act/Polytechnics Act, a first-year student may register as absent (non-attending) for the academic year for special legislative reasons only:

• Legislative reasons and required documents are mentioned in the following section.

Registration as non-attending requires both the registration and the needed documets

• You can register as non-attending in Studyinfo or by email (disco@utu.fi).
• In both cases you need to send the appropriate documents as well within registration period
• Should the statutory grounds for your absence apply only to the second semester (e.g. military service or maternity leave beginning in January), you may register as non-attending student for the entire academic year if you wish. You can register as non-attending with a statutory reason if the reason covers even one day of the academic year.
• Registration is valid when the appropriate documents have arrived to the Student Centre Disco and have been approved. Only after that it is possible to receive a certificate of registration with the University of Turku.

Please note

• Please note that for the Student loan compensation, Kela considers your period of study to begin at the beginning of the semester when you are first accepted to any higher education institution.
• These regulations also applies to applicants who have been granted a new right to study in a transfer application.
• If you already have a right to study at the University of Turku and you have now been granted a new study right, you can register as non-attending only if you have legal grounds for your absence.
• You may also change the status of your registration for the spring term from ‘attending’ to ‘non-attending’ during the spring term registration period, if you have legal grounds  and you do not have any credits or degree in Spring Semester already.

According to the Universities/Polytechnics Act, a first-year student may register as absent (non-attending) for the academic year for special reasons only.

You can prove the statutory reason for your absence with the following documents:

1. Service under the Conscription Act (1438/2007), Non-Military Service Act (1446/2007), or Act on Women's Voluntary Military Service (194/1995):

• Call-up order

2. The student needs time off his/her studies to take care of a child in regard to the child’s birth or adoption (14.1.2022/52):

• Kela's certificate regarding maternity, paternity or parental allowance period or, if the certificate has not yet been received, a medical certificate regarding the pregnancy.
• Corresponding certificates from the authorities of other countries regarding statutory parental leave.

3. The student cannot begin studies due to being incapacitated by personal illness or injury:

• Sickness allowance decision, rehabilitation allowance decision, or, if no decision exists, a medical certificate. The medical certificate must state which illness or injury the student suffers from, and that this condition prevents the student from beginning their studies.
• Obstacles caused by the practical arrangements required by the illness or injury: an adequate clarification, e.g. a certificate from the student housing foundation that the student is on the waiting list for an apartment required by his or her injury.
• The student's own notification is not an adequate clarification.

Submitting the documents

• The documents must be submitted in Finnish, Swedish or English.
• Documents may be delivered by email, post or directly to the Student Centre Disco.
• Documents must be supplied as soon as possible, but a week after the end of the registration period at the latest, at which time documents delivered by post must also be delivered. 
  • For the autumn semester and the whole academic year, the documents must be submitted by 31 August
  • For the spring semester, documents must be submitted by 15 January
  • If the deadline is on a weekend, documents should be delivered by the following Monday.
• If you fail to deliver sufficient clarification regarding the grounds for your absence within the deadline, you will lose your right to study. 
  • If you wish to begin your studies at a later time, you must apply for readmission from the university. 
  • Readmission does not require participation in the student admissions procedure.

If you have registered as non-attending student for a statutory reason, you can inform the extension to your study time after the end of the absence. 

However, you must inform the extension while your study time is still in force (the actual study time of completion), not retroactively after the end of your study time or when you are studying in an additional time. 

For more detailed instructions, please see the page on the extension of study time.