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General Practical Information
Students are required to demonstrate that they have funds to cover their living expenses in Finland by making a 6,000 euro deposit in a Finnish bank per calendar year or 500 euro per month in a Finnish bank without any conditions limiting the use of the account. Students participating in a scholarship programme or exchange programme require proof of acceptance from the programme sponsor instead of the deposit. Students from Nordic countries do not need to provide proof of funding. NOTICE! The financial regulations do not apply to citizens of the other Nordic or EU/EEA countries, who similarly require neither a residence permit, nor a visa to enter Finland. For more information about students' residence permit and application procedure see the Web site of the Directorate of Immigration www.uvi.fi (English - Students). If you are coming as a trainee through an official programme, you can obtain a trainee work permit. The condition for this is that you have a traineeship in Finland and that you can demonstrate this by means of a certificate issued by your Finnish employer, indicating the duration of the work, salary and type of work and containing information about the employer. The certificate should be enclosed with the application for a trainee work permit and submitted to the Finnish embassy or legation in the applicant's home country.The trainee work permit will be stamped in the applicant's passport. A residence permit is granted for the duration of the training period. Citizens of the Nordic or EU/EEA countries do not require a work permit, but they do require the employer's certificate. If you have obtained a student residence permit for Finland, you are entitled to work part-time (up to 20 hours/week) during the terms and full-time during the holidays. UPON ARRIVAL AND TRAVEL CONNECTIONS Your peer tutor, tutor teacher and/or the international co-ordinator with whom you must have been in contact earlier, will meet you at Oulu Airport or Railway Station or in Raahe or Oulainen.
A registration form for exchange students needs to be filled in with the international co-ordinator of your school immediately after your arrival. NOTICE! By air Finnair has up to 14 regular daily air connections from Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and SAS/Blue1 has up to 6 daily services from Helsinki-Vantaa, 4 from Stockholm-Arlanda and as of 31st Jan 2005 one service on weekdays from Copenhagen Airport to Oulu Airport. For 17 - 24 year-olds Finnair has a StandBy ticket. It can be bought only at the airport 2 hours - 45 minutes before the desired flight. The StandBy ticket entitles to boarding only if there are vacant seats on the flight (an unused ticket will be refunded). A StandBy flight from Helsinki to Oulu costs 86 euro (December 2004). Blue1 has special low-fares flights if the ticket is booked at their own website www.blue1.com. The fares for Blue1 flights e.g. from Helsinki to Oulu are from 39 EUR and from Stockholm to Oulu from 49 EUR for a one-way flight. Same flights are available as SAS flights through Scandinavian Airlines' website www.scandinavian.net. Soder Aviation flies between Oulu and Tampere. Low cost carriers For more information on flight timetables and fares, please contact the respective airline or student travel agency, e.g.
There is a regular local bus connection on the bus line 19 from the Oulu Airport terminal to the centre of Oulu. If you have a lot of luggage it may be advisable to take a taxi. A taxi to downtown Oulu costs about 15 - 30 euro depending on the journey and time of the day. You can have two different kind of taxi services to/from the Oulu Airport: you can take a normal personal taxi, or an Airport Taxi service that is a taxi pool for up to 8 persons where all passengers pay a fixed fee (15 - 21 euro/person in December 2004) depending on the destination or origin. To order a taxi service in Oulu, please dial 0600-30081 (from abroad +358 600 30081). The Airport Taxi service should be ordered min. 2 hours before the flight, for morning flights in the previous evening. A single bus ticket from the airport to the city centre costs 2.90 euro (23 - 04 double price). A bus ticket that entitles you to a connecting bus journey in Oulu within 80 min from the start of the journey costs 4.50 euro and is called "seutusiirtolippu". Buses to the centre run on weekdays during the daytime every 20 minutes and at other times once in an hour. The last bus leaves from Oulu Airport every day at 01.15. Airport Taxi to Raahe is available upon advance reservation. You can reserve this transportation by calling to number +358 8 264 080 or +358 400 383 695. The journey costs 21 euro and takes about one hour. If you are going to Oulainen, please discuss the connections from Oulu Airport to Oulainen with your international co-ordinator at Oulu University of Applied Sciences. More information about the Oulu Airport and other airports in Finland and travel connections to and from the airports is available on the Internet on CAA Finland's website. By train For more information on the public traffic to and from Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, please see the PDF document at YTV website. You can also check the timetables of the public regional buses on the YTV website. For timetables of the Finnair Bus, please see the Finnair website. There are from ten to twelve trains a day from Helsinki to Oulu. Oulu Railway Station is in the very centre of the city. For train timetables and fares, please see the website of Finnish Railways (VR) or call to VR´s English phone service, tel. 0600 41 902. Some trains stop also in Oulainen on their way from Helsinki to Oulu. If you want to travel to Raahe by train, you must get off the train in Vihanti and change there to a bus that will take you to Raahe. You can buy the bus ticket together with your train ticket at the railway station. The distance between Vihanti and Raahe is 36 km. You should also check the opening hours of the railway station booking offices on the VR website. In case the ticket office of the station is closed before the departure of the train, there is no surcharge for purchasing the ticket from the conductor on the train (the normal commission is 3 euro and 6 euro on Pendolino services). A student discount on the Finnish Railways is 50%. You are not entitled to the student discount on the Finnish Railways until you have registered yourself with Oulu University of Applied Sciences. You need to obtain a student card that entitles you to the discount on railways (i.e. a student union's card or a VR student card). By bus A student discount on the long-hauls buses in Finland is 50% when the one-way journey is at least 80 km. You are not entitled to a student discount on buses in Finland until you have registered yourself with Oulu University of Applied Sciences. You need to obtain a student card that entitles you to the discount on longhaul buses (i.e. a student union's card or Matkahuolto student card). Exchange students Students admitted through international exchange programmes are exempt from tuition or other fees, but they have to pay the expenses for their travel to Finland, food, accommodation, study materials, clothing and social activities. Monthly costs for international students are estimated to be:
Notice! Students who are members of the student union and have paid the membership fee are entitled to various discounts for transportation costs and student meals. Degree students Degree students are exempt from tuition, but they have to pay the expenses for their own study materials. The majority of Finnish students are financially supported by the Finnish state. Foreign students are entitled to the students' financial aid only with certain restrictions. See for more information on students' financial aid below. The studies of a foreign student are normally financially supported by the student's parents, or the student has been awarded a scholarship from his/her home country or from an international institution to cover the expenses and living costs in Finland. Oulu University of Applied Sciences is unfortunately not able to provide any financial support for the students. Foreign students must demonstrate their own funds for supporting their living and studying in Finland during their stay in the country. A guarantee money of 6,000 EUR/academic year or a scholarship must be deposited in a Finnish bank account under the name of the student. See also instructions for residence in Finland. If a foreign student would like to come to Finland as a degree student, he/she should ask the authorities of his/her home country for further information on grants by contacting e.g. the Ministry of Education or the National Agency for Education. A good source of information on grants is the Centre for International Mobility CIMO, Address: P.O. BOX 343 (Visiting address: Hakaniemenkatu 2), 00531 HELSINKI, FINLAND, telephone information service for international clients +358 (0)1080 6767, e-mail cimoinfo@cimo.fi, Internet www.cimo.fi. Scholarships information for foreigners is also available on the Internet: finland.cimo.fi/studying. Financial aid for foreign students Further information on students' financial aid is available on the following Web site of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland KELA: www.kela.fi (Financiel Aid for Students). The cost of living in Finland is about the same as in other EU countries. Students admitted to a degree programme have to pay for food, accommodation, study materials, clothing, transportation and social activities.
Notice! Students who are members of the student union and have paid the membership fee are entitled to various discounts for transportation costs and student meals. Please note, that foreign students have to pay the expenses of their travel to Finland. Exchange studentsAccommodation for students coming through organised exchange programmes (e.g. Socrates/Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci or Nordplus) will be arranged according to the regulations of the programme in question, in most cases by the international co-ordinator or the International Relations Office at Oulu University of Applied Sciences. Inexpensive self-catering student accommodation in twin rooms is offered to most exchange students. The rooms have a communal kitchenette, a toilet and a shower. The students are responsible for the cleaning of the rooms and communal areas. A sauna and laundry are available for the use of residents. The price of this accommodation varies between 120 and 210 euro a month. Unfortunately family housing can not be arranged by the Polytechnic. Students, who wish to bring family members with them, should contact the Northern Finland Student Housing Foundation (See below). An application for accommodation needs to be filled in and sent to the International Relations Office at Oulu University of Applied Sciences (accommodation in Oulu) or the international co-ordinator (accommodation in Oulainen or Raahe) in good time before the planned exchange period, at least 2 months before the planned month of arrival. Please notice that accommodation cannot be guaranteed on short notice! The School of Renewable Natural Resources offers its exchange students accommodation on the campus area. Please contact the international co-ordinator of the school for further information. More information about Housing in Oulu, Oulainen and Raahe and the application forms are available on our website at www.oamk.fi/english/student_exchange/incoming/?page=accommodation. Students not participating in organised exchange programmes must find accommodation themselves. This can be done through contacting the Northern Finland Student Housing Foundation (Pohjois-Suomen opiskelija-asuntosäätiö/PSOAS) and applying for a room in one of its halls of residence. The application must be sent to the PSOAS Office at least 8 weeks before the date of arrival. You can also fill in the housing application form either in the Housing Office or on the Internet (www.psoas.fi/en/applying/application.html).
PSOAS, Mannenkatu 1A, FI-90100 OULU, FINLAND
Degree students
OULU
OULAINEN
RAAHE In cases of illness students of Oulu University of Applied Sciences residing in Oulu are entitled to use the services of Kontinkangas students' health centre, Kajaanintie 46 D, floor 3B, tel. (08) 5584 6310 or (08) 5584 6322, open Mon - Thu 8 - 16, Fri 8 - 15. Appointments with public health nurses are free of charge. The public health nurses are available without an appointment Mon - Fri 8 - 11, at other times and to visit a doctor must always be by an appointment. A health care centre fee of 11 euro will be charged for the three first visits to the doctor within a calendar year. A penalty fee of 25 euro will be charged if you do not use, nor cancel a reserved appointment. Outside the opening hours of the students' health centre, you can use the services of the emergency unit of the Oulu University Hospital, Kajaanintie 50, entrance A1. During on-call hours an emergency fee of 22 euro per visit will be charged. You can go to the emergency unit without an appointment. In cases of acute illness in Oulainen you can contact the emergency unit of Oulainen health care centre, tel. (08) 479 2503 (24 hour service). An on-call charge of 15 euro will be charged for visits to a doctor. The charge for a revisit due to the same illness is 11 euro. In Raahe you are entitled to use the services of the occupational health care of Raahe health care centre, Rantakatu 4, tel. (08) 299 1401. Visits to a public health nurse without an appointment are possible Mon - Thu 8 - 15 and Fri 8 - 14. Appointments with a doctor can be arranged through the office of the occupational health care. A health care centre fee of 10 euro for the three first visits to a doctor within a calendar year will be charged. Outside the opening hours of the occupational health care, you can use the services of the emergency unit of the main health care center Rantakatu 4, tel. (08) 299 1211.
Medical emergency phone numbers
Mental health problems
Dental care In Oulu public dental care is available by an appointment at the regional dental clinics. If you are living in Otokylä Student Housing Village, you should contact the Aapistie public dental clinic, Aapistie 3, tel. (08) 537 5525 or (08) 5584 6420. In Raahe public dental care is available by an appointment at the dental clinic of the main health care centre, Rantakatu 4, Raahe. Appointments can be made by phone Mon - Fri 8 - 12, tel. (08) 299 1270. In Oulainen you can contact the public on-call duty dentist Mon-Fri 8 - 11, tel. (08) 479 2505 for further advice. You can also use the services of private dental clinics, their contact information you can find in the phone book. For citizens of the EU/EEA, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA) will refund a part of the expenses of the treatment at private dental clinics. An application must be filled in and an E128 form, a receipt and a dentist's statement of treatment presented at the KELA office, Sepänkatu 18, Oulu, Oulaistenkatu 36, Oulainen or Kauppakatu 42, Raahe.
Medicines Citizens of EU/EEA countries are entitled to social security refunding on prescribed medicines. You can get this refund at the pharmacy by presenting a KELA card upon the purchase, or, later on, upon an application and presenting the E128 form, the prescription and the receipt of the payment in the local KELA office, Sepänkatu 18, Oulu, Oulaistenkatu 36, Oulainen or Kauppakatu 42, Raahe.
Insurance Please note that citizens of non-EU and non-EEA countries are not covered by the Finnish national health insurance. It is therefore extremely important for them to have sufficient insurance coverage of their own before they arrive in Finland. We recommend all foreign students to take out travel insurance before leaving for Finland, as they are responsible for their own accident, illness and property insurance. Travel insurance usually covers also the expenses occurred by using public health care. Please remember to bring a valid insurance policy with you. Finnish insurance companies do not usually grant insurance to foreigners whose stay in Finland can not be considered to be permanent. Students are required to take insurance issued by a reliable and solvent company or institution covering the costs incurred by an illness or an accident as further decided by the competent ministry unless otherwise provided for by a bilateral social security agreement or another international agreement binding in Finland. There are usually no vaccination requirements.NOTICE! If you are coming to Oulu as an industrial trainee, discuss possible vaccination requirements with your co-ordinator. If you are coming to study in health or social care you must have the official certification of the following tests and vaccinations:
You can bring the requested certificates in a sealed envelope personally to Oulu University of Applied Sciences. All the information is strictly confidential and will only be used by the health care personnel. The certificates should not be more than one month old. FACILITIES FOR SPECIAL NEED STUDENTS Students with special needs should contact the staff of the school for the details of services available. All the premises of Oulu University of Applied Sciences are accessible with wheelchair and special toilets are available for the disabled persons. Special arrangements for exams have to be agreed separately with the staff. There are also computer services for the disabled persons. |
