The Faculty of Science is the second biggest educational unit in Sciences in Finland and one of the most multi-disciplinary units at the University of Oulu. It consists of all the traditional natural sciences and the mathematical sciences. The Faculty offers an interesting variety of natural sciences to study. The Faculty consists of eight departments and the number of students enrolled is approximately 4000, the annual intake being approximately 500 students. Great emphasis is placed on the high quality of research, particularly international recognition. The present focus areas in research are:

• Information technology and its applications
• Mathematical modelling and computation methods
• Research on genes
• Structure and dynamic processes of the Earth and Space
• Natural resources and ecosystems in the North
• The structure of matter and synthetic methodology
• Multidisciplinary environmental research