Accreditation with course attainments

Studies completed at universities, universities of applied sciences, open universities, open universities of applied sciences and foreign universities can be accredited by both replacement and inclusion. Accreditation of university studies completed elsewhere can be used to replace courses in the degree programme or to include study modules to form part of the studies. Learning to be accredited must comply with the learning competencies of the degree’s curriculum, study module or course.

Student sends the replacement application to the Responsible Person of the course.

Inclusion refers to the inclusion of studies completed at another Finnish or foreign university as an integral part of a degree programme, in which case equivalence of contents is not required but the studies must be at a level that complies with the curriculum and they must correspond to the learning competencies required in the degree programme. A course or study module completed elsewhere is accepted into the degree programme as it is. Course attainments completed elsewhere or previously to be included in the degree programme are recorded in the student’s transcript of records in their original scope.

Student sends the inclusion application to his/her own Programme Director.

For studies completed abroad, the student must provide, as a supplementary document of the accreditation application, a transcript of records issued by the exchange university specifying the studies that the student completed acceptably at the exchange university. Studies are accredited according to the learning agreement or pre-application made before the exchange.

In the case of pre-recognition of learning, the student’s home university decides whether studies to be completed by the student will be accepted as part of the student’s degree programme through accreditation of course attainments. This can be utilized in advance, before the exchange.

When applying for accreditation of exchange studies student does an inclusion application in Peppi. When applying for pre-recognition of learning there is a separate application called pre-application in Peppi. Both applications are sent to student's own Programme Director.

Pre-application is used for example before attending to a student exchange program or applying for any credits in advance (for example summer studies or cross-institutional studies) for making sure that the credits will be approved to student's PSP.

The student can create a pre-application to suggest which studies the student is going to complete and which studies in the PSP are meant to be recognized by these studies. Approving the pre-application requires an agreement as an attachment to the application.

The application is sent to student's own Programme Director.

Exemption applies to language studies. A student may be exempted from the language proficiency requirement of the second national language if they have completed their schooling in a language other than Finnish or Swedish, completed their schooling abroad or if the student has been exempted from studying the second national language at lower levels of education (certificate of exemption). In addition, a student, for whom Finnish or Swedish is defined as the schooling language, may be exempted from the demonstration of skills in the second national language if they have, in view of the starting level requirement, a clearly insufficient number of successfully completed general upper secondary school studies in the second national language.

In such a case, the student is exempted from completing the studies in the second national language altogether, and the curriculum defines what studies the student needs to complete instead of these studies in order to achieve the degree requirement. The student must be informed that a person who lacks the course attainment on the knowledge of languages required of personnel in public bodies is not qualified for governmental/municipal posts in Finland.

Student sends the replacement application to the Responsible person of a course in Languages and Communication.

Replacement: send the application to Responsible Person of the course. Please check the name of the Responsible Person of a course from Peppi from the course description.

Inclusion: send the application to your own Programme's Director. Please check the name of your Programme Director .

Exemption: send the application to Responsible Person of the course in Languages and Communication. Please check the name of the Responsible Person of a course from Peppi.

The process runs faster if the application is sent to the correct person.

Required attachments for accreditation with course attainments:

1. Documentation of education (such as certified copies of certificates and transcripts of records; pdf-copies of the original). Titles of programmes/courses must be provided in English (NOTE! Must be official translations from the higher education institution).
2. Course descriptions: containing information on course content, learning outcomes, learning methods, literature and credits. If a description is not available in Finnish, Swedish or English, the applicant must provide one in English. Descriptions need to have sources clearly listed.
3. Applicants with a completed degree must attach a copy of the Diploma or Certificate (pdf-copies of the original) and, at least, the title of the degree earned in English (contained, for example, in the Diploma Supplement). If the degree certificate is not available in Finnish, Swedish or English, the applicant must provide a translation in English.
4. A certificate of a study module (e.g. basic studies of a psychology, 25 credits).
5. For studies in a foreign higher education institution, the student must provide an account of the extent of the studies in credits and the number of study hours required for the credits, the grading scale used at the university and a link to an explanation of the exchange university’s grading scale on the university website.
6. Other relevant documentation to establish equivalent learning.

Upon request, the student must provide the original certificates.