Application documents

A higher education degree certificate is a document issued by an institution to a student who has successfully completed all studies included in the degree. The student has graduated. The degree certificate should include the name of the institution awarding the degree, the date of issue, and the name of the person to whom the degree certificate has been issued and which title/degree the person has been awarded.

Please note that to be eligible to apply to our master's programmes, your previous higher education degree must give you eligibility for Master's studies in your country of education.

Eligible applicants hold an upper secondary education certificate - the Finnish matriculation examination, the International Baccalaureate, the European Baccalaureate, Reifeprüfung/Die Deutsche Internationale Abiturprüfung, vocational qualification or any other comparable upper secondary educational qualification which provides eligibility for University-level Bachelor’s studies in the country in question.

A temporary (provisional) degree certificate is accepted if it was awarded no more than five years earlier. The five-year validity period begins from the date on which the degree was conferred and must not expire prior to the application deadline. In other words, a temporary degree certificate is not accepted if it was awarded more than five years ago. In such cases, the applicant must present his or her final degree certificate.

A temporary (provisional) degree certificate is a document issued by an institution to a student who has successfully completed all studies included in the degree. The student has graduated. The temporary degree certificate is issued as a replacement for the actual degree certificate e.g. in case the actual degree certificate cannot be given to the student immediately after the studies have been completed due to technical or administrative reasons. The temporary degree certificate should include the name of the institution awarding the degree, the date of issue, and the name of the person to whom the degree certificate has been issued and which title/degree the person has been awarded.

The official transcript of records must include the following information:

• full titles of the units that the student has completed for the degree

• completion times of study units (or at the very least the overall study time at the institution)

• grades obtained

• credits awarded

• information on the grading scale used at the institution

The transcript must cover the full length of studies. If the degree includes course units that the student has completed at another institution and the transferred credits are not indicated in detail on the transcript of records, a separate transcript of records regarding the transferred credits should be submitted.



University of Oulu only accepts official transcripts of records.

If your educational documents are issued in a language other than English, Finnish or Swedish, official translations of them to one of these languages are required.
An official translation must be one of the following:

• issued by the awarding institution
• an officially certified copy issued by the awarding institution translated by an official translator
• an officially certified copy of a translation made by an official translator

Each page of an official translation must bear the translator’s stamp and/or signature. Official translations must be exact translations of the original documents. Translations done by the applicant themselves are not accepted.

You do not need to send us the official translations by post but you do need to upload them on your application by the same deadlines as your educational documents have (please see our Deadlines pages for more detailed information).

If you have a diploma supplement, you may use it as an official translation. If you do this, you must verify your diploma supplement by the verification deadline of your programme, and use the same instructions as you use to verify your educational documents. Please note that a diploma supplement cannot be used to replace the original educational documents. You still must upload your degree certificate and transcript of records on your online application.

If you send us documents by post, please use the following address:

Registry Office
University of Oulu
P.O.Box 8000
90014 University of Oulu
FINLAND

If the courier service does not accept a P.O.Box address, please use the following:

Registry Office
University of Oulu
Pentti Kaiteran katu 1
90570 Oulu
FINLAND

Contact number for courier services when sending your documents: +358 294 484 108.

Please note that this number is for courier services only and that there is no admissions guidance available in this number.

When you send a consignment of documents to Finland:

• Send the consignment of documents as a letter. Do not send it as a parcel.
• Do not determine a value for the letter, when sending it. Do not indicate even the amount paid for a passport to the authorities, such as the amount of stamp duty, or the value of the concluded insurance for the consignment.
• If the country of dispatch requires the consignor to determine a value for the consignment of documents, the value is zero (euros or other currency).
• The goods description for the consignment should be, for example, documents.

For further information regarding the consignment of documents to Finland, please contact Finnish Customs directly.