Living costs and saving tips

Hei everyone! I am Phat Do, a Vietnamese student currently in my second year of the Master’s programme in Linguistic Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu campus. Since it seems there have already been (and will be) many posts sharing about students’ and staff’ personal experiences in Finland, my post will be a bit different and focus more on an aspect that I believe to be of interest for a lot of potential students around the world: the finances of a student’s life in Finland and tips on saving.

I believe this topic is relevant since Finland, as well as its Nordic neighbors, is considered among the countries with the highest living expenses in the world and is rightfully so. As a result, despite the numerous great things about the country, particularly its education system, financing one’s studies here is always one of the biggest hesitations for potential students, especially ones coming from home countries with less expensive living costs. As I am a Vietnamese who had never resided abroad before the current study, you can be sure that I am speaking from my own experience, too. Also, as significant as tuition fees can be, I am not referring to them in this post, since I believe UEF has one of the most generous scholarship schemes among Finnish universities and it should ease up your budget quite a lot, leaving the living costs to be the main headache.

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Kuopio calling

My name is Christina and I’m coming from Germany. Now I am a Master student in “Biology of Environmental Change”, but my “love story” with Finland started already 3 years ago, when I decided to make some changes and jump into an exchange year. Finland was the final choice, because it was the only country of Europe of which I barely knew anything. When I came to Finland, my feelings are best expresses with a quote of the Moomins: “I felt myself so happy, that I wasn’t even afraid this moment would pass.”

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Exploring Amazing Kuopio as a Local

“Congratulations! We are happy to inform you that you have been selected as an Erasmus plus exchange student to the School of Pharmacy at the University of Eastern Finland for three months.”

That was the start of a stunning experience in Finland during autumn 2018. I am Dalia Yehia Abozahra, a PhD student and an assistant lecturer in the Faculty of pharmacy, Pharos University in Alexandria, Egypt.

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Greetings from a staff mobility

I truly enjoyed this great experience being on a one-week staff mobility at Kuopio campus of UEF, together with two colleagues from our home university, the Pharos University in Egypt.

The host university is gorgeous, I loved all the surroundings. Academic staff we met are so kind and amazing. Hopefully my pictures tell more.

Nancy Bedwani