New law brings high hopes of foreign student numbers boost

A new law in Finland, which came into effect on 15 April this year, aims to reduce the red tape facing international students wishing to study in the country and seek employment upon graduation. The legislative changes, the government believes, have the potential to treble the number of international students in Finland.

The changes to the law mean that international students and their families will be covered by a residence permit for their whole study period instead of having to renew the residence permit every year as they were previously required to do.

In addition, a change in the students’ visa category – from temporary (B) to continuous (D) – will make it easier to acquire a permanent residence permit at a later stage.

The law also ensures that the period given to graduates to remain in the country to seek employment has been extended from one to two years. The permit would not need to be used immediately but could be applied for within five years of the expiry of the residence permit.

International students will also be allowed to work 30 hours a week instead of 25, and will only need to prove they have funds to finance their living costs and tuition fees for one year at a time, rather than the full study period.

A more attractive destination

Finland’s Minister of Employment Tuula Haatainen has said that the “seamless permit practices” are intended to make it easier for international students and researchers to stay in Finland.

“The new law will enable those who have studied here to look for work and will make Finland a more attractive destination for international experts,” she said.

The amended legislation has been in the making in several ministries in Finland for several years in anticipation of a shortage of experts in Finland owing to an ageing population and low birth rate.

Satu Salonen, talent manager at the Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce, told Good News from Finland in September last year that it was estimated that Finland would need 20,000 work-related immigrants a year to fill the labour shortage.

Salonen said the question of how to secure talent was not going to “lose its relevance” even though the COVID pandemic had diverted attention to other matters.

SchengenvisaInfo News reported last year that Minister of the Interior Krista Mikkonen said the law had the potential to treble the number of international students in Finland.

“A D visa issued in connection with a positive residence permit decision would enable an international student to travel to Finland sooner than at present. That, in turn, would help start studies on time. We also consider it important to strengthen Finland’s role and attractiveness in the international scientific community,” the minister said.

Support from student unions

The new policy towards international experts and students is in line with recommendations from both the European Students’ Union (ESU) and the National Union of University Students in Finland (SYL).

In a resolution in 2021, ESU said Finland was losing 1,000 to 2,000 international students each year out of the more than 30,000 students applying for a placement. It said while approximately 7,500 students accept their offers, only 5,000 finally come to Finland due to bureaucratic hurdles.

“One of the key connections between accepting a place of study and arriving on campus is the residence permit process all international students must go through with the Finnish Immigration Service. The process is widely considered cumbersome, inhumane and slow,” ESU said.

SYL President Konstantin Kouzmitchev told University World News that the union’s approach to helping international students is two-fold.

“First, we have to ensure that it is easy enough to come to Finland. SYL thinks that the legislation change regarding residence permits was a good start.

“There is still some room for improvement with the D visa and electronic identification but [it is an] excellent change. Also, we think that all who have completed a degree in Finland should have the right to a permanent residence permit to find employment, and it is easier for them to get Finnish citizenship.”

Kouzmitchev admitted that the union’s aim to have 75% of international students stay on in Finland after graduation was “quite ambitious”, but said they continued to support the objective.

“In order to make this possible there must be sufficient opportunities to develop important language skills. Employers should not require more advanced language skills in Finnish or Swedish than the job requires on a general level,” he said.

Kouzmitchev said international students should, as part of their studies, also receive networking and other skills to prepare them for the Finnish labour market as well as opportunities to be introduced to Finnish employers.

“Adequate and paid internships as well as workplace visits are an important way for international students to integrate and get to know [about] Finnish working life.”

Additional measures to attract talent

In addition to the legislative changes aimed at attracting talent and potential talent, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Ministry of Education and Culture have jointly launched the inter-sectoral ‘Talent Boost’ programme which aims to promote the immigration of senior specialists, employees, start-up entrepreneurs, students and researchers.

In addition to making Finland an attractive country for experts and their families, the programme is aimed at supporting the growth and internationalisation of companies.

As part of the programme, discretionary government grants are awarded to support the development of regional ‘talent hub’ cooperation models and services. Talent hub models offer customer-oriented service paths to make it easier to attract and recruit international talent and to support their settlement and integration.

Talent hubs also provide services that bring employers and international talent together.

Municipalities with at least 15,000 foreign language-speaking residents are eligible to apply for the grants which cover up to 70% of the project’s costs. Applicants are expected to finance 30% of the project costs themselves. In joint projects, all applicants are required to contribute to project financing.

New academic programmes

Esa Hämäläinen, director of administration at the University of Helsinki, told University World News the university collaborates closely with the government’s Talent Boost programme.

“We are developing new programmes (both at masters and bachelor degree level), and are developing our policy of waivers to be more lucrative to new students, and we already try to make it smoother for foreign students to get into the Finnish labour market during their studies.

“We also have some targeted internationalisation measures and programmes which focus on international students, one example being our Africa Programme.”

Hämäläinen said the university had lobbied for changes to the legislation for a long time.

“As such, this legislative change does not directly cause any changes to our policy. We warmly welcome this change. We would have wished that the job-seeking students’ and researchers’ permit had been extended further, although two years looks better than it did,” Hämäläinen said.

“We have the international multidisciplinary masters programmes (36 programmes altogether) and one bachelor degree. Since the introduction of tuition fees for non-EU students, the numbers of applicants have risen considerably with the new offer and our marketing efforts.

Hämäläinen said the university’s multidisciplinary programmes were popular and results from the latest application round show that three had more than 5,600 applicants for just under 1,200 places.

“Currently we wait [until July] to see how many of those accepted will actually arrive.

“The next application round for autumn 2023 begins in December this year so we obviously hope this new change in legislation makes it easier for future students to enter the country.

“All in all, there are a lot of ongoing efforts to attract talent to Finland,” Hämäläinen said.