Study allowance and grants
Student Financial Aid
As a student, you may be eligible to apply for Kela's student financial aid. The student financial aid comprises the study grant and government loan guarantee. The basis for granting student financial aid is acceptance to a university of applied sciences, full-time study, academic progress, and economic need. Full-time studies have to continue for a minimum of eight consecutive weeks at a time. Studies which aim at completion of a higher education degree are full-time. Other higher education studies are full-time if the extent of the studies is on average a minimum of five credits per month of study.
The student financial aid can be granted no earlier than from the beginning of the application month.
From 1 August 2014 students of all TAMK's degree programmes are entitled to nine student financial aid months. The financial aid months are placed on 1 September – 31 May. A calendar month entitles students to student financial aid if it includes a minimum of 18 study days. Students who begin their studies on 14 August at the latest can thus apply for student financial aid from 1 August. Continuing students can apply for student financial aid for the summer months (June-August) based on a summer study plan.
If student financial aid has been granted for the whole study time, you do not need to apply it separately for each academic year. Payment of the student financial aid continues automatically for example after the summer holiday.
Financial aid for foreign students
Monitoring of Academic Progress
The monitoring concerns studies completed by the end of the previous academic year (31 July).
Written enquiries are sent to those students whose academic progress has not been satisfactory. Studies are considered to progress satisfactorily if students complete on average at least 5 credits per financial aid month (from 1 August 2011) and 4.8 credits per financial aid month (until 31 July 2011).
In addition, students have to complete a minimum of 20 credits in an academic year even if they only used 1-3 financial aid months during the academic year (minimum progress requirement). The change took effect on 1 August 2014.
Students have to offer a written explanation to Kela stating the reasons for not achieving satisfactory number of credits. If the explanation is accepted, payment of student financial aid can be continued either normally or for a fixed term. If the student has no satisfactory explanation for the slow academic progress, the student financial aid may be discontinued and recovery considered. If the student does not respond to the enquiry, the student financial aid is discontinued.
Student Financial Aid for Summer Studies
Student financial aid can also be granted for summer months on a separate application. At TAMK, studies completed on 1 June – 31 August are considered summer studies. As regards the Degree Programmes in Nursing and Health Care, Radiography and Radiotherapy, Emergency Care, and Physiotherapy started before 1 August 2014, studies completed on 1 June – 31 July are considered summer studies.
Student financial aid is granted for summer studies based on the data given by the student in the application.
Detailed instructions for application of student financial aid for summer studies
Student financial aid is applied for summer studies either through Kela's online services at www.kela.fi/asiointior with the form OT 15.
Further information
Student Financial Aid and Study Progress Monitoring
Kela's websites: www.kela.fi.
Adult education students can apply for adult education subsidy from the Education Fund: www.koulutusrahasto.fi.
Other support forms
Sickness allowance
See Kela's webpages or the study guide section on student financial aid.
Subsistence subsidy
See Kela's webpages.
Maternity, paternity and parental allowances
See Kela's webpages.
General housing allowance
See Kela's webpages.