Information for new students

Welcome to the University of Helsinki! If you are a new exchange student or an international master's degree student at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, you can find information about arriving in Finland and your studies on this page.

• Information for new students
  • • Important! 
    • The Campus
    • Orientation
    • Student Services and International Exchange Services
    • Student Union and Registering as an attending student
    • The University of Helsinki page for new students and Uni Arrival App
    • Public Transportation
    • Courses
    • Language Courses
    • Housing
    • Student Organisations
    • Mailing Lists
    • Erasmus Student Network (ESN)
    • Events during the spring

Important! 

1. Orientation takes place on Thursday 12th and Friday 13th of January. Take an official ID to the orientation with you! Most courses start on Monday 16th of January.
2. If you need some kind of certificate of arrival signed for your home university, take it to the orientation with you. You can get your Learning Agreement signed at the International Exchange Services later on.
3. At least in previous years ESN (Erasmus Student Network) has been handing out free sim cards to exchange students at the Welcome Fair. 
4. If you are going to rent an apartment at HOAS or Unihome, and arrive when their office is closed, you can ask me to pick up your key so that you don't have to get a room in a hotel/hostel.

The Campus

You will be studying at the Kumpula campus,where the faculty of natural sciences is located. You can get to Kumpula for example by taking a bus from the Railway Square, next to the Central Railway Station. Information on public transport can be found under "HSL and Journey Planner" on this page. Mathematics, statistics and computer science are taught in the building called  Exactum; physics and astronomy are taught in Physicum. You can find the Kumpula campus map here.

Orientation

The orientation of new students starts on Thursday January 12th and ends on Friday January 13th. On Thursday there will be faculty and departmental presentations, after which we'll go to the Welcome Fair where you can for example apply for a student card and get your IT account. On Friday we will have an IT training session and a tour of the campus. Orientation starts at 9 am on Thursday, in room E204 of Physicum. Remember to bring an official ID to the orientation! 

The orientation programme can be found here.

Student Services and International Exchange Services

Student Services provide the students with all kinds of services relevant to studying. There are six Student Service points which provide services for all students i.e. you can use whichever service point you want. There is one Student Service point located in Kumpula campus, on the 2nd floor of Physicum. For more information and opening hours, take a look here.

International Exchange Services deal with everything to do with international students and exchange programs. You can for example get your Learning Agreement signed there. They'll know how to help you with almost everything (or at least they'll know who to ask next), so you can contact them if you have any questions concerning your studies. They are located on each campus in conjuction with the local Student Services, so in Kumpula they are on the 2nd floor of Physicum. Check out their page for more info. 

Student Union and Registering as an attending student

If you are a degree student, you will have to register as attending for the fall. Note that this only concerns degree students, exchange students do not have to register. The deadline for registration is on 15th of January. For degree students, paying the fee for Student Union is mandatory, but it is recommended to join the Student Union even if you are an exchange student, since membership gives you several benefits. You can find more information about the Student Union and the benefits on http://hyy.helsinki.fi/en. You will also receive more information about the Union at the Welcome Fair.

Instructions for registering can be found on https://www.helsinki.fi/en/studying/register-as-an-attending-or-non-attending-student.

The University of Helsinki page for new students and Uni Arrival App

Here you can find general information for new international students: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/studying/new-students. Under "Arriving and Settling in" you can find a lot of useful information on e.g. transportation, registering with the authorities and services provided by the university.

This is a Facebook group for all new international students at UH.

The Uni Arrival App provides you with a checklist of the things you should take care of when arriving in Finland and starting your studies: https://uniarrival.helsinki.fi/app/index.html#/.

Public Transportation

On the webpage of HSL (Helsinki Region Transport) you can find information on public transportation in Helsinki (how to use, prices, timetables etc.). At the Welcome Fair you will receive a certificate which allows you to get a student discount for the public transportation card. Before that you can buy single tickets or day tickets from ticket machines or R-kiosks (small shops marked with a yellow R-sign). 

Journey Planner helps you plan your routes when using public transportation. It will give you a route to our campus if you write "Kumpula campus" as your destination.

Courses

On this page you can find a list of mathematics and statistics courses for the spring. If the name of a course is in English, it should be safe to assume that it is also held in English. The courses under the section "Advanced Studies" are meant for students working on their master's degree and the courses under the title "Aineopinnot" are bachelor level courses. The course pages will have information on the content of the courses and prerequisities.

For information about physics courses, check out http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/english/studying/courses/physics.html. 

Language Courses

If you are interested in learning Finnish or taking some other language course, the Language Center offers many courses suitable for non-Finnish speakers. You can find the front page of the Language Center here. Information on language courses suitable for international students can be found by clicking "International students" and then "Language courses".

Housing

You can find housing for students from HOAS. We suggest that you apply urgently if you don't have an apartment for the spring and haven't yet applied. The apartments offered by HOAS are more affordable than those that can be found from private renters. Another webpage you can check for apartments is Unihome, which offers apartments specifically for exchange students. If you have problems with finding an apartment, please contact your tutors so we can help you.

Here is also a list of tips for finding an apartment if you couldn't get one from Unihome or HOAS, but we hope that you still contact us about your apartment situation.

Student Organisations

There are approximately 250 student organisations operating within the Student Union. The organisations include student nations, faculty and subject organisations, choirs, orchestras and other cultural organisations, sports and game clubs etc. Anyone can join most of the organisations. The organisations offer many free time activities and events for their members as well as a chance to get to know other students. You can find more information about the student organisations at http://hyy.helsinki.fi/en/organisations/hyys-organisations. You can also get more information about the organisations at the Welcome Fair.

Important student organisations for math/statistics/physics/astronomy students include:

Matrix ry - student organisation for mathematics

Moodi ry - student organisation for statistics

Resonanssi ry - student organisation for physics

Meridiaani ry - student organisation for astronomy

Matlu ry - organisation for the Faculty of Science. Consists of 18 member organisations (including the ones mentioned above). Being a member of any member organisation allows you to attend any activities by Matlu.

Limes ry - organisation for students who study at Kumpula campus

KSI (Kumpula Science International) - organisation for both international and Finnish staff/students of Kumpula campus. Find more information on their Facebook group.

Mailing Lists

Mailing lists are an important part of keeping up to date with current events within your department. 

Important mailing lists:

matl-opiskelijat - Departmental mailing list for the students of mathematics/statistics. Information on things to do with studying.

math-stat - Departmental mailing list for the department of mathematics and statistics. Information on everything to do with the department (seminars, colloquims etc).

matrix - Mailing list of the student organisation of mathematics, Matrix.

reson - Mailing list of the student organisation of physics, Resonanssi.

Joining a mailing list:

Send the following message

subscribe name of mailing list your email address

to the address majordomo@helsinki.fi. Don't write anything on the subject line!

Leaving a mailing list:

Send the following message

unsubscribe name of mailing list your email address

to the address majordomo@helsinki.fi. Dont't write anything on the subject line!

Example:

If I wanted to join the mailing list of Resonanssi, I would send the message

subscribe reson meliina.rantakaulio@helsinki.fi

to the address majordomo@helsinki.fi.

Erasmus Student Network (ESN)

ESN is a non-profit student organisation representing international students. Their section at the University of Helsinki is called ESN Uni Helsinki. ESN Uni Helsinki organises many events and trips for international students. For more information take a look at their Facebook page and join their Facebook group for the academic year 2016-2017.

Here you can find a calendar of ESN events. Please note that the calendar is not completed as events are added during the semester. The best way to keep up with the events is to join ESN's Facebook group.

Events during the spring

Other event ideas:

• Cooking night/International dinner
• Trip to Suomenlinna
• Bowling night
• International hangout at Klusteri