Finland: Excellent, according to International Students

The International Student Satisfaction Awards are granted by StudyPortals, an international study choice platform, that is supported by the European Commission as well as national institutions and international student associations alike. The 2016 awards ranked Finland in as the 4^th best country to study at in Europe. Although this is a drop from 2014 and 2015, when Finland was rated as the number one best place for studies, the small country is still definitely going strong: in relation to population, Finland has more excellent in international student satisfaction ranked higher education institutions than any of the countries on the list!

In 2016, a total of 593 international students in Finland rated their universities. Their overall satisfaction grade was 9.1 out of 10. Some comments that the students wrote include the following:

“Finland is an amazing country!”

“Besides the excellent education system, there are fantastic leisure opportunities. The snow also creates beautiful scenery!”

“You feel immediately at home!”

In the 2014 Award report, when Finland topped the list in international student satisfaction, StudyPortals detailed the reasons why the students liked to study in Finland. The biggest reason that influenced their decision was unsurprisingly academics, while the runner-up reasons were city & culture, university services, social life, overall impression, personal & professional development, and surroundings, in this order. Students were especially happy with the universities’ student services, and 15% of the them said that this was a major plus influencing their rating, compared to the European average of only 10%.

One person commented: “You are very well taken care of and the university staff do their best to make you feel welcome, and almost everything is in English.”