Studying and Living in Finland LUT Alumni Experience by Aisulu Harjula

The calendar. Time counting in Finland.

Have you noticed a specific Finnish way of counting time and putting events in your calendar? It is quite widespread in Finland and hard to ignore!

Before I arrived to Finland, I’ve been always saying about future events like “I have one-week holidays in mid-April. I have two exams in the end of May.”

But in Finland you don’t say it that way. Instead, you may hear “I’m on holidays on the week 16. I have two exams on the week 22.” So does the whole school and business system work!

Capture1Famous Wappu celebrations (the day of 1st of May) in Finland are between weeks 16-18. Lots of fun and games for students.

It sounds pretty different! And this is a great system to understand and organize own activities. All the academic year is divided to four periods just as the calendar year has four seasons. There are two periods (one and two) in a winter term and two periods (three and four) in a spring term.

Startup Stock PhotosThis time we have intensive group works during week 8.

There are also special weeks which are reserved for intensive studying, they are just before exam weeks or at the same time with exams. During these intensive weeks courses are not taught anymore. For example, in our school these weeks are 43 and 50 in 2014 and 9, 19, 20, 21 in the year 2015.

study (2)So exams are taken four times per year. For me it’s easier to balance between studying and examination time.

Everyone in the world can get to know which week is now by looking to the Western calendar and in Finland this natural flow of time is used as a main tool to agree upon a schedule!

About The Author

Researcher at LUT, Master of Economics, LUT & GSOM Saint Petersburg State University. Focus on Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability. Background in natural sciences.

20 Comments

  1. Emmanuel uchegbu 20.2.2015 at 20:54

    How can a National Diploma student apply to LUT ongoing free tuition program?

  2. Balabek 22.2.2015 at 03:34

    Hi.
    I had a short visit in Finland and in mid-January I applied for studing in Finland, paticularly at Hamk. And hope that Hamk will send me an invitation and I will have a chance for stading in Finland.
    Thank you!

    • Aysulu 24.2.2015 at 11:27

      That’s great, Balabek! Hopefully, u’ll get invitation. Good luck! =))))

  3. Festy 27.2.2015 at 13:14

    Hi Aysulu,
    I did applied to LUT master’s in Electricity market & power system for 2015 through UAF but was sent an email by UAF that my University of Maryland Eastern Shore in the United States where I did my bachelor’s degree did not send my transcript in the proper manner. I wrote to my school and inform them of the development and they were surprised because that has been the way they have been sending transcript to other schools all over the world and no school have ever complained about the way the transcript is been sent. So I really don’t know what UAF really want out of the transcript cos their complaint has to do with the back flap not stamped with the school’s stamp whence my school had a sticker sealed flap that says “not official if sticker is broken”. Really lost for words!

    • Aysulu 27.2.2015 at 13:28

      Hi Festy,

      I’ve been to similar situation. There were things about the transcripts acceptance between LUT and GSOM (Saint Petersburg State University), and it’s normal to face it, because there are different international standards. What you need to do is to “build a bridge” between two schools, so your options are either to ask from your US university to put stamps on documents and send them to UAF as they require, either to ask your university administration to send an email to UAF explaining its standards.

      Also, check my post about the strategy in dealing with specific issues http://blogs.lut.fi/studying-at-lut/how-to-deal-with-specific-issues-and-get-right-information-in-finland/

      Nice to know your result after.

  4. Festy 27.2.2015 at 14:35

    Thanks Aysulu for your swift response. My university has already sent an email to UAF two days ago. But my worry for now is that UAF doesn’t respond to email sent to it on time. I particular sent an email to them about two weeks ago and I’m yet to receive a reply. Now the deadline for the admission process is today, 27/02/2015 and my status is still “incomplete”. I just hope every sought out itself at the end of it all.

    • Aysulu 27.2.2015 at 21:28

      Hi Festy,

      I advice you to call to UAF straight away. You’ll probably be in time on Monday, 2.03.15 at 9am. There are phone numbers in the previous comment on this page, so +358 40 132 5239, +358 50 441 5646. Or you probably have another direct number. You can check the time difference between your city and LPR at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

  5. Festy 27.2.2015 at 22:00

    Thanks a lot Aysulu! You have just solved one of my problem that has to do with getting a direct line to call UAF. I will put a call across to UAF on Monday. Once again, thanks for your support.

  6. Festy 27.2.2015 at 22:26

    Thanks a lot Aysulu! I will sure put a call across to UAF on Monday.

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