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20014 Turun yliopisto, Finland. Tel. +358 (0)2 333 5787

Master's Degree Programme in Environmental Sciences

 

Application requirements 2012

 

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

 

General degree requirement

BSc degree that formally qualifies the student to access Master level studies in the country where it has been completed. This degree should correspond to at least 180 ECTS (European credits) or to three years of full-time study. It should be awarded by a full university (i.e. an institution of higher education offering a doctorate).

OR

A polytechnic degree from an ammattikorkeakoulu institution in Finland, which in combination with additional studies that the student will be required to complete while studying for the Master’s Degree (see Additional studies below) and possible work experience can be considered to qualify the student for Master’s Degree studies. Applicants seeking admission on the basis of a degree from ammattikorkeakoulu institution in Finland should note the language requirement concerning the Finnish language.

 

Programme specific degree requirements

The student’s previous degree on the basis of which s/he is seeking admission to the Master’s Degree Programme should be in a relevant field of study. Relevant fields of previous studies for the Master’s Degree Programme in Environmental Sciences vary from biology, biochemistry, chemistry, geography, geology, environmental science to earth sciences, depending on the chosen specialization field.

The decision for admission will be based on the relevance of the student’s previous degree(s); the amount, relevance and grades of the courses in the degree(s), the language test result (see Language requirements); and the motivation letter included in the application.

 

Additional studies

The contents of formally eligible students’ previous degrees do not always correspond to the academic level of the programme, and therefore admitted students can be required to complete additional, Bachelor level studies while studying for the Master’s Degree.

Additional, Bachelor level studies are mostly required from applicants accepted on the basis of a polytechnic degree from an ammattikorkeakoulu institution in Finland. Since the main language of instruction at Bachelor level is Finnish, knowledge of Finnish is necessary for all applicants with an ammattikorkeakoulu degree (see Language requirements).

Also students holding a Bachelor’s degree from a university can be either advised or required to complete additional studies, e.g. in a case when the student lacks previous knowledge in a certain field which is required to be able to follow a specific course within the Master’s Degree Programme. These formally eligible students’ need for additional studies is minor compared to the holders of an ammattikorkeakoulu degree (see above), and the additional studies required from these admitted students (often self-studies) can be completed in English.

The additional studies are not part of the Master’s Degree. The extent and contents of the additional studies are defined individually for each student when a personal study plan is outlined in the beginning of the studies. Depending on the amount of additional studies, the study time for the Master’s Degree can be more than the targeted study time. The amount of additional studies cannot exceed 60 ECTS.

 

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS

 

All applicants must prove their knowledge of English in one of the ways accepted by the Faculty.

Applicants seeking admission on the basis of a polytechnic degree from an ammattikorkeakoulu institution in Finland must prove their proficiency also in Finnish, since the additional studies that these students will need to complete in parallel to their Master level studies are available only in Finnish.

The majority of the applicants must pass a language proficiency test to prove their English language skills. The language requirements are not only formal - the universities expect their students to have good English skills to ensure that they are able to pursue academic studies at the Master level and communicate fluently with professors, other university staff and other students.

If you must pass an English proficiency test and have not yet passed one of the accepted tests, please remember that it can take a significant amount of time to find a suitable testing session and have the test results delivered to the University Admissions Finland. All language test results must arrive by the deadline and it is the applicant’s responsibility to see to that all enclosures and language test results arrive on time!

The dates for the testing sessions are given on the language test organiser's web site. At certain times of the year - especially from January onwards - testing sessions are very crowded due to a lot of application deadlines at that time of year.

 

Please also read information about language requirements for applicants from English speaking countries.

 

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

 

Deadline

The application period is 1 December 2011 - 31 January 2012 for studies starting in September 2012. Students graduating after the application deadline may apply, on the condition that the application includes a statement from the home institution stating the expected date of graduation. In this case, a certified copy of the original degree certificate (in the original language), and an English, Swedish of Finnish translation (or an English-language Diploma Supplement, concerns graduates from European institutions of higher education), must arrive at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences by 25 June 2012 at 16:15 (local time in Finland).

Applications arriving after the deadline are not considered. Postmark dates on the applications will not be taken into account; the applications must arrive at University Admissions Finland before the above deadline.

NB. if an applicant is graduating in June, it will be difficult to provide the degree certificate and its translation by the given date, and these applicants are recommended to apply in the next application round (next spring).

 

Application form and enclosures

The electronic application template can be accessed at http://www.universityadmissions.fi/ during the application period (maintenance breaks on Mondays at 3-5 pm +2 GMT). Please note that only filling in the application template on the above mentioned website is not considered an application as the form has to printed, signed and submitted together with inclosures. Already prior to the start of the application period it is possible to create a MyUAF account from which you can fill in the application template during the application period.

The applicants should submit their applications to University Admissions Finland (located in Helsinki), where the applications are preprocessed. After this all applications are forwarded to the universities, where the contents of the complete applications are evaluated and the admission decisions are made.

Please follow the application instructions carefully and note that only complete applications are processed. If the application lacks enclosures a message is sent from the application system asking for the missing enclosures. Please note that during the processing of the applications we are not necessarily able to answer queries concerning the status of the application.

 

Motivation letter for the specialisation field

The applicants choose their preferred specialisation field (maximum two fields in the order of preference) already when filling in the application form. The students are admitted directly into the specialisation fields on the basis of their background education and future interests. Into the application form the applicant must write a motivation letter giving reasons why he/she wants to specialize in the particular field which he/she is applying to and describe also how it fits in with his/her previous studies and how graduation from the programme would benefit his/her future interests.

Specialization fields in the programme are Ecotoxicology; Spatial and ecological interactions; and Quaternary paleoecology and environmental change. Descriptions for the fields can be found here. Curricula for the fields are available here.

 

The following documents must be submitted by the applicant:

Collect the enclosures which the programme requires. They are listed also at the first page of the Application Form. Mark down your Application Form number into every document, and the number together with the name of the university into the lower left corner of the envelope.

• A printed paper copy of the application form, bearing the original signature of the applicant.
• An officially certified copy of the original degree certificate (in the original language) AND an English, Swedish or Finnish translation (or an English-language Diploma Supplement, concerns graduates from European institutions of higher education).
• An officially certified copy of the original transcript of study records (in the original language) AND an English, Swedish or Finnish translation (or an English-language Diploma Supplement, concerns graduates from European institutions of higher education).
• If the Bachelor's degree will be completed after the deadline, a statement from the home University stating the expected date of graduation.
• Certificate of knowledge of English (see Language requirements). Please note, that without one of the mentioned proof for English language skills the application is incomplete and will not be processed!
• Certificate of knowledge of Finnish (required only from applicants who are seeking admission on the basis of a degree from an ammattikorkeakoulu institution in Finland, see Language requirements).

 

Definitions of the application documents can be checked here.

Please see country specific requirements in the way of certifying the copies and submitting the documents.

All copies of original documents must be officially certified (attested) by the awarding institution or a notary public (please note also country-specific requirements). Copies of copies will not be accepted. All copies must have the original stamp and signature on them. Please note that all pages of the copy must be stamped separately and clearly indicate the signature of the certifying officer and the stamp of the awarding institution or notary public. A stamp stating only "Certified true copy" will not be accepted.  In Finland a notary public (julkinen notaari) can be found at the local Register Office (maistraatti).

All documents should be submitted in Finnish, Swedish or English. Also the copies of the original documents have to be submitted. Translations of educational documents must be 1) issued by the awarding institution or 2) officially certified copy of a translation issued by the awarding institution or 3) translated by an official translator or 4) officially certified copy of a translation made by an official translator.An official/authorized translator is someone who has been granted the right to confirm translations as legally valid. In Finland the authorized translators are listed on http://www.oph.fi/info/kaantajat/

Please note that the authenticity of all educational credentials and language results are verified.

 

The following document is optional and does not affect the application in any way. It is simply asked for identification purposes when handling the applicant’s documents, which sometimes contain the applicant’s name in different forms:

• Copy of information page of the passport or identification card containing the applicant's name, date of birth and photo.

In addition, during the application round, a secondary/high school certificate may be requested from the applicant, if this is necessary for determining the length of the applicant’s previous education (this concerns degrees from a minority of countries).

 

Send the application via mail to University Admissions Finland:

University Admissions Finland

Yliopistonkatu 2

FI-00170 Helsinki

FINLAND

If you use a courier service please also mark down the University Admissions Finland’s phone number +358 (0)9 191 23528.

Applications sent by e-mail or fax are not accepted. Application documents will not be returned to the applicant. Incomplete applications will not be processed.

 

 

ADMISSION

 

The maximum number of students admitted to the programme is confirmed during October. All applicants who submitted their application by the deadline will be notified about the decision concerning their applications. The letters will be posted by regular mail on 16 April 2012. The names of the admitted students (concerning applicants who have given us the permission to do so) will also be published on the websites of the programme.

Because of the limited admission quota possession of the degree requirements does not guarantee admission. Only those applicants who have attained a high level of academic performance in their previous studies will be admitted.

The students can apply to two specialisation fields at the most. The applications are considered according to the order of priority asked from and given by the applicant. The students are admitted directly into different specialisation fields on the basis of their background education and their reasons for choosing the particular specialisation field. In addition to the suitability of the degree, the student’s success in his/her previous studies and the motivation letter attached to the application are evaluated. The admission quota for each specialization field is not predetermined separately.

03.10.2011 13:25 Hanna Tranberg