Overview

The University of Tampere is a public, research-oriented university with over 15,000 students. University of Tampere was founded in 1925 in Helsinki as a College of Social Sciences. UTA is Finland's leading site for Social Sciences, including Journalism and Mass Communication, which was the first institution of higher education in Scandinavia to introduce Journalism as a discipline. Many classes are taught in English. The university has an active exchange student population.

Finland lies in the Northeastern corner of the European Union, bordering Russia, a country of just 5 million people but an area the size of the United Kingdom. Culturally and politically part of Scandinavia (a province of Sweden for 600 years) Finland has a Center-Left coalition government. Unusual in many respects, Finnish has a peculiar language (Finnish is related to Estonian and Hungarian) although most people also speak English. The country has an amazing media landscape (with the highest newspaper readership after Norway and Japan; first Scandinavian country to have commercial TV) and is the home of Nokia.

Tampere is Finland's second largest town with 200,000 inhabitants. Traditionally the country's most industrialized town, it combines paper, metal and machinery with IT including Nokia (the company started over 100 years ago in a small neighboring town Nokia). It is the site of two universities and a flourishing cultural life.

Eligibility

The program is open to all graduate and undergraduate students at The University of Texas at Austin. Undergraduate students must have an overall UT-Austin GPA of 3.0 and have completed a minimum of 60 credit hours by the semester of participation.

Courses and Credit

All courses are considered in-residence by The University of Texas. Grades earned during the program will compute into the UT GPA. Students are expected to register for a full-time equivalent course load, though credit hours earned will vary by the class (not all are 3 hour courses). Courses taken abroad must be matched to a specific UT course in order for work to be credited on a student’s official transcript.

Accommodations

Program participants are guaranteed dorm housing provided that the necessary forms are submitted by the University of Tampere deadline.

Scholarships and Financial Aid

Students may use any federal, state, or institutional aid they would normally be awarded by the Office of Student Financial Services (OSFS), excluding work-study, to help pay for study abroad. Financial aid awards can also be recalculated to cover increased costs associated with study abroad. Additionally, most private scholarships are applicable to study abroad - however, students must confirm that with the donor. Learn more about funding for study abroad.

Student Expenses

This is an approximate guide to student expenses associated with this program. Additional costs for recreational travel/sightseeing and personal expenses are not included in this budget.