Language of Instruction

The language of instruction for exchange students at HAAGA–HELIA is English, and HAAGA-HELIA provides a wide range of courses in this language. There are seven degree programmes taught entirely in English. In addition, the Finnish degree programmes have several courses available in English.

Exchange students are expected to have a good command of spoken and written English in order to be able to follow the lectures and complete the course assignments, oral presentations and exams. For more information on language requirements, please see Admission.

Course selection guidelines

HAAGA-HELIA has campuses in three different cities in Finland – Helsinki, Porvoo and Vierumäki. It is possible to select courses only from one town, because the distances between these cities are considerable: Helsinki – Porvoo 80km, Helsinki – Vierumäki 140km and Porvoo – Vierumäki 80km.

The normal course load is 30 ECTS per semester. It is recommended not to take more than 35 ECTS.

You should have at least basic studies (one year) of the subject you will be studying at HAAGA-HELIA.  This means that if you study in a business programme at your home university, you are unfortunately not allowed to take courses from the tourism programme at HAAGA-HELIA. The students that do not study business, IT, tourism, hospitality or sports in their home university will have a very limited selection of courses available at HAAGA-HELIA.

Please note! In some courses (especially advanced level business courses) you may have to pass a placement test in order to prove having prerequisites needed for the course. According to the test result teacher decides whether a student can attend the course or not. 

Do not choose courses which have overlapping times.  The students studying in Helsinki should take into account the distances between campuses.