University of Helsinki

The University of Helsinki is Finland's oldest and largest university, founded in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Turku and moved to Helsinki in 1828 after the Great Fire of Turku. It is a public comprehensive research university and the country's principal bilingual Finnish-and-Swedish academic center. Its four campuses are City Centre, Kumpula, Meilahti, and Viikki. Its defining fact is that national origin as the transferred Turku academy.

Eleven faculties cover arts, law, medicine, science, pharmacy, biological and environmental sciences, educational sciences, social sciences, agriculture and forestry, veterinary medicine, and theology. Graduate students work in the Helsinki University Hospital system, the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, and science sites at Kumpula and Viikki. Law, medicine, physics, and Russian and East European studies are established strengths.

Enrollment is about 31,000, including a large master's and doctoral population. International students number several thousand, from EU states, China, and elsewhere. Faculty number about 4,000. Alumni include Linux creator Linus Torvalds, economist Bengt Holmstrom, and president Tarja Halonen.

Graduate study follows the Bologna model: two-year master's degrees, many taught in English, and salaried doctoral programs in doctoral schools. Supervision is by a thesis committee. The academic year runs in two semesters, from August or September to May. Doctoral candidates are typically employed on grants or university contracts. Libraries in the city center and laboratories at Meilahti and Viikki are linked by tram and bus.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of Helsinki lists 8 graduate programs across 8 subjects: 7 master's programs and 1 doctoral program, with the widest choice in biology, computer science and data science & business analytics. University of Helsinki holds rank 131 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.