Scholarships

Essential information regarding the scholarships at Arcada

Arcada University of Applied Sciences offers scholarships for bachelor's degree students. The scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic performance in the form of a tuition fee waiver. Scholarships are not granted for the first year. Master's degree or TopUp Nursing students are not eligible for scholarships.

Please note that only students paying tuition fees can be granted a scholarship.

The criteria for the scholarships available depend on the year you have been admitted as a student at Arcada. All criteria can be found by clicking here, Scholarship criteria, or by using the link on the right hand side of this page. Please read through the critera applicable to you carefully before submitting an application.

Scholarship application

The deadline for submitting the scholarship application is on 16 June 2025. However, if you are still waiting for completed credits to be registered in order to be eligible for a scholarship, you may submit your application until 11 July 2025. (Please note the exceptions further down below.)

A decision on the application will typically be made within two weeks but the process may require additional time in certain cases. Longer processing times are especially to be expected during the month of July due to summer vacations. You will also receive information about the payment process with the decision on your scholarship application.

NB! You are not allowed to submit more than one scholarship application per academic year.

How to apply

The scholarship application can be found as an online form here starting from 4 April 2025. You will need access to your transcript of records (which you can download through Sisu) in order to know how many credits you have achieved and what your grade average is. You also need to make sure your personal details in Sisu are up-to-date before submitting the application as we are unable to process applications that have information that does not correspond to the information available in Sisu.

Please read through the instructions on the scholarship application carefully and do not submit the application if you do not fulfill the eligibility criteria. If you are uncertain whether you fulfill the scholarship criteria, please contact Student Affairs through e-mail to receive guidance.

Click here to access the scholarship application form. External link

How to calculate your grade average

1. Add all grades on your transcript of records together (numbered only, courses graded pass/fail do not affect your grade average).
2. Divide the total with the number of grades you added together.

For example, a student has completed 10 courses at Arcada with the following grades: 3, 4, 2, 5, 2, 4, 4, 3, 3, 5. To calculate their grade average, the student adds all numbers together (3+4+2+5+2+4+4+3+3+5=35) and divides the sum with the amount of grades added (35/10=3,5).

Please note that Sisu calculates the grade average with up to 2 decimals and these will not be rounded up or down. For example a grade average of 3,98 can not be counted as 4.

Exceptions

An exception to the scholarship application process can be made for students who, due to the following circumstances, are unable to submit their scholarship application due to missing credits:

• If you are on international student exchange during the Spring semester and the credits from the other school abroad cannot be processed by Arcada UAS by 11 July 2025.
• If your credits cannot be visible on your transcript of records by 11 July 2025 due to issues related to the new student information system Sisu.

These students are offered the option to pay the full tuition fee for the autumn semester prior to 15 August 2025 and register as present for the autumn semester only. Once the necessary credits have been registered, please submit your scholarship application immediately, however no later than 31 October. Please note that the credits must be registered as having been attained during 1 Aug 2024 – 31 July 2025. Once a decision has been made on your application, your attendance can either be extended to include the spring semester as well (in the case of receiving a 50 percent scholarship) or you will need to pay the remaining part of the tuition fee in order to register for the spring semester (in the case of receiving a 30 or 40 percent scholarship). More information will be provided by Student Affairs.

If you do not fulfill the criteria for a scholarship after all credits have been registered, please make sure to complete your tuition fee payment for the spring semester by 15 December 2025.

Student Affairs handles all matters related to scholarships and tuition fees for continuing students. If you have an issue please contact E-mail: studiearenden@arcada.fi for assistance. Admissions services handles tuition fees for first year students.