This page explains what you need to do to get started with your studies in the Nursing TopUp programme. These instructions are for students starting their studies in August 2026 (NS26-F).

Dear Student,

Congratulations on accepting your study place in Arcada’s Nursing TopUp programme! 
Your studies will start in August, which means it’s important that you take an active role right from the beginning.

This page contains a lot of information and instructions. If you are eager to get started you can do steps 1, 2 and 3 now. Steps 4, 5 and 6 will have to wait until August because it’s not possible to do them before your right to study at Arcada officially starts on 1 August. Read through everything now so that you know what’s expected of you and then put a reminder in your calendar in the first week of August to do the steps that you can’t do now.

The course registration must be done between 1 August and 10 August, but your actual classes will not start before 15 August.

Step 1: Watch the Introduction Recordings

Please begin by watching these two recordings about the journey that you are about to embark on.

Step 2: Activate you Arcada IT user account

Your Arcada IT user account will give you access to all of our various online systems. You can activate your IT account yourself, it only takes a few minutes, just go here and click the green Activate IT-account button. Follow the instructions from there.

Step 3: Start Using Your Arcada E-mail

As a student at Arcada you have an Arcada e-mail address. Your e-mail address is your username @arcada.fi. The simplest way to access your e-mail is just to go to http://outlook.arcada.fi/ . But you can also set it up to work with your favourite e-mail app on your phone or laptop if you prefer that. 

Once your studies start, we will only send information to this address so don’t forget to check it regularly. And always use this e-mail when communicating with Arcada staff. If you e-mail us from your private e-mail we may not reply.

Step 4: Create Your Study Plan and Sign up for Courses

Because your right to study at Arcada officially starts on 1 August you will not be able to do this part before then, but the deadline for signing up for courses is 10 August, so it’s important that you do this part between 1 August and 10 August.

Don’t rush through these instructions. Grab a cup of coffee, sit down and go through them slowly, step by step.

Sisu (https://sisu.arcada.fi/ ) is Arcada's study administration system. This is where you can check your individual study plan, sign up for courses and update your contact information. 

  • Log in to Sisu now and start by creating your study plan (see instructions)
    • The study plan shows the list of the courses and clinical practices that you have to complete to graduate.

During the Autumn semester of 2026 you will be doing five courses.

  • Start by registering for the three courses listed below (see instructions). There are several different ways to register for courses. If you choose to do it through the timeline you will have to select a timing template. Make sure you select the template called Studies started August 2026.
    • Nursing and Healthcare in Finland: Skills, Simulation and Application of Critical Thinking in Finnish Care Setting (NS-2-030, course description )
    • Medication administration and patient safety (NS-2-036, course description )
    • Finnish Society and Healthcare Legislation (NS-1-043, course description )
  • Apart from the three courses above you will also be doing two language course, but these courses have several parallel groups. To make sure that you are signed up for the correct group our language teachers will register you for these two courses, so do not sign up for them yourself
  • Unsure if you signed up correctly? Check under Registration in the main menu. Completed registrations are listed under Registration processed on the right. Here you can also see if you have already been signed up for the language courses.
  • Once you are signed up for courses you can see the schedule of the courses under Study calendar in the main menu.
  • A few hours after you have registered for the courses in Sisu, they will appear in our e-learning platform itslearning (see below).

Well done, you’re doing good so far! Now take a break and come back tomorrow when your courses have become available in itslearning.

Step 5: Start Studying

To find the actual contents and assignments of your courses go to our e-learning platform itslearning (https://arcada.itslearning.com ). If you are doing this in early August not all of the material may be available yet.

Have a look through these courses and read any introductions and watch any introductions recordings that you come across:

  • Nursing and Healthcare in Finland
  • Medication administration and patient safety
  • Finnish Society and Legislation

There will be a lot of material and a number of mandatory assignments and quizzes in each course. Unless otherwise stated you can work through them at your own pace but you will not get any credits before everything has been completed in a course.

Links to online lectures will always be available within each course in itslearning.

If you see a course called Nursing General Information, this is a page with relevant information for all our nursing students and not an actual course that you have to do.

Step 6: Your schedule

If you want to see your schedule on your phone, download and activate the Tuudo app but remember that you have to sign up for the courses in Sisu first (see step 2).

The Tuudo app also works as a student card, so don’t forget to activate the student card to get your student discounts.

Important to Remember

  • TopUp studies require independence and responsibility – you are expected to keep track of your own progress and to make sure you have completed all the assignments in a course. If you’re not sure what to do next, ask!
  • If you have questions about a specific course, please contact the responsible teacher of that course directly.

Nice to Know

Need Help?

If you face difficulties, have questions or just want to say hello, you are welcome to join our online Drop-In Q&A session on 13 August 9:00–11:00

We also have two e-mail addresses that you can e-mail with questions about your studies:

But please note, that these two addresses will not be active during the summer.

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We are happy to have you with us and wish you a great start to your studies!

Warm regards,
Arcada Nursing TopUp Team