Apply to Master’s Programme in Fine Arts
Master’s admission at the Academy of Fine Arts in autumn 2025. Admission guide to the 2-year Fine Arts Master’s Programme: application instructions and admission criteria.
Key information
- Degree programme: Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Duration of studies 2 years
- Language of degree: Finnish, Swedish or English
- Number of open study places: max. 24 new students
- Application period begins on 6 August and ends on 20 August 2025 at 3:00 p.m. EEST (local Finnish time)
- Second phase remote interviews: 20-28 October 2025
- Announcement of the admission result: 5 November 2025
- Deadline for accepting the study place: 19 November 2025 at 3 p.m. EET (local Finnish time)
- Start of studies: January 2025
- Tuition fee non-EU and non-EEA students who study in English: 12 000 € per academic year
- Possibility to get a 50 % tuition fee waiver
- No tuition fees are charged to citizens of EU and EEA Member States or Switzerland who study in English
- No tuition fees are charged to students who study in Finnish or Swedish
Admission criteria
An applicant can be accepted to undertake studies in the degree programme leading to Master’s degrees in Fine Arts if they:
- demonstrate ability in the fine arts, and have an aptitude for the studies included in the degree programme for master’s degree,
- are deemed to have sufficient experience in fine arts,
- have the necessary educational background required for the studies,
- have demonstrated their language proficiency in the manner specified by the Academy.
The applicant will be deemed eligible to apply if they have the required educational background, they have provided acceptable proof of sufficient language proficiency, and they have submitted the required application materials in accordance with the schedule set by the Academy.
An applicant can be deemed conditionally eligible if the degree required for the eligibility is completed by the deadline for accepting the study place. The admission decision of the Academy of Fine Arts will remain conditional for the applicant until they submit the certificate demonstrating the completion of their degree.
The first phase of the admission process involves determining the applicant’s eligibility and assessing their application and the required accompanying application materials.
Based on the applications, some applicants will be invited to take part in an interview, which comprises the second phase of the admissions procedure.
During the admission process, the applicant’s ability in fine arts is assessed using the following criteria: the applicant’s capacity for expression, the individuality of their expressiveness, and the applicant’s readiness to develop. The suitability for undertaking the studies leading to the Master of Fine Arts degree will be assessed according to the following criteria, among others: the applicant’s educability and motivation, their ability to learn new things, and their ability to analyse their own artistic practice. The evaluation of the applicant’s prior experience of working in the field of fine arts is based on evidence of, e.g., the applicant’s long-term artistic activities, their participation in public fine art projects, and the organisation of art exhibitions and corresponding events.
The programme’s admission jury prepares its proposal for new students to be admitted. The group’s assessment takes both phases of the admission process into account. The dean of the Academy of Fine Arts makes the final decision on which students will be admitted and who will be placed on the waiting list. The new student are admitted on the basis of the subject areas in fine arts.
Applying for transfer from another university
Applicants who are refugees or in a refugee-like situation
Educational background
General eligibility
According to the Universities Act (558/2009, 37§), a person is eligible to apply for the studies leading to a master’s degree in higher education (Master of Fine Arts) if they have completed a relevant bachelor’s degree awarded by a university or a university of applied sciences or a relevant degree programme outside of Finland, which in that country grants eligibility to undertake studies at the corresponding level in higher education. The Academy can also decide to admitted applicants who have not been awarded a relevant degree if they are deemed to have sufficient knowledge and skills required for the studies. The University can require a person admitted as a student to take supplementary studies to acquire the skills necessary for the MFA studies.
Suitable educational background required for eligibility in the master’s degree admissions in fine arts:
- A bachelor’s degree completed at a university or university of applied sciences, either in Finland or abroad
- Other education: the applicant may be accepted to study in the degree programme if the University deems that the applicant has acquired the necessary skills and knowledge for postgraduate studies through other education. In such case, the applicant is asked to provide the relevant diplomas of this education or completed study programmes. The adequacy of the background education of applicants applying under the “other education” basis is assessed on the basis of their application and the application materials. The applicant will not be separately notified of this assessment.
The admissions process also focuses on the applicant’s educability. The master’s degree programme is primarily intended for applicants who do not already have a master’s degree.
Language proficiency requirement
All applicants must prove their proficiency in the language in which they plan to complete their degree, that is, either English, Finnish, or Swedish.
The applicant must prove their language proficiency in accordance with the requirements set by the Academy of Fine Arts and during the application period. An applicant cannot be deemed as eligible to apply if they have not provided acceptable proof of their language proficiency.
How to apply
First phase: electronic application, appendices and required application materials
The application period begins on 6 August 2025 and ends on 20 August 2025 at 3:00 p.m. EEST (local Finnish time).
Fill in an electronic application form in Studyinfo.fi portal during the application period and submit the required appendices.
If you are already a degree student at Uniarts Helsinki and wish to apply for a change of your study right, please see the instructions at the Students Uniarts Helsinki website.
In the application form, fill in your personal information, educational background, and the language in which you are applying to study. Remember to also indicate the subject area to which you are applying in your application form. Applicants can only apply to one subject area. The subject areas are sculpture, painting, printmaking, and time and space arts.
The admission jury may suggest that the applicant be placed in a subject area different to that of the applicant’s own selection after the required materials have been evaluated during the first phase of the assessment.
The application form must include the following appendices and the required application materials, which are submitted electronically via Studyinfo.fi:
- Documents demonstrating the applicant’s educational background
- Document demonstrating the applicant’s language proficiency
- Official proof of identity
- Required application materials (study proposal, résumé/CV, and work portfolio)
- Possible document exempting you from the application fee or the annual tuition fee
Please submit all attachments as PDF files.
The applications, required application materials, or interviews are not scored.
Translation of documents
All certificates and transcripts of records are to be translated by an authorised translator, if they are in a language other than Finnish, Swedish or English.
1) Documents demonstrating the applicant’s educational background
Append to the application certificates which indicate that you have the necessary educational background required for studying in the master’s degree programme: (see: Admission criteria)
- A degree certificate and a transcript of records of a completed higher education degree (a scanned copy of the original document or an authenticated copy)
OR - A certificate of student status and a transcript of records of ongoing studies. Applicants who will graduate by 19 November 2025 at the latest, must append a certificate of student status to the application, which shows the estimated graduation date and the language in which the degree has been completed in case the applicant uses the degree in question to demonstrate their language proficiency. The certificate of student status must be appropriately stamped and signed by the education institution.
OR - Another document that shows that the applicant has the necessary educational background (“other education”) and that the Academy can use to assess the applicant’s skills and knowledge.
In case of a foreign degree, the Academy of Fine Arts may request clarification on the degree’s status within the awarding country’s education system.
2) Document demonstrating the applicant’s language proficiency
Append to the application a language proficiency certificate of the language in which you are applying to study. The language proficiency certificate must meet the proficiency requirements as determined by the Academy (see Admission criteria). Applicants who demonstrate their language proficiency by taking a language test accepted by the Academy of Fine Arts must append a certificate of the completed language test to the application prior to the conclusion of the application period. Language proficiency can only be demonstrated in the manner determined by the Academy, and other evidence of language skills cannot be taken into consideration in the admissions process.
3) Official proof of identity
Append a copy of your passport, EU identity card, or Finnish driving licence to your application. The ID is used to verify the identity of the applicant in the entrance examination.
4) Required application materials (study proposal, résumé, and work portfolio)
Required application materials consist of three parts:
- study proposal
- résumé/CV, and
- work portfolio
Please read the instructions and check the accepted file sizes and formats below. If you do not submit the required materials that you have completed in accordance with the instructions by the due date, your application will be rejected. No additional instructions or examples will be provided for the required materials or any of its parts.
The expectation is that you present your own artworks and own writing in your own words. If you use generative AI in the production of the artworks or the statements about them that should be explicitly acknowledged in the application.
Allowed file formats and sizes
Please submit the required materials in its entirety as a single PDF file. Maximum file size: 100 MB. Please name the file according to the following template: Lastname-Firstname-materials-MFA
Parts of the required materials
1) A study plan. Provide a clear account of why you wish to engage in studies in the master’s degree programme at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki. Why are these studies significant to you right now, and what would you like to accomplish during the two-year degree programme? Although it is likely that your plans will change during your studies, we would ask you to formulate a preliminary plan that outlines the themes and working methods that you intend to focus on during your master’s studies.
The study proposal should not be longer than 3,000 characters (including spaces). The study proposal can be written in Finnish, Swedish, or English.
2) Résumé/CV (information about prior education, possible work experience, possible exhibitions, publications, awards, grants, and study trips). The résumé/CV can be written in Finnish, Swedish, or English.
3) Work portfolio. Instructions for the portfolio can be found below. Please read them carefully.
Work portfolio
Present your artistic work with images in your work portfolio. The content of the work portfolio is not thematically restricted. Please only include recent works that support your application.
The applicant is allowed to present a maximum of eight (8) works in the work portfolio. Please mark down the relevant details of the works, such as the work’s name, size, technique, and year, next to the image. If the presentation of a work involves some speciality, such as the use of artificial intelligence, indicate it in the portfolio in connection with the work description.
The admission jury will not open any links included in the application (e.g., a link to the applicant’s homepage).
If the applicant wishes to supplement the image portfolio using time-based documentation, moving image, audio, or media works, they can submit one (1) sample of a work of this kind as a media file in addition to the image portfolio. A separate media file should only be submitted if it plays an important role in the applicant’s work(s). We recognise that contemporary artists work with a plurality of forms, some of which resist conventional modes of still and moving image representation. Please do your best within these guidelines to represent your work.
The maximum length of the sample is 5 minutes. Accepted file formats: MP3 (sound) or MP4 (video). Maximum file size: 500 MB. Please name the media file according to the following template: Lastname-Firstname-Movingimage-Sound.
The applicant’s name must be clearly indicated in the media file. Information related to the artwork can be summarised either in the media file (e.g., in the opening or end credits) or in connection with the portfolio.
You can use the free HandBrake transcoder software, for instance, for the conversion and packaging of your media file.
5) Possible document exempting you from the application fee or the annual tuition fee
Applicants from outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland are required to pay an application fee in order to apply to higher education studies.
If you are from outside the aforementioned area and you are applying to bachelor’s or master’s level studies in Finland, you will need to pay the application fee.
The application fee is 100 euros. The application fee is collected by the Finnish National Agency for Education.
Paying the application fee guarantees that your application will be processed in a manner described in this admission guide. The application fee does not guarantee that you will be offered admission to studies.
Read more about the application fee and documents for waiving the application fee
Uniarts Helsinki will charge an annual tuition fee from students outside of EU, EEA and Switzerland studying in a bachelor’s or a master’s degree programme in English. If you apply to study in a programme organised in English, you will be liable to pay an annual tuition fee unless you submit a document indicating that you are exempt.
Eligibility to apply
The applicant’s eligibility to apply will be checked in the first phase of the admission procedure.
All applicants will be informed by e-mail of their eligibility to apply on 12 September 2025. The Academy will only evaluate the materials of applicants who have been deemed eligible to apply. If you have not been contacted by the Academy of Fine Arts by 12 September 2025, please be in touch with the admissions services (kuva.admissions(at)uniarts.fi). Be sure to also check your junk e-mail folder.
Second phase: interview
Based on the required materials, some of the applicants will be invited to an interview, which comprises the second phase of the admission procedure.
The interviews will be organised from 20 October 2025 to 28 October 2025. The applicants who are selected to proceed to the second phase of the admission procedure will receive an invitation to the interview by e-mail on 6 October 2025. Applicants who have not been invited to the interview will also be notified of the result by e-mail.
Unless the applicant requests otherwise, the interview will be primarily carried out in the language which the applicant has chosen as the language of study.
Individual arrangements
If the applicant requires individual arrangements during the interview process because of a sensory or physical disability, illness or other corresponding reason, they must apply for individual arrangements by filling in a separate application (see the link below). NB. The application must be submitted to the admissions office during the application period.
Individual arrangements in the entrance examination
Announcing the results
Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts will publish its admissions results on 5 November 2025 on Uniarts Helsinki’s website for those applicants who have given their permission for the publication of their name on the website. After this, applicants can also enquire about the student admissions results via e-mail (kuva.admissions(at)uniarts.fi).
All admitted applicants as well as the applicants on the waiting list will be informed of the results by the Academy of Fine Arts by e-mail. Some e-mail clients may treat our messages as spam, so please check your spam folder as well.
Feedback
The admission jury will only provide feedback to applicants who took part in the 2nd phase of the admission, that is the interview, but who were not admitted as students. Feedback will only be given by request, and information about how to ask for feedback will be sent to the applicants after the results of the student admissions have been published.
Other applicants will not be given feedback during the admission process or after its conclusion.
Request for rectification
Applicants can apply for rectification of the admission decision from Uniarts Helsinki under the Universities Act (558/2009), section 82. The purpose of a written request for rectification is to give the applicant the possibility to request for rectification if there is a reason to believe that there has been an error in the decision-making process. The rectification procedure is not intended as a means for receiving feedback or asking for further information about the admissions process.
A written request for rectification should be submitted within 14 days of the publication of the admission result.
How to request for rectification
Accepting the study place
You can accept a study place using the Studyinfo service, or with the notification included in the letter of acceptance; the latter must be submitted to the Student Admissions Service of Uniarts Helsinki. The study place must be accepted by 19 November 2025 at 3 p.m. EET (local Finnish time) at the latest.
Notifications that arrive after the deadline will not be considered. The notification regarding accepting a study place is binding and cannot be changed or cancelled. If the applicant wishes to cancel their study place after accepting it, they will be regarded as having accepted a study place offered to them during that term.
Read more about the “one study place per term” provision
If the applicant has been deemed conditionally eligible in the first phase of the admissions process, they must provide a certificate of the completed degree that confirms that they have a suitable educational background by the deadline for accepting the study place.
Enrolment for the first year
The enrolment instructions are sent to new students together with the material on being admitted to study.
Registering as absent for the first year of studies
Tuition fees and scholarships
Uniarts Helsinki will charge an annual tuition fee of 12,000 euros from students outside of EU, EEA and Switzerland studying in a bachelor’s or a master’s degree programme in English. The amount of the annual tuition fee will stay the same for the statutory duration of a particular student’s studies.
Uniarts Helsinki has a scholarship programme, which may grant relief from the full tuition fee to students who are liable for payment. The applicant liable for payment must mention in the application form if they wish to apply for a scholarship to cover the annual tuition fee if they are admitted as a student.
Contact
Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki admissions office
kuva.admissions@uniarts.fi