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Documents required from those who have registered as absent for the first academic year

If you have been admitted to a study programme, you will receive a notification of this to your email. You must confirm the study place by the given deadline, or you will lose your place. You can confirm only one study place per academic term. Confirming a study place is a binding choice, and you cannot cancel or change your choice later. When you confirm a study place bindingly, all your other study programmes will automatically be cancelled. After you have confirmed the study place, you need to enroll for the academic year as present or absent. Students are obligated enroll every academic year as present for absent.
More information on how to confirm a study place to higher education at Studyinfo.fi

Statutory right for absence

According to the Universities Act/Universities of Applied Sciences Act, a first-year student may register as absent for the academic year for the following reasons only:

  1. service under the Finnish Conscription Act (1438/2007), Non-Military Service Act (1446/2007), or Act on Women's Voluntary Military Service (194/1995);Required document: a call-up order
  2. the student needs time off their studies to take care of a child in regard to the child’s birth or adoption (14.1.2022/53):
    Required document: Kela's certificate regarding maternity, paternity or parental allowance period or, if the certificate has not yet been received, a medical certificate regarding the pregnancy (or corresponding certificates from the authorities of other countries regarding statutory parental leave).
  3. the student cannot begin studies due to being incapacitated by personal illness or injury.
    Required document: Sickness allowance decision or, if no decision exists, a medical certificate. The medical certificate must state which illness or injury the student suffers from, and that this condition prevents the student from beginning their studies.

Obstacles caused by the practical arrangements required by the illness or injury: an adequate clarification, e.g. a certificate from the student housing foundation that the student is on the waiting list for an apartment required by their injury. Student's own notification is not an adequate clarification.

Registration as absent because of sickness or injury in the first academic year or at a later time during the studies will always count towards the right to be absent for one year. If the absence because of sickness or injury continues, it will be included in the normative duration of the studies, i.e. the period of the right to study. If the student’s sickness delays their studies, they may apply for a discretionary extension period.

Documents that prove the legal grounds for your absence must be delivered to the Admission Services by the deadline for accepting the study place. Please submit the required documents proving that you have the legal grounds for the absence via the following links:

If the documents are insufficient or they are not delivered at all within the registration period, the student will be enrolled as attending (Degree Regulations of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences 16 §: Right of absence of students who have accepted a study place for studies beginning on or after 1 August 2015).

Should the legal grounds for your absence apply only to the second academic term (e.g. military service or maternity leave beginning in August), you may register as absent for the entire academic year if you wish. You may also change the status of your registration for the spring term from ‘attending’ to ‘absent’ during the spring term registration period. You may also change the status of your registration for the spring term from ‘attending’ to ‘absent’ during the spring term registration period. Please note that registering for absence may affect your chances of receiving benefits.

If you want to change the registration information after the registration period, you must contact Student Services studentservices [at] metropolia.fi (studentservices[at]metropolia[dot]fi) about the change in registration. Do not use the links above.

Please note! Students registering as absent should take into consideration the annual changes in the courses offered at Metropolia and the effect they may have on their personal study plan. The training may be discontinued entirely during the period of absence or be arranged again only after several years. Metropolia will not separately arrange any studies that have changed or been discontinued during a student's absence. Students are advised to carefully consider any period of absence and to discuss the matter first with a representative of the degree programme.

Student loan compensation

If you are in conscript, non-military or voluntary military service after you have been admitted to a school and you are absent from school either before or after performing the service, you could potentially lose your eligibility for a student loan compensation. The period qualifying you for the compensation can be extended, but that only applies to the academic terms in which you are in active service.

Example:

A student is admitted to a 210-credit degree programme at a university of applied sciences. The studies are scheduled to start in autumn 2022. The student will perform conscript service from January to September/December 2023, so he registers as absent for the academic years 2022–2023 and 2023–2024.

The student begins his course of study in autumn 2024. He completes the programme in 3.5 academic years and graduates in December 2027.

The period of study qualifying for a student loan compensation is 4.0 academic years. Based on the months of conscript service performed, it can be extended by one academic year to a total of 5.0 academic years. The student loan compensation cannot be granted because the period of study relevant to the compensation has a total duration of 5.5 academic years (from 1 August 2022 to 31 December 2027).