New student original documents

If the previous education granting eligibility has been completed in a country other than Finland, it is mandatory to submit the educational documents to us for verification (and translations if required). This can be done in advance, by submitting officially certified copies of your educational documents to us before the orientation week according to the instructions found on this page, or by bringing the original educational documents with you to orientation week for check-up. 

Please note that if you fail to submit the documents required latest during the orientation week, your study place will be withdrawn. In case of withdrawal, tuition fees may be partially refunded, but other costs, for example costs related to relocation must be covered by the applicant.

Required documents

Bachelor’s degrees: Submit the original upper secondary diploma and transcript you have referred to and attached to your application or sent to TAMK Admissions during or after the application period. If you graduate from outside of Finland between the conditional acceptance and the start of your studies, please send the documents as soon as they are ready as email attachments to admissions.tamk [at] tuni.fi (admissions[dot]tamk[at]tuni[dot]fi) in addition to submitting the certified electronic copies or bringing the originals with you.

Master’s degrees: Submit the original Bachelor’s degree certificate and transcript you have referred to and attached to your application or sent to TAMK Admissions during or after the application period. 

Work experience documentation is only required for checks if you are in the process gathering the required 24 months by 31 July, so it has not been available for verification when sending you a conditional offer. This only considers students, who have been previously notified and have been given a personal deadline to provide the document. Provide the original documentation (company letterhead, signed and stamped) for this unverified portion during the orientation week.

Professional Teacher Education: All the necessary documents have been checked during the application period.

Instructions for electronic online verification by the awarding institution 

If the awarding institution of your previous degree issues electronically verified educational documents, please see the instructions below and make sure that the copies submitted to TAMK meet the following criteria. Only documents which fulfil the specified criteria and can be verified electronically by TAMK are accepted.  

Please note, that if your previous institution offers only some of the required documents, the other documents need to be submitted by other approved methods. Additionally, if the documents are not in English, Finnish, or Swedish, official translations are required.  For translations, the authorized translator stamp will suffice, there is no need for additional apostille or embassy verification. 

We accept electronic educational documents that can be verified using an electronic verification service offered by the degree awarding institution or third-party service if  

• The documents include an electronic signature and/or verification method
• The online service is located on the degree awarding institution's website OR, in case of third-party services, the institution provides a link to the service on their website.
• The entire document can be verified using the service, i.e. the verification service must show the exact same content as the document you submitted.
  • If the service verifies only parts of the document, we do not accept the document as officially certified. In that case, you must submit an officially certified copy by other approved methods. 

Please note the following restrictions:

• Regular PDF-scans of educational documents are not accepted if the document cannot be verified using an electronic verification service on the institution’s website or if the document is not sent directly by the issuing institution (Please see the section Instructions for documents delivered by the awarding institution).
• Institutional verification services that require TAMK to download specific software, create a user account, or pay for the verification are not accepted.
• We must be able to verify that the documents have been digitally signed with a valid digital signature (e.g. Adobe blue ribbon) with the awarding institution as the certified signing body. 

If your educational institution does not offer electronic online verification, please see the instructions for documents delivered by the awarding institution by email. 

If you apply with electronically verifiable documents, you must have the electronic documents sent to the TAMK Admissions by email to attachments.tamk [at] tuni.fi (attachments[dot]tamk[at]tuni[dot]fi). It is your responsibility to make sure that the documents meet the requirements and are submitted in time.  

Only documents which can be verified online by TAMK are accepted. Please see the list of accepted services, which are known to send educational documents according to our requirements. If your university uses a service other than listed below, please note that those may not be accepted. TAMK will send you a confirmation email once the documents have been received, and whether we were able to verify the documents electronically or not.

List of accepted services

• Vinemåtsportalen (https://www.vitnemalsportalen.no/hvordan/)
• Digitary (http://www.digitary.net/)
• Parchment Exchange (https://www.parchment.com/)
• National Student Clearinghouse (http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/)
• Credentials Solutions / TranscriptsNetwork / Credentials Inc. http://www.credentialssolutions.net/
• WAEC (https://www.waec.org/) 

• For degrees completed in Bangladesh, we accept e-apostilles sent by the applicant by email. The e-apostille and the attested documents must be verifiable through a QR-code included. E-apostilles from other countries with electronic verification may also be accepted. 

   

Instructions for documents delivered by the awarding institution by email 

If your previous institution does not issue electronically verifiable educational documents, TAMK will accept educational documents delivered directly from the degree awarding institution by email (certified copy, high-quality pdf). Only documents submitted according to the stated requirements are accepted by TAMK. 

Please note that if your degree awarding institution sends only part of the required documents by email, the other documents need to be submitted by other means. Additionally, if the documents are not in English, Finnish or Swedish, official translations are required.  

The documents sent by email must meet the following requirements: 

• The email must be sent directly from an official institutional email account within the document-issuing institution.
• The email address from which the documents are sent must be verifiable on the institution’s public website.
• The official email address must belong to the authority that has the right to issue copies of educational documents AND must be verifiable on the official website of the institution in question. Please note that if the website is not in English, Finnish or Swedish, this may not be possible.
• The educational documents must be delivered as a high-quality pdf file. No zip or image files are accepted.

Documents sent by email that do not meet the above requirements are not accepted. 

The documents must be delivered directly from the degree awarding institution to TAMK Admissions email address: attachments.tamk [at] tuni.fi (attachments[dot]tamk[at]tuni[dot]fi). 

It is your responsibility to make sure that the documents meet the requirements and are submitted in time. TAMK will send you a confirmation email once the documents have been received, and whether we were able to verify the documents electronically or not.

Showing original documents at Orientation

If the documents submitted via email or via e-verification service do not meet our requirements, or if your degree awarding institution is unable to submit the document via email to us directly and does not use an electronic service for degree verification, you must bring the original copies of your educational documents (and translations if the documents are not originally in English, Finnish or Swedish) with you to the Orientation week. The time and space for the verification of documents for your programme will be given in the orientation week schedule. If you fail to submit the documents required latest during the orientation week, your study place will be withdrawn. In case of withdrawal, tuition fees may be partially refunded, but other costs, for example costs related to relocation must be covered by the applicant.

Accreditation of previous studies

If you have previous university level studies, you can in some cases present them to the head of your degree programme for evaluation of accreditation. To submit these requests, you should first get acquainted with your curriculum on TAMK's Stydy Guide. During your orientation, you will have the opportunity to meet with your study counsellor to formulate a plan for accreditation.

If you have any questions about accreditation or you are unsure which courses could be transferred to TAMK, please contact your study counsellor ahead of time to book an appointment and avoid the rush during orientation week. Contact details are in the programme specific instructions.