Business & Management is the biggest subject in our Finnish listings: 61 published programmes — 44 master's and 17 bachelor's. Add International Business Administration, which we file separately, and it is 94. All of it is taught in English.
That volume hides a split that matters more than any ranking. About half of these programmes are at universities of applied sciences, and a UAS master's in Finland normally expects prior work experience in the field. The other half are at research universities, where it normally does not. Apply to the wrong half and you are not a weak candidate — you are an ineligible one.
Where the 61 programmes sit
Counted from our catalogue, the institutions listing the most are Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (8), Aalto University (6), Turku University of Applied Sciences (5), LUT University (5), Laurea University of Applied Sciences (4) and Novia University of Applied Sciences (4). Four of those six are UAS.
By city: Helsinki (21), Turku (7), Tampere (6), Vaasa (6), Lappeenranta (5) and Espoo (4). Helsinki and Espoo are effectively one metropolitan area — Aalto's campus is in Otaniemi, Espoo, about twenty minutes from central Helsinki — so a third of Finnish business programmes are in or beside the capital.
Research university or university of applied sciences?
The honest framing is that these are two different products, not two tiers of one.
A research university master's — Aalto, LUT, Tampere, Turku — is academic. It is the route if you want a quantitative, theory-led degree, if a doctorate is a possibility, or if you are targeting employers who read the research reputation. Aalto in particular is the name Finnish business carries internationally.
A UAS master's — Haaga-Helia, Laurea, Turku UAS, Novia, Metropolia — is built for working professionals and is normally taught in a way that assumes you are one. Several are designed to be studied alongside employment. For an Indian student with three or four years in industry who wants a Finnish qualification and a route into the Finnish labour market, this is frequently the better degree. For a 22-year-old applying straight from a BBA, it is often simply closed.
Check the entry requirements on each programme's own page before anything else. It is the single most common reason a Finnish business application fails that had no other problem with it.
The bachelor's route is different again
The 17 bachelor's programmes we list are overwhelmingly at universities of applied sciences, and several are explicitly International Business (BBA) degrees aimed at international students. There is no work-experience expectation at bachelor's level. If you are applying from school rather than from a first degree, this is the part of the Finnish business catalogue that is actually open to you.
What it costs
Students from outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland pay tuition for English-taught degrees in Finland. Study in Finland, the official national portal, publishes a typical range of €9,000–€20,000 per year across all subjects, plus a €100 application fee for non-EU/EEA applicants.
We do not currently hold a verified fee for any individual Finnish programme in our catalogue, business included. Each listing links to its official page and that is the figure to act on. We would rather say so than publish an average we have not checked.
Separately from fees, the Finnish Immigration Service requires €800 per month — €9,600 for a year or more — in your account when you apply for the residence permit, and that money cannot also be the tuition money (Migri). Finland has no government scholarship scheme; the waivers that exist are run by the institutions themselves and usually cover fees rather than living costs.
Why a business degree in Finland rather than elsewhere
Three things, stated plainly.
The post-study window is long and unusually flexible. A graduate can apply for a residence permit to look for work of up to two years, and can do so at any point within five years of graduating, in up to three separate parts (Migri). For a business graduate weighing an immediate job hunt against going home first, that flexibility is worth more than it looks.
Everything is in English. All 61 programmes we list are English-taught. Finnish will matter for a large part of the domestic job market afterwards, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest — but it is not a barrier to the degree.
The UAS sector is a genuine route for people with experience. Most destinations treat a few years of work as a nice-to-have on a master's application. In the Finnish UAS sector it is frequently the entry requirement, which means your experience is doing real work for you rather than sitting in a personal statement.
Against that: no government scholarships, a real cash requirement before you travel, and a language you will eventually need if you intend to stay.
See what we list: Business & Management in Finland, master's only, or the wider picture in our guide to studying in Finland.
Catalogue figures counted from our published listings on 6 October 2026. Finnish rules cited from Migri and Study in Finland on the same date — both change, so check the linked page before acting on a number. Photograph: Aalto University, Otaniemi, by Aatu Dorochenko (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons.