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Language Requirements

Sufficient language skills are required in order to apply to the Hanken PhD Programme. The applicant is obliged to demonstrate sufficient skills in English or Swedish.

Applicants who fulfil one of the following criteria in either English or Swedish are exempted from the language test requirement:

English

  • Master’s degree fully taught in English obtained from a recognized university or polytechnic in an EU/EEA country
    • In case the degree is a double degree/triple degree/transnational degree/joint
      degree, at least 50 % of the degree needs to have been obtained while the student physically has been studying in an EU/EEA country in order to fulfil the language requirement.
  • Master’s degree in English obtained from a recognized university in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom or United States. 
    • In case the degree is a double degree/triple degree/transnational degree/joint degree, at least 50 % of the degree needs to have been obtained while the student physically has been studying in the country in question in order to fulfil the language requirement.

  • Applicants with a Finnish Bachelors or Master’s degree who with their previous education can show that they have obtained the skills required in order to follow the developments in the own area of study and to be active in an international environment according to the Government Degree regarding university degrees (Valtioneuvoston asetusyliopistojen tutkinnoista 794/2004, 6§ mom. 2)
     

Swedish

For information on the exemptions from taking a Swedish test, please see the information in Swedish.

If you do not fulfil any of the criteria mentioned above you need to take a language test:

If you need to submit a language proficiency test result, it has to be taken no later than the application deadline. In case the organiser of the test has to be requested to send the official score report to Hanken, the request has to be made before the application deadline. In order to be considered for admission the certificate / score report has to be valid and fulfil the language requirements (including minimum scores).

English

  •  TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language): A minimum score of 92. Hanken's code for the TOEFL test is 8433. 
  •  IELTS Academic (International English Language Testing System): A minimum score of 6.5  
  • C2 Proficiency (previous name CPE Certificate od Proficiency in English) with a minimum score of C1 or C (when test was named CPE) 
  • PTE Academic: a minimum score of 62
  • The national certificate of language proficiency in Finland, skill level 6.

The online English language tests accepted include IELTS Indicator and TOEFL iBT® Special Home Edition. For more information, please visit https://www.ielts.org/what-is-ielts/ielts-indicator (IELTS) and https://www.ets.org/s/cv/toefl/at-home/ (TOEFL)

Most test organisations do offer traditional test-taking at local test-centres, please check the test organisations’ websites for more information.

Swedish

  • The national certificate of language proficiency in Finland, skill level 6.
  • Language exam for the public administration in Finland, advanced level.

Most language tests' results are valid for two years and test results older than this/that are no longer valid are not accepted.

No other tests are accepted.