Document requirements

The following documents must be delivered as digitally or officially certified (definition below) copies:

Students admitted to the Bachelor's degree programme

1. Degree certificate* for the qualifying degree + possible official translations Opens in new window .

Students admitted to a Master's degree programme or the PhD programme

1. Degree certificate* for the qualifying degree + possible official translations Opens in new window .
2. Transcript of records for the qualifying degree + possible official translations Opens in new window .
3. Diploma Supplement (if available).

*A temporary/provisional degree certificate is also accepted, if the final degree certificate is not accessable within the set deadline (more info below).

• If you have proven your language proficiency with another degree than you qualifying degree, you deliver officially/digitally certified copies of your educational documents for both your qualifying degree and the degree used for proving your language proficiency.
• Applicants who had not graduated at the time of applying:
  • All the admissions requirements must be fulfilled. If you were exempted from taking the GMAT/GRE admission test based on your GPA, your final GPA in your degree must be sufficient. If the GPA is not clearly stated on your final educational documents, Hanken will verify that the GPA is sufficient.

Temporary (Provisional) Degree Certificate

• If the final degree certificate is not accessible by the deadline, you can submit a temporary (provisional) degree certificate.
• A temporary (provisional) degree certificate is a document issued by an institution to a student who has been awarded or conferred an academic degree. The temporary degree certificate is issued as a replacement for the actual degree certificate e.g. in case the actual degree certificate cannot be given to the student immediately after the studies have been completed due to technical or administrative reasons.
• The temporary degree certificate cannot have been issued more than five years earlier. The five-year validity period begins from the date on which the degree was conferred and must not expire prior to the deadline to deliver officially certified copies.
• The graduation date/date of award stated on the certificate needs to be no later than 31th July the same year as offered admission.

The temporary degree certificate must include:

• the name of the institution awarding the degree
• the date of award/conferral of the degree
• the name of the person to whom the temporary degree certificate has been issued
• which academic title/degree the person has been awarded.

It is important to note that a document stating only that the student has completed all the courses is not sufficient as a temporary degree certificate.

You can provide officially certified copies of your educational documents either via

1. An Electronic Transcript Verification Service accepted by Hanken (recommended if available, see more info below) OR
2. Postal Service/Drop-off at Hanken (beaktande possible country-specific document requirements)

Below you find info on which requirements apply, depending on the delivery method.

We will not send you a notification message about the arrival your educational documents. You will receive a message after Hanken has processed your documents. All documents are processed on in order of arrival.​

If your institution uses one of the Electronic Credential Verification Services listed below, it is recommended that you share your electronically verified educational documents through that service instead of delivering them as officially certified paper copies via postal service as described below.

Also check if your degree country has any specific electronic verification methods listed under the country-specific document pages.

If the service requires our contact email address, please use admissions@hanken.fi as the contact address.

Please refer to your institution’s own instructions for more details on how to access the service that your institution uses.

Please note that if your educational documents are required in a sealed envelope according to a country-specific requirement, it is acceptable to submit the documents through an electronic transcript service instead.

Accepted Electronic Credential Verification Services

• CSSD (China)
• Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO) (the Netherlands)
• Gradintelligence 
• Ladok Opens in new window  (Sweden)
• MyCreds / MyCertif (use the "Share by Email" option)
• My eQuals Opens in new window
• National Student Clearing House
• Oma Opintopolku/Koski Opens in new window  (Finland)
• Parchment Exchange Opens in new window
• Truecopy
• Vitnemålsportalen Opens in new window  (Norway)

If your institution uses a service that is not listed here, please contact admissions@hanken.fi, and we will investigate whether we can accept your documents through this service as well. Please note that Hanken School of Economics reserves the right to make the final decision on whether a service is accepted or not.

Electronic Credential Services offered by the de­gree award­ing in­sti­tu­tion

We also accept electronic educational documents that can be verified using an electronic credential service offered by the degree awarding institution if: 

• the 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 educational document you submitted with your application.
  • If the service verifies only parts of the document, we do not accept the document as officially certified. Instead, submit an officially certified hard copy of the document as described above.

Please note the following restrictions:

• The institution’s email address is not accepted as an electronic credential service.
• Regular credential services that require Hanken School of Economics to download specific software, create a user account, or pay for the verification are not accepted.

Please also note that we cannot guarantee that we will accept electronic credential services in languages other than English, Finnish or Swedish. If the electronic document verified by the service is not available in English, Finnish or Swedish, you must submit an official translation of the original document as well.

Hanken School of Economics reserves the right to evaluate each electronic document and electronic credential service case by case. If we cannot verify the required information, you must deliver the document as an officially certified paper copy following the general instructions.

If you deliver the officially certified copies of your educational documents via Postal Service/Drop-off at Hanken, the following applies:

• Documents must be officially certified either by an
   
  • Official at the awarding institution OR 
  • Notarius Publicus (in Finland at the Digital and Poulation Data Services Agency (DVV)).
     

Please also check the Country-specific requirements

• if the country where you have conducted your degree is listed, you have to follow the country specific requirements for that country instead of the general instructions listed here.
• If your institution's country is not on the list you have to follow these general instructions on this page. Note that there is also country-specific requirements for degrees obtained in Finland.

Officially certified documents means that:

1. Copies are taken directly from your original educational documents
2. Include every page of your educational documents
3. Bear the original stamp of the awarding institution/notary public on each page of the document. The official stamps of educational institutions usually display the institution name and emblem. (e.g. a generic stamp stating only “Certified true copy” will not be accepted)
4. Bear the original signature of the representative of the institution, their name in capital letters as well as their title.

Other copies will not be recognised as officially certified copies. For example, a regular photocopy or a copy certified by two persons are not sufficient to constitute certification. You should never send us your original educational documents to Hanken since the documents will not be returned to you.

Sending documents by courier service 

We strongly recommend using a courier service (e.g. DHL, UPS, TNT, FedEx) for shipments from outside the European Union (EU) instead of regular mail to avoid custom clearance. We recommend using a courier service also within the EU to be able to track your shipment.

If you send documents from outside the EU:

• Send the consignment of documents as a letter. Do not send it as a parcel.
• Do not determine a value for the letter when sending it to avoid customs clearance.
  If the country of dispatch requires the consignor to determine a value for the consignment of documents, mark the value as zero (or 0.01 euros or other currency if zero is not allowed).
• The goods description for the consignment should be, for example, documents.

Delivery Address for Courier Services

Hanken School of Economics
Admissions Services
Arkadiankatu 22
00100 HELSINKI
Finland

Phone number: +358 (0)29 431 331 (no customer service, only for courier services)

Sending documents by regular mail (not recommended from outside the EU)

We strongly recommend using a courier service for shipments from outside the European Union instead of regular mail.

If you send the documents by regular mail, kindly note that all documents coming from outside EU/EEA -area need to go through custom clearance. To avoid custom clearance, do not indicate any monetary value to your documents when mailing them. 

If your documents go through customs clearance, you need to do the clearance beforehand by using this form Private person's declaration of goods imported from outside the customs and fiscal territory of the EU and deliver it via secure e-mail as described at the bottom om the form. 

It is always the applicant’s responsibility to make sure that the application documents reach the Hanken Admissions Services before the deadline.

Delivery Address for Regular Mail

Hanken School of Economics
Admission Services
P.O. Box 479
00101 HELSINKI
Finland

Drop-off attachments personally at Hanken in Helsinki

You can also bring the officially certified educational documents yourself to Hankens reception, Arkadiankatu 22, HelsinkiOpens in new window  Opens in new window  as long as the documents fulfil the country-specific requirements (see below) and the envelope is marked with the address listed above.

If the country where you obtained your degree is listed on the page country-specific document requirements, you must follow the liste country-specific requirements instead of these general instructions concerning delivering officially certified copies.