Required previous studies

Here you can find the admission requirements concerning your educational background.

Admission to Master's degree studies require a degree that grants access to at least Master level studies. Furthermore, both the Main admission round and Rolling admission round have their own, admission-specific requirements regarding your previous studies.

Required previous studies

  1. A Bachelor's degree (or a Master's degree*) from a recognized university or a university of applied sciences.
  2. The degree is equivalent to 180 ECTS credits or more, i.e. it must:
    • be a degree of at least three years of full-time studies,
    • be obtained at an education institution that is a recognized part of the official national education system of the country and is accredited as a degree-granting higher education institution by the country where it is located or by a relevant international organization (such as UNESCO), and
    • give access to at least Master's level studies in the country where the degree-awarding institution is located.
  3. At least 30 ECTS in subjects relevant to the desired Master programme so that you are able to start studies at advanced level.
    • If you have transferred credits without specified grades (e.g. from an exchange semester) included in your degree transcript, we recommend that you also attach a transcript to the application where the grades are visible for the credits to be considered in the evaluation.

*If you are applying based on a Master's degree, the degree must give access to PhD studies in the country where the recognized institution is located.

Required previous studies

  1. A Bachelor's degree* with the major subject Business Administration and/or Economics from a university or a university of applied sciences located outside Finland.
    • If the degree does not clearly state the degree title or major subject above, then your Bachelor’s degree must include at least the equivalent of 80 ECTS of studies in Business Administration and/or Economics. It is also not possible to include credits from another degree in the 80 ECTS but they must be included in the Bachelor's degree based on which you are applying.
  2. The Bachelor’s degree is equivalent to 180 ECTS credits or more, i.e. it must:
    • be a degree of at least three years of full-time studies,
    • be obtained at an education institution that is a recognized part of the official national education system of the country and is accredited as a degree-granting higher education institution by the country where it is located or by a relevant international organization (such as UNESCO), and
    • give access to at least Master's level studies in the country where the degree-awarding institution is located.

*You can only apply based on a Bachelor's degree, not a Master’s degree, in this application round.

If you apply in the Main admission round, you are required to have at least 30 ECTS of previous studies relevant to the particular Master's programme – e.g. if you apply to the Master’s degree programme in Finance, you must have at least 30 ECTS in finance.

This course curriculum for each programme from earlier years is indicative and will give you some insight into what kind of studies each programme consists of and what previous knowledge is expected of you.

If you are unsure whether you have completed 30 ECTS of relevant studies or not, we recommend that you apply anyway. Bear in mind that the completed ECTS do not have to be a part of a completed degree. The ECTS can be split up between multiple completed degrees, incomplete degrees or open university studies. 

Keep in mind that Hanken does not evaluate the relevance of the applicant's educational background in advance. The evaluation is only done during the processing of the applications with the application and attachments at hand.

Only courses that have been obtained and that are visible on the transcript of records submitted with the application will be considered when evaluating the applicant's educational background.

Fulfilling the amount of required ECTS does not automatically lead to admission. It will be decided case by case whether the applicant has the knowledge required for studies at advanced level or not. 

In case the degree is a double degree/triple degree/transnational degree/joint degree, the university/universities which issued the degree certificate/certificates must be recognized institutions and the degrees must give access to at least Master's level studies in the country where the institutions are located. 

Hanken reserves the right to decide whether a degree and/or university meet our requirements or not.

Are you graduating after the application deadline?

You can apply for admission even though you have not graduated at the time of submitting your application. However, note that only the completed courses listed on the transcript of records that you submit in the application form will be considered in the admission process.  

The admission offers for applicants graduating in the spring of applying will be conditional until they have delivered officially certified copies of their degree certificate or temporary degree certificate and final transcript.  

Read more about conditional admission offers here.