Study grant for students in higher education

If you are a EU citizen and you do not have Finnish online banking credentials, you can use eIDAS identification to contact Kela. Read more about how EU citizens can log in to and handle matters in Kela’s e-service.

You can also apply for the study grant by filling out a form (PDF).

Apply for the study grant only after you have accepted your offer of admission. It will be easier to complete the application and you will receive a decision more quickly. The institutions of higher education that participate in the joint admissions system automatically notify us of students who have accepted an offer of admission.

Apply to be paid the study grant for the entire duration of your course of study in your application. That way financial aid will continue to be paid to you automatically for example after each summer break.

The earliest you can be paid the study grant is from the beginning of the month in which your application arrives at Kela. Send your application to us in the month starting from which you want to be paid the study grant. We must get your application on the last day of the month at the latest. Applications submitted in the OmaKela e-service arrive at Kela on the same day they are submitted. If you fill in a paper application form and mail it to Kela by post, please note that it often takes a few days for Kela to get it.

You usually do not need to submit any supporting documentation with your application for student financial aid. If you have to submit supporting documents after all, you will be notified of this if you submit your application in OmaKela. The necessary documents are also listed on the paper application form.

Scan or take a photo of any supporting documents and send them in OmaKela.

If you are completing both a first-cycle degree and a second-cycle degree, you will initially get student financial aid for the first-cycle degree. You can get financial aid for the second-cycle degree only after you have completed the first-cycle degree.

You do not usually have to file a new application after you have completed your first-cycle degree. Kela will be notified by your institution of higher education that you have completed a degree. After we get this notification, we will automatically grant you student financial aid for your second-cycle degree if you have not completely used up all months of your student financial aid period. Remember to tell us if you do not intend to continue your studies after you have completed your first-cycle degree.

However, you must apply for student financial aid for your second-cycle degree in the following situations:

• You complete your first-cycle degree during the last months of student financial aid you have left. In such case, we may stop paying you financial aid before we are notified by your institution of higher education that you have completed your degree. If this happens, we will send you a payment notice with instructions for applying for student financial aid.
• You complete your first-cycle degree after you have used up your maximum aid period.
• We have stopped paying you financial aid for some other reason.

Apply for financial aid for your second-cycle degree in the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish) by submitting a notification of changes for student financial aid. Select Ilmoitan muusta muutoksesta tai haen lisätukea (I would like to report some other change or apply for additional financial aid) in the notification.

The earliest you can get student financial aid for a second-cycle degree is

• from the beginning of the next month after you complete your first-cycle degree
• from the beginning of the month in which your application arrives at Kela.

Some benefits cannot be paid to you at the same time as student financial aid (opintotuki). You can still apply for student financial aid anyway. If Kela grants you a benefit that cannot be paid to you at the same time as student financial aid, your student financial aid will be deducted from the other benefit granted to you for the same period. Kela will also stop paying you student financial aid while you get the other benefit. More information about which other benefits affect student financial aid and how.

You can also wait until Kela has issued you a decision on the other benefit you have applied for. If Kela does not grant you the other benefit, apply for student financial aid immediately after your application for the other benefit has been rejected. You can get student financial aid from the beginning of the month in which you applied for the other benefit. Tell Kela in your application for student financial aid that you applied for another benefit but it was not granted to you. This allows us to grant you student financial aid retroactively.

Your income will affect the number of months per year for which you can be paid the study grant. You must make sure that your income does not exceed your annual income limit. The study grant does not count as income in the annual income check. Read more about the income check.

However, the study grant is taxable income. This means that you will have to pay taxes on your study grant if you have other income while you are being paid the study grant. If the study grant is your only source of income, you do not have to pay taxes on it.

If you are the guardian of a child who is under 18, you can be paid a provider supplement to your study grant. The supplement is EUR 141.63 per month. The amount of the provider supplement is not affected by either how many children you have or who the children live with.

You cannot apply for the provider supplement. We will grant it to you automatically as an addition to your study grant as soon as information about your provider status has been registered in the Population Information System.

The earliest you can get the provider supplement is from the beginning of the next month after you became the guardian of the child. Kela will stop paying you the provider supplement at the latest at the end of the month in which your youngest child turns 18 or when your guardianship ends for other reasons.

If you live in a house or apartment owned by your parents, you get the same amount of study grant as students who live with their parents if you meet both of the following conditions:

• You live in a house or apartment owned by or rented from your parents.
• Your house or apartment is in the same building or on the same property as your parents’ permanent residence. This means that your house or apartment is, for example, part of the same housing company or located on the same plot as your parents’ permanent residence.

The amount of study grant you can get is affected by whether you live independently or in the same house or apartment as one or both of your parents.

If you previously lived independently but now live together with a parent who needs special care or help, you can get the same amount of study grant as students who live independently.

Tell us about your situation in your application for student financial aid or send us a message in the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish).

If you are enrolled in the National Defence University to complete a bachelor’s degree in military sciences, you cannot get the study grant because your school pays you a daily allowance during your studies. However, you can still get a student loan guarantee.

You can be paid the housing supplement for students if you cannot stay in the school dormitory for a compelling reason.