A growing number of students from Finland's largest cities are choosing to study outside their hometown universities, according to a study by Aalto University.
The study highlighted a significant shift over the past two decades. In 2001, only about 10 percent of students from the Helsinki metropolitan area opted to study elsewhere. By 2021, that figure had risen to more than 30 percent.
Similar trends were observed in other major cities. In 2001, around 20 percent of students from Tampere and Turku pursued studies outside their home cities. By 2021, the proportion had nearly doubled to about 40 percent. However, in Oulu, the increase has been more gradual.
Experts attributed this phenomenon to several factors, including the broader range of study programmes now available in cities across Finland, increased access to information about educational opportunities and a general rise in internal migration.
The trend has been particularly pronounced in Turku, where the proportion of students coming from outside the city surged from roughly 50 percent in 2001 to 80 percent in 2021.
The findings are based on 20 years of individual-level registry data from Statistics Finland, analysed by Aalto University.