Finland
Country profile:
Around 5.3 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern part of the country. [1] It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union . The native language of nearly all of the population is Finnish , which is a member of the Finno-Ugric language family and most closely related to Estonian . The language is one of only four official EU languages not of Indo-European origin. The second official language of Finland, Swedish , is the native language of 5.5 percent of the population. [5] Finland is a parliamentary republic with a mostly Helsinki-based central government and local governments in 348 municipalities. [6] A total of about one million residents live in the Greater Helsinki area (which includes Helsinki , Espoo , Kauniainen , and Vantaa ), and a third of the country's GDP is produced there. Other major cities include Tampere , Turku , Oulu , Jyväskylä , Kuopio , and Lahti .
Universities:
Institutions of higher education are designated universities by Finnish legislation, most importantly, the University Act ( Ylipistolaki , 645/1997). [1] According to the decree on the System of the degrees of higher education ( Asetus korkeakoulututkintojen järjestelmästä , 464/1998), only these universities have the right to confer the degrees in the categories alempi korkeakoulututkinto (Bachelor's degree) and ylempi korkeakoulututkinto (Master's degree) and doctoral degrees.
In addition to the universities, Finland has another, separate system of tertiary education, the ammattikorkeakoulu , which is variously translated as polytechnic or as a University of Applied Sciences. These institutions are listed in the article List of polytechnics in Finland . The ammattikorkeakoulus have the right to confer degrees in categories ammattikorkeakoulututkinto and ylempi ammattikorkeakoulututkinto . In international usage, these degrees are classified as Bachelor's and Master's degrees.
List of universities:
• University of Helsinki (estb. 1640 )
• National Defence University in Helsinki (estb. 1779 , 1821 and/or 1919 )
• Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki (estb. 1848 , promoted into university in 1985 )
• Helsinki University of Technology in Espoo , in Greater Helsinki (estb. 1849 , promoted into university in 1908 ) Bachelor level studies are only available in Finnish.
• University of Art and Design Helsinki (estb. 1871 , promoted into university in 1973 )
• Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (estb. 1882 , promoted into university in 1998 )
• Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration in Helsinki (estb. 1909 , promoted into university in 1927 )
• Helsinki School of Economics (estb. 1911 )
• Åbo Akademi University in Turku (estb. 1918 )
• University of Turku (estb. 1920 )
• University of Tampere (estb. 1925 )
• University of Jyväskylä (estb. 1866 , promoted into university in 1934 )
• Turku School of Economics (estb. 1950 )
• University of Oulu (estb. 1958 )
• Tampere University of Technology (estb. 1965 as a branch of Helsinki University of Technology, independent university in 1972 )
• University of Vaasa in Vaasa (estb. 1968 )
• University of Joensuu (estb. 1969 )
• Lappeenranta University of Technology (estb. 1969 )
• University of Kuopio (estb. 1972 )
• Theatre Academy in Helsinki (estb. 1908 , 1943 and promoted into university in 1979 )
• University of Lapland in Rovaniemi (estb. 1979 )
Content Source:- http://www.wikipedia.org