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 additional subject-specific requirements regarding your previous studies.

The information on this page does not apply to the Double Degree programme with Umeå University.

Bachelor's degree

  • A Bachelor's degree (or a Master's degree*) from a recognised university or a university of applied sciences is required.

The degree must be equivalent to 180 ECTS (3 years) or more and:

  • be obtained at an education institution that is a recognised 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.
  • 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 recognised institutions and the degrees must grant 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. 

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

Previous academic studies

  • At least 25 ECTS in subjects relevant to the intended Master's programme or 30 ECTS if you are applying to the Master's programme in Economics to ensure that you are able to start studies at advanced level is required. The studies must have been completed at a recognised higher education institution.

    • Subjects relevant to the intended programme, means that you must hold e.g. 25 ECTS in marketing if you are applying to the Master's programme in Marketing.
    • Note that the required ECTS do not necessarily need to be part of a degree.  The ECTS can be split up between multiple completed degrees, incomplete degrees or open university studies.
    • Fulfilling the minimum 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.
    • 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.
       
  • Subject-specific requirements 
    If you apply to one of the following Master's programmes, the 25–30 ECTS in subjects relevant for the intended programme, must include the following subject areas:
     
    • Master's programme in Accounting 
      • At least 15 ECTS in external accounting
    • Master's programme in Economics
      • Studies in Econometrics on intermediate level or equal knowledge  
      • Studies in Microeconomics on intermediate level or equal knowledge 
      • Studies in Macroeconomics on intermediate level or equal knowledge
    • Master's programme in Finance 

Via the course name links you can read more about the exact course content at Hanken. It is not mandatory to have completed the specific course at Hanken, but you must have completed courses with corresponding content in order to fulfill the subject-specific requirements. 

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

Listing your relevant studies in the application form

  • In the application form, you will be asked questions about the previous studies that you consider to be among the 25–30 ECTS or more in studies relevant for the programme you choose to be considered for.
  • You must list the courses you want the programme coordinators to consider in their assessment, briefly describe the content of the courses and write out the total number of ECTS that you believe should be considered as relevant studies.
  • Note that the final assessment is made by the programme coordinators and that your statement is only used to support them in the assessment.

Bachelor's degree

  • 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 is required.
     
    • 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.
       
    • The degree must be equivalent to 180 ECTS (3 years) or more, and
      • be obtained at an education institution that is a recognised 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.
      • 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 recognised institutions and the degrees must grant 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. 

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

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 no later than 31.7.2025.  

Read more about conditional admission offers here.