Approximately one-third of international master’s graduates from the Unarts Helsinki remain employed in Finland
Approximately 30% of international master’s graduates from the University of the Arts Helsinki remain employed in Finland five years after graduation.
The information comes from statistical service Vipunen, maintained by The Ministry of Education and Culture and the Finnish National Agency for Education. It relies on domestic registry data from Statistics Finland.
The analysis encompassed around 700 master’s graduates from the University of the Arts Helsinki who completed their degrees between 2013 and 2021, with nationalities other than Finnish. These numbers include students from both the EU area and those coming from outside the EU and EEA countries.
Nearly 3/5 of the graduates have moved away from Finland within five years of their graduation. Among the master’s graduates who are still in Finland after five years, approximately 6% are unemployed, and a very small portion continues to be full-time students.
Particularly music master’s graduates seem to find employment more successfully the longer they stay in Finland. One year after graduation, around 8% of them are unemployed, but after five years of residing in the country, the unemployment rate drops to about 4%.
“Culture and the arts contribute to growth, employment, and competitiveness. According to a recent situation report by VTT, the turnover of the entire creative sector was approximately 14 billion euros last year. International cooperation is crucial for the creative industries, and therefore, it is worth investing in,” says Marjo Kaartinen, Vice Rector responsible for education at the University of the Arts Helsinki.
According to the University of the Arts Helsinki’s Rector Kaarlo Hildén, the government should ensure the attraction of international students to Finland.
“Internationality is a crucial asset for the University of the Arts Helsinki and the whole of Finland to develop education, research, and innovation. Any setbacks in internationalization would also weaken the level of science and art,” summarizes Hildén.