Frequently asked questions

• Mental health services provided within student health care include first stage support and evaluations, prevention and treatment groups, digital self-care services with support for their use, appointments with a psychiatric nurse or a doctor, short-term therapy and other short fixed-term treatment forms, medicinal treatment, support for study ability (special support), consultations with a psychiatrist, psychological evaluations, consultations and examinations, evaluations of study ability and assessments of the need for further treatment or rehabilitation and referral to these services.
• Student health care services in Finland are defined in the law on student health care for higher education students (link leads to Finnish site) and specified further in the guide on student health care (link in Finnish) by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Kela organises the student health care services that FSHS produces enligt according to governmental decrees.

• The FSHS’s mission connected to mental health related issues consists of mental health work, the betterment of students’ mental health, the preventive work related to mental illnesses as well as the early identification of problems that are related to mental health. Furthermore, we offer treatment in a fast manner to those in need and the goal is to offer effective treatment as well. If needed we direct the individual for further treatment, evaluation for the need of rehabilitation and service guidance for rehabilitative services. We also follow up on long-term mental illnesses, support students study ability (through special support) for those whose study ability has been reduced due to an existing mental condition.
• For those, who have fallen ill to psychotic illnesses the FSHS offers early identification of the illness and directs such individuals for further treatment as well as offering support for study ability. We also follow up on long-term mental illnesses (including the prescriptions the individual needs). The furtherment of the students study ability will be realized in the coming responsibility teams in such cases where the services are not included in the public sectors service repertoire.

FSHS psychologist conduct on the basis of a psychiatrist consultative request a so-called cognitive primary evaluation. In such an evaluation one tests an individual’s abilities and skills on a general level, different aspects of memory. Moreover, the individual’s ability to concentrate is evaluated as well as the how the individual regulates their own behavior is evaluated through a psychological evaluation.

You can get student health care services related to women’s diseases and sexual health on a general practitioner level. Psychiatrist services are also included as a part of student health care. If needed students can be referred to specialized health care. Please note that the service provider has the right to charge a visit fee according to its own price list.

Students will be referred to the nearest possible service unit where it is possible to receive oral health services. However, in some cases it might be possible to come to a remote consultation.

You are eligible to use services your wellbeing service county provides as usual. Please note that you must still pay your healthcare fee for students in higher education to Kela if you have registered as attending for the study term. The organiser of the care might also charge additional healthcare fees according to their policies.

• FSHS produces mental health services higher education students are entitled to. In practice, FSHS offers a similar service level to public health centres. Exceptions include mental health or substance abuse rehabilitation, opioid substitution or withdrawal management, or detoxication treatment, which FSHS does not provide.
  
• If you currently receive active care at a specialised medical care facility, such as a psychiatric outpatient clinic, you cannot receive mental health care at FSHS equivalent to that care. However, in a situation like this FSHS can provide you with study ability support. If you currently receive care at a public health centre and wish to move your care over to FSHS, this is possible as long as the care doesn’t consider any of the rehabilition or substance abuse services listed above. Before you move care providers, you should evaluate the situation with a caregiver at your current care facility: is it appropriate to dissolve the former care contact and re-establish it at FSHS?

• The FSHS conducts diagnostics which are connected to developmental based neuropsychiatric diagnostics as well as such examinations which are required for the planning of treatment and rehabilitation to such a extent that they are included in the student health care services. The FSHS can conduct ADHD diagnostic and common treatments can be started if the diagnosis does not require neuropsychological evaluations and if there is no suspicion of other underlying neuropsychiatric disturbances in addition to ADHD.
• If you suspect you might have an attention and hyperactivity disorder, you can fill in a service form in the Self online service.

The FSHS treats often problems related to wisdom teeth as they are very common amongst students. The decision to remove wisdom teeth is made in connection to a dentist appointment and the removal of wisdom teeth is done free of charge.

• Your primary FSHS service unit is the one in your study town. If necessary, you will be permitted to book an appointment to a service unit which is run by the FSHS at another town.
• If there is no FSHS service unit in the area where your educational institution is located, the required services are produced by a partner branch. The usage volume of partner service units are calculated by the amount of higher education students located in the area the branch operates in. This is why only students who study at a location with a partner service unit can use that unit.
• In addition, our digital services are available to all students, regardless of where in Finland they are. Many FSHS professionals offer remote appointments, which reduces the need to travel.

• Absolutely. You can use FSHS services during weekdays throughout the year. However, there will be shorter opening hours during certain holidays which occur during weekdays (New Year’s Eve, Maundy Thursday and Walpurgis Night).

• Incoming international exchange student from outside Finland cannot access FSHS services. If you come to Finland to study towards an entire degree in a Finnish institution for higher education, you are entitled to FSHS services.

You can find further information about the Finnish health care system via these websites:

• Finnish Immigration Service
• The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (European Health Insurance Card)
• The European Commission (European Health Insurance Card)
• InfoFinland (general information in several languages)

• Although a student can receive services from the FSHS, a health insurance will be necessary for the entire duration of the stay within Finland.
• Please note, that students from the European Union as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom can meet this requirement through obtaining the European Health Insurance Card.

• An appointment can only be booked after the need for treatment has been assessed. As part of the assessment, a healthcare professional will evaluate your situation, assess your need for treatment and its level of urgency, provide you with self-care instructions and, if necessary, help you access further services.
• You can contact the need for treatment by calling one of our nationwide service numbers via the Self online service by using chat or completing a service form. Read more about assessment of need of treatment

Yes, a service provider has the right to charge a visit fee according to its own price list.

The amount of the healthcare fee for higher education students is specified in a Government decree, which is issued annually. For this reason, the fee may vary annually.

The health care fee for 2024 is EUR 73,60 per academic year, or EUR 36,80 per term.

In 2025, the healthcare fee will be EUR 71.20 per academic year, or EUR 35.60 per term.  

Please note that the students in higher education should pay the health care fee to Kela for both the spring and autumn semesters unprompted.

(The answer has been updated 29 Nov 2024.)

You can see the due dates and the payment instructions on Kela’s website. Any more specific questions about the healthcare fee should always be addressed directly to Kela, which is the authority responsible for collecting the fee.

Please read more on Kela’s website. Any more specific questions about the healthcare fee should always be addressed directly to Kela, which is the authority responsible for collecting the fee.

Information from Kela’s own website: If you do not pay the healthcare fee by the due date, Kela will send you a reminder. If the healthcare fee is paid after the due date, a fixed late-payment fee will be charged. If you do not pay the healthcare fee after having been reminded of it, Kela can withhold the fee and the late-payment fee from your study grant payments without consulting you. If the fee cannot be withheld from the study grant payments, the healthcare fee will be referred to the enforcement authority for collection.

Kela charges the student health care fee from all those students who are encompassed by the FSHS services. All students draw benefits from FSHS services regardless to whether they come to appointments or not. The mission of the FSHS is, according to the act on healthcare for students in higher education and the Ministry of Social Affair’s Guide on student health care, to provide students with health care services. However, the same guiding documents state that the FSHS’s mission is to further student’s health on a more general level which also includes improving the well-being of the community health as well as the health and safety of study environments. All students benefit from many of these objectives. Even those who do not use individual services. In other words, the health care fee does not equal an individuals appointment services but on a broader level the student health care in its entirety.

Kela has responded to this question on its website as follows:

Under the Act on Healthcare Services for Students, the healthcare fee must be paid on your own initiative. Kela sends a letter with payment instructions before the due date for payment to students who are required to pay the fee but have not paid it. This letter is sent twice a year, approximately three weeks before the due date of the fee. Students who have updated their information in OmaKela to go paperless will receive a text message or email when the letter is available to read in OmaKela.

No, you don’t. The healthcare fee is assessed on individual students and not on the basis of the number of higher education institutions attended. Kela answered the question here already.

Kela provides this instruction on its website:

If you disagree about your liability to pay the fee, you can appeal against the payment outstanding notice. Before filing an appeal, you must request a payment outstanding notice from Kela.

The answer to this questions was found in Kela’s frequently asked questions-site:

• The fee must be paid by students who are studying for a Finnish higher education degree and have registered as attending for the autumn or spring term.
• If you are registered as attending in a Finnish higher education institution while doing your study exchange or other period of foreign study, you must pay the healthcare fee. You do not have to pay the healthcare fee if you are registered as non-attending.
• Higher education institutions do not have a uniform policy on whether they require students to register as attending while on a study exchange.

In case you are encompassed by the FSHS services the health care fee must be paid in accordance to schedule set by Kela. However, the schedule depends on when you are enrolled as present at your educational institution.

You can read more specific information on Kela´s website.

You can use FSHS services once you are enrolled as present.

• A students who has enrolled as active during a study semester and is otherwise entitled to student healthcare can use FSHS services until the end of that study semester. This is the case even if the student graduates and finishes their studies in the middle of that semester.
  
• Students cannot attend any appointments that have been scheduled to occur after their graduation date. If this is the situation, the student or recent graduate must cancel any such appointments themselves.

You do not have to pay the healthcare fee if you have social security coverage from another EU/EEA country or from Switzerland, Northern Ireland or the United Kingdom. Even if you do not have to pay the fee, you can still use the services of the Finnish Student Health Service. If you want to use the FSHS’s services you must be prepared to show a valid European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). Students covered by social security in Great Britain and Northern Ireland can show a Global Health Insurance (GHIC) card. You will have to present the card at each visit, whether remote or in person. In the absence of a card, you must provide a provisional replacement certificate.

Students must also provide a copy of a valid European Health Insurance Card to Kela to prove that they are not required to pay the healthcare fee. Students who have social security coverage in Great Britain or Northern Ireland can send a copy of either a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) or Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC). For more detailed instructions, always see Kela’s website.