Fatih Tokan - Turkey

Studying Business Administration and Economics at the Helsinki School of Economics

When I decided to go abroad to study, I knew there were lots of people studying in Germany and France and places like that, but I didn’t know anyone studying in Helsinki. I didn’t know anything about the culture or people, so I decided to come to Finland. It’s been much more than I thought it would be. I came here as an exchange student originally and decided to stay to complete my whole degree.

The living accommodations here are really good. The Student Union helped me find a place to live and I have some really nice flat mates. The environment is really friendly and there were lots of other foreign students, so it’s fun!

At the Helsinki School of Economics there’s a portal that lets you search for job openings, so there’s help with that too. There are lots of seminars organized by the university helping students to look for and apply to jobs in Finland. I also recently went to a seminar on how to write your CV, how to behave in an interview etc. They said not to smile too much in the interview in Finland!

The education system here in Finland is much better than in Turkey. It’s so flexible. You can organize and plan your studies by yourself. It’s really simple and easy and really student-oriented – you can choose from tons of different faculties, areas of study plus you can take courses from other universities, which is really great. The relationship between the students and lecturers is also really nice.