Announcement for university students
24th August 2011
The Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) provides primary healthcare services for undergraduate students at universities in Finland. In 2011, this autumn term, a three-year pilot will begin, with the objective of testing how healthcare for students at universities of applied sciences (UAS) could be provided for by the FSHS. The trial will not affect the provision of healthcare services for university students – the quality, scope, and pricing of the services will not change.
Currently, the municipality or town where the UAS is located is responsible for providing healthcare and there are great discrepancies in the quality and range of services compared with services offered to university students through the FSHS. The pilot aims to create a more equal situation for higher education students in terms of healthcare services.
UAS students in Seinäjoki and Lappeenranta are taking part in the pilot. The pilot locations were selected on the basis of applications from different towns. The FSHS unit in Lappeenranta was expanded during the summer in order to accommodate the needs of both the current university students as well as the town’s UAS students. In Seinäjoki, a new unit for UAS students will open on 1 September.
UAS students in Seinäjoki and Lappeenranta will have access to FSHS services in the same way as university students do, by paying an annual fee of 42 euro. The chargeable services are also identical for university and UAS students.
The UAS pilot has its own budget and is financed completely separately from the standard financing for the FSHS. The financial basis is the same as for other FSHS functions: the financing is provided by UAS students themselves, Kela, and the pilot towns. Furthermore, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has granted separate funding in order to launch the trial. Money intended for university students’
healthcare will not be used for the trial.
After the trial period, the experiment will be evaluated. Whether or not the services of the FSHS will also be extended to UAS students will be decided based on the evaluation. The evaluation will also consider whether the pilot has had any effect on services provided for university students. The objective of the pilot is by no means to weaken the healthcare services provided to university students, but rather to provide better healthcare for UAS students.
Additional information about the pilot at the FSHS website http://www.yths.fi/amk and from the National Union of University Students in Finland (Social officer Sini Terävä, sini.terava@syl.fi, +358 41 5152227).