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24.02.2026

SYL informs: True Cost - call to find International Students to Interview for SYL's advocacy campaign around international student employment and livelihood

Do you have experiences you want to share about the situation of international students in Finland? On experiences around studies, integration, livelihood and employment? What is the actual experience of international students in Finland and what is its True Cost?

This is a call for international students to participate in SYL's True Cost-campaign which centers on highlighting the experiences of international students in finding employment, in their livelihoods and the experience of being in Finland. This campaign will be part of our larger advocacy campaign to better the situation of international students here in Finland. SYL has explored these questions before, especially in the 2024 survey At what Cost? Being an International Student in Finland (Millä hinnalla? Kansainväliset korkeakouluopiskelijat Suomessa).

Form can be found here.

Interviews will be:

• Conducted remotely
• Conducted in March and April
• Foremost in English, but in Finnish by request
• Anonymous
• 30 to 45 minutes long

This form will be open until 6.3.

The interviews will be recorded, but will be anonymous and any citations will be used anonymously. For more information on how this information will be used, check here.

We will raffle a set of noise cancelling headphones among the participants to the interviews.

For any questions, contact viena.pentikainen@syl.fi and saku.pesonen@syl.fi

Background: The financial situation and well-being of international students has had significant cuts and deteriorating impacts in the last few years. With increasing expenditure, international students facing many difficulties in finding employment and the lack of Finnish support networks, many students struggle financially. This has also been exacerbated by changes in immigration and the cost of studying – just to name a few, the income requirements for residence permits on the basis of studying have risen to €800 per month, application fees were introduced for students coming from outside of EU/EEA countries, and tuition fees have risen. We want to get a sense of how international students navigate this context, what thoughts on employment there are and the impact that this context has on the students.