1. Residence Permit application rejected (negative decision for RP application):

• If you have not started your studies and you inform us about cancellation before starting
  your studies or during first month of your studies (until 30.9.*/31.1.**), you are entitled to a
  refund of the tuition fee that you have already paid. After this deadline tuition fee is not refundable.
  However, cancelling your study place for any other reason than residence permit
  rejection LAB University will charge you 250 EUR for the administrative costs.

• If started and received study credits from Online studies and then cancel your studies, you will lose the tuition fee.

• Note! All new degree students must enroll for their first academic year by the deadline mentioned on the acceptance letter, to activate the study right. The enrollment is compulsory, even if you are still waiting for the residence permit decision.

LAB has scheduled an arrival deadline for each semester. If your arrival is delayed, you are not able to start your studies together with your intake group, we recommend in these situations that you should start your studies with next intake group. This also means that you can arrive to Finland when your studies start. If missing the arrival deadline, you must contact the tutoring teacher before orientation and inform LAB.scholarship@lab.fi about the delay.

If you have agreed with the schlarship team on saving your tuition fee payment for a certain future semester, you must inform about a possible cancellation during the first month of that semester (by 30.9.* /31.1.**). A refund of the deferred tuition fee is only possible with a negative residence permit.

Cancelling or postponing your study place If you have arrived in Finland by student visa

• If you have arrived in Finland by student visa, tuition fee is charged regardless of you have started your studies or not. If you cancel your study place after arriving in Finland, tuition fee is not refundable.

If you have arrived to Finland with a student visa, you must enroll as attending and start your studies as advised in your letter of admission. Immigration office (Migri) has access to our database and they check your study progress. As an attending student the tuition fee is always running, even if you have not completed any courses.

Citizens of non-EU/EEA countries (excluding Switzerland) are required to pay the LAB tuition fee. Students can be exempted from payment only with certain types of Residence Permit card.

The amount of the tuition fee payment is stated in your admission letter. The yearly fee for the upcoming academic years will be based on your intake year’s Tuition fee. Possible scholarships (granted later) may affect your yearly payment.

The tuition fee payment is a Tax-free service, VAT 0 %. 

First year tuition fee must be paid during the LAB application process, and the payment details are defined in your admission decision. Please note that if you must apply for a Residence Permit, your permit application process will be on hold until you have paid the tuition fee or are able to show the funding for it.

For future study years, the fee is due in May (Autumn starting groups) or October (Spring starting groups). The possibility of a scholarship depends on the year of intake.

NOTE! NEW UPDATES!

1. The possible tuition fee scholarship is only available when making the payment on time. If the tuition fee is not paid by the start of the semester and your study right is closed, you will automatically lose the right to avail the scholarship.
2. Also, you need to ensure that your Finnish identity number as well as address in Finland are updated in the student register before any scholarships can be officially registered. 

Please make your payment via Flywire* following the deadlines on your admission letter. The payment is to be made in one installment only. When paying via Flywire, you can download the confirmation of the payment yourself from the Flywire portal. We do not send any additional confirmation of Flywire payments.

* Please be informed that due to the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC)’s comprehensive region-wide sanctions Flywire is unable to process payments from some countries. Please see the full list of sanctions here. For them, we recommend making a direct bank transfer to LAB’s account.

Please avoid using third parties for payments to avoid potential problems in the event of refunds or cancellations. The refunds are only possible to the original payer of the fee.

If it is not possible to use Flywire, you can make your payment via bank transfer. You’ll find the latest account details from eLAB: https://elab.lab.fi/en/completing-studies/tuition-fee, under the title “Tuition fee payment methods”.

It is crucial to provide the student’s name in the payment message. LAB UAS needs this information to identify the payment and connect it to the right student. If possible, please also provide a student number or a student’s national ID number (oid). 

Kindly note that we only have access to our own account in the OP bank. Therefore, we cannot see or trace any international transactions before the money appears in LAB’s account. We also do not have a direct hotline for OP bank or the resources to trace individual payments. If the payment is interrupted along the way, the applicant/student is always responsible for contacting the bank and figuring out the status of the payment. Once the OP bank has received the payment from the sending bank, they transfer the payments to LAB’s account with a short delay.

1. Refunds can only be paid to the original payer. If someone else has made the payment on the student´s behalf, possible refund will be paid to the same party.
2. Refunds are only possible until 30.9. (Autumn semester payments) and 31.1. (Spring semester payments). After these deadlines, tuition fee is not refundable.
3. Refunds from previous academic years are not possible. If your payment has previously been postponed, it is only refundable with a negative residence permit decision.
4. The first-year tuition fee is processed as a whole, and semester-based refunds are not possible.
5. You are NOT entitled to a refund, if you have completed any credits (even online) in that payment period. (Exception: Completion of the orientation course lab@key does not affect the refund of the payment.)
6. If you cancel your study place for ANY other reason than a negative residence permit decision, LAB University of Applied Sciences will charge you 250 EUR for the administrative costs.
7. If you cancel your study place after arriving in Finland, the tuition fee is not refundable. If already residing in Finland during the application period, the refund is possible until the starting date of the study right.
8. If not being able to fulfil the requirements for the conditionally admitted students, you will lose your right to study and will receive a refund for the tuition fee that you have paid. However, LAB will charge you 250 EUR for the administrative costs.

LAB has set an arrival deadline for each semester. If your arrival is delayed from the scheduled time, you cannot start your studies during the ongoing semester. 

Note! New degree students must enroll for their study right to accept the study place. As a new student you must also enroll for courses on time, even if there is no certainty of a residence permit. Enrolling for courses has no effect on a refund. 

If your arrival is delayed due to a delay with your own* residence permit or you are absent for statutory reasons, you can resign, or you must postpone the start to the next possible intake. You must contact the tutoring teacher before orientation and inform LAB.scholarship@lab.fi about your situation by September 15th (or January 15th). 

1. If you have postponed the start to the next possible intake, we will save your tuition fee for the next intake period. You can postpone the payment and the start of your studies only once.
2. Refunds are only possible until 30.9. (Autumn semester groups) and 31.1. (Spring semester groups). After these deadlines, tuition fee is not refundable. Please contact LAB.scholarship@lab.fi in case of refund request.
3. A postponed payment can only be refunded based on a negative residence permit decision. Please make sure that you are actively working on getting the permit. In case you cancel the permit application yourself, the right for refund expires.
4. When postponing the start, the student will be registered as non-attending, but the normative study time is still running.
5. During the postponing period, the student may not complete any studies, even online.
6. If you have arrived in Finland with a student visa, you must enroll as attending and start your studies as advised in your letter of admission. As an attending student the tuition fee is always running, even if you have not completed any courses. Postponing the start and payment is NOT possible, if the student has already arrived in Finland.
7. If you arrive in Finland during your postponing period, please note that your studies will be considered to have started and the tuition fee will start to run, even if not completed any studies.

*Family member’s permit delays are NOT an acceptable reason for postponing the start.

From 1.12.2024, we will follow the terms of the new law regarding the tuition fee exemptions. A student can be exempted from the tuition fees, if having one of the following permits: 

• An EU/EEA citizenship
• EU blue card in Finland
• A permanent residence permit card in Finland, (type P)
• EU residence permit for third-country citizens with long-term residence permit card in Finland (type P-EU)
• Family members of all the above
• Residence permit based on temporary protection in Finland, as referred to in the Aliens Act. The permit must be valid at the beginning of the study right, and the permit cannot have later been revoked.
• Erasmus Mundus scholarship holders and those who are studying in the Erasmus Mundus programme funded by the European Union.
• Students in on-demand studies.

NOTE! 

• Students who have been granted an exemption from tuition fees by LAB, based on their residence permit before 1.12.2024, will retain their previously granted right to exemption as long as the permit and study right remain unchanged and uninterrupted. Any changes to the permit’s grounds or interruption of the study right will automatically lead to reviewing of the exemption based on the new law.
• Possible exemptions are reviewed based on the student's own and the possible sponsor's permit history.
• If the student’s first residence permit in Finland was granted for the purpose of studying or they arrived as a student’s family member, the student must pay tuition fees, even if later obtained a continuous residence permit (type A) on other grounds. Also, if the student is currently residing with a student’s permit or as a family member of a student, they are liable to pay the fees.
• If the student has originally arrived and is still residing with a continuous residence permit (type A) based on working, the student is exempt from the fee. This also applies if residing as a family member and the sponsor's original and current permits are based on working.
• The obligation to pay the tuition fee ends when the person receives a permanent residence permit (P permit).

If there are any changes to your residence permit after being accepted, please prepare to inform LAB scholarship about any changes prior to the start of the next semester. If you have a permit card that exempts you from the fees, but it expires before the semester starts, you are liable to pay the tuition fees. Any changes on the payment status are always counted to start from the beginning of next semester. For any exemptions: 

• The card needs to be valid on the first day of the semester (1.8. or 1.1.)
• The card needs to be presented before the semester starts (by 31.7. or 31.12.).

If you have paid the tuition fee for the whole academic year but manage to graduate during the first semester, your additional semester payment is refundable by 30.9. (Autumn semester fee) and 31.1. (Spring semester fee). 

Note! You need to apply for graduation before the end of the semester if you wish to avoid the next semester tuition fee. If your official graduation exceeds the deadline of July 31 or December 31, you will have to pay the tuition fee for the next semester, with no exceptions. Please make sure all your courses are finished and thesis evaluated before the semester ends.

First academic year 

If you have accepted your study place but do not pay your tuition fee by the deadline defined in your admissions letter, you are not able to start your studies. Your study right will be closed. You may apply for restoration later by paying the tuition fee and an additional 50 EUR administrative fee. Possible discounts or scholarships are not applicable in the case of restoration. 

Note! If the study place is not accepted by the deadline defined in the admission letter, your study place will be permanently lost. In this case, the right to study cannot be restored. 

Further studies 

The tuition fee deadline for the future study years is May 31st / October 30th. If you have not paid your tuition fee by the deadline, you will receive a reminder. If you neglect the tuition fee payment, your study right will be closed, and you are not able to continue your studies. You may apply for restoration later by paying the full tuition fee and an additional 50 EUR administrative fee. Possible discounts or scholarships are not applicable in the case of restoration.