Education in Finland is of high quality. This is proven by, for example, the OECD Pisa assessment conducted in 2006 in 57 countries, in which Finland ranked first.

First-class basic education

Every child living in Oulu has the right to first-class, diverse and free basic education near his or her home. School healthcare, school meals and study materials are free for all pupils in basic education.

After basic education, students can move on to one of the 12 general upper secondary education institutes in Oulu or one of the five vocational upper secondary education and training institutes.

Each child also has the right to attend preschool for one year in the year prior to starting basic education.

Superior university education

The University of Oulu has 17,000 students and provides higher education in several fields – humanities, pedagogics, natural sciences, medicine, economics and technical sciences.

The Oulu University of Applied Sciences has 8,000 students and several departments – School of Vocational Teacher Education, Department of Business and Administration, Department of Social and Health Care, Department of Technology, Department of Cultural Studies and Department of Natural Resources. It also has teaching premises in Raahe.

Adult, complementary and further education

Various educational institutes provide adult education. Learning and Research Services at the University of Oulu offers further education programmes. You can also attend university-level courses at the Oulu Open University and Pohjois-Pohjanmaan kesäyliopisto.

Tomorrow’s leader

The School of the Future programme will help Ritaharju school and all schools in Oulu to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The Ritaharju comprehensive school, which will be completed in 2010, is one of only 12 schools from around the world – and the only one from Finland – to participate in Microsoft’s School of the Future programme.

Schools and education