On Sunday 7 December 2025, YLE’s MOT published a documentary about education agents and their unethical practices in student recruitment. MOT revealed how education agents falsely market Finland to international students. The role of education agents is to assist educational institutions in recruiting students from abroad to study in Finland.

According to the MOT documentary, education agents market Finland as, among other things, the world’s happiest country where it is easy to find employment, even without speaking Finnish. The picture painted of Finland is far from reality. According to the results of the research At What Cost? Being an International Student in Finland, published in February, the high language proficiency requirements in Finnish or Swedish are precisely the biggest obstacle to finding employment in Finland.

“It is in no way humanely sustainable that international students are practically tricked into coming here. Many students who arrived in Finland for a good livelihood have not been able to find employment and have thus become poorer. This year, we have heard news about how the number of international students in food queues has grown, and how students cannot afford to pay the tuition fees. This leads to the discontinuation of studies, which is not in anyone’s interest,” states Board Member Elina Liekkinen, who is responsible for international students.

SAMOK demands that higher education institutions take more responsibility for the recruitment of international students. Higher education institutions must ensure that education agents comply with the ethical guidelines jointly drawn up by Finnish higher education institutions. If the guidelines are not followed, the contract with the agent must be terminated.

Although higher education institutions are responsible for the recruitment of international students, the Finnish Government also has a significant role in determining the social status of international students. When funding for higher education institutions is cut, it directs them to look for other sources of income. One such source of income is the tuition fees for international students from outside the EU and EEA countries, which were made fully cost-covering starting from 2025. This has partly led to a situation where higher education institutions aim to recruit as many tuition-fee-paying students as possible to cover inadequate basic funding.

“The funding of higher education in Finland cannot be based on misleading international students. It is morally highly problematic that some students fund their studies with decades of family savings in the hope of a better standard of living, and then are forced to realise that making a living as a student in Finland is impossible. Higher education institutions must be capable of responsible operation, even when it extends beyond the country’s borders. If this cannot be achieved, the use of education agents must be discontinued,” Liekkinen concludes.

Further information:

Elina Liekkinen
Board Member (Education Policy, International Students)
+358 50 360 9376
[email protected]