Apply for a degree

Are you close to completing your bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree studies? Go through the check list for degree applicants and after that, fill in the graduation application.

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Check list for degree applicants

Graduation includes plenty of things to remember and check. Go carefully through the list below to ensure your graduation proceeds smoothly all the way until you receive your degree certificate!

• Check that your own information (full name, social security number, contact information) are correct in Peppi.
  • Please check extra carefully that the Other e-mail section in Peppi contact information includes an e-mail address that is not the university’s (ulapland) address. You will receive the download link for your degree certificate to this e-mail address.
• Check that you have registered as an attending student and that your study attainments appear correctly in the transcript of records.
• If you don’t want to include all of your completed studies in your degree, mention which studies you want to leave out when you apply for graduation. Please note that studies attached to your degree cannot be transferred to another degree later.
• You can apply for graduation already when you have 1 or 2 courses left and you know when you will receive assessments for them (for example, you have already taken your last exam and are waiting for it to be assessed, or your master’s thesis is your final task and it will be assessed in the next Faculty Council meeting). This speeds up your graduation during the end-of-term graduation rush.
• If you are graduating with a bachelor’s degree, you are going to fill in the Finnish Bachelor’s Graduate Survey when you apply for graduation. Please wait patiently as the Bachelor’s Graduate Survey system directs you back to the graduation application after you have given your feedback.
• The later date of these two will become your graduation date: 1) The day you applied for graduation or 2) the completion date of the last course included in your degree. You can also ask for a later date for example to be able to receive student financial aid.
• Please note that you must complete your bachelor’s degree before your master’s degree. You cannot graduate with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree on the same day.
• If you are about to graduate with a master’s degree, you have completed all studies part of your degree and you applied for graduation before the end of the term, you need not register as attending for the next term. It is enough that you are an attending student when the final study attainment is completed and you apply for graduation, even if the degree certificate is issued during the following term.

Additional things to check for master’s and doctoral degree applicants:

• Please notice that your university credentials will cease to function two weeks after your graduation date. It is advisable that you save the files you wish to keep from Moodle, online folders and emails before submitting your degree application to avoid being caught off guard by the closure of your credentials.
• Please note that your graduation date is before the day you receive your degree certificate!
  Example: a student has all required study attainments, and they apply for graduation on 3 May. The faculty officer processes the application on 17 May and marks the student as graduated in Peppi. The student’s graduation date is 3 May in this case. The student’s university credentials stop working immediately on 17 May after the officer marks them as graduated, because at that point 14 days have passed since the student’s graduation. The student receives the degree certificate according to the schedule of the year in question, on 24 May.
• If the master’s thesis is your final study attainment, the date of the Faculty Council meeting that accepts your thesis will become your graduation date.
• Applicants graduating with master’s degrees: Upload your thesis to Lauda.
• Remember to return university keys and devices you borrowed for your studies. 

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Student financial aid and graduation

Your graduation day affects student financial aid: You may receive student financial aid for master’s degree studies only after you have graduated with a bachelor’s degree, starting from the beginning of the following month at earliest.

If you graduate with a master’s degree on 18th of a month or later, you are eligible to receive student financial aid for the month. If you graduate before the 18th, you are not eligible to receive the aid, and if the aid has been paid, you need to return it.
More information on graduation and student financial aid can be found on Kela’s website.

More information on student financial aid on Kela's website

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Apply for graduation

After you have gone through the check list for applicants, you can apply for graduation. Please note that graduation applications are degree specific. Choose the study right with which you are going to apply for graduation in Peppi (the right degree programme and level of study) before you start filling in the application.

Apply for graduation in Peppi

Degree certificates are sent to students according to the below schedule if all required study attainments are part of the student’s transcript of records when they apply for graduation. After these applications have been processed, the applications with some missing study attainments are processed (e.g. missing master’s thesis assessment). We cannot guarantee that all such certificates are delivered in the same go, as the ends of terms are rush periods for graduating. Submit your application and wait patiently. The faculties’ Student Affairs Offices work hard to ensure as many people as possible receive their certificates before Christmas or summer holidays.

Application deadline	Certificate ready
31 Oct 2025	21 Nov 2025
21 Nov 2025	18 Dec 2025
31 Dec 2025	23 Jan 2026
23 Jan 2026	13 Feb 2026
13 Feb 2026	13 Mar 2026
13 Mar 2026	1 Apr 2026
2 Apr 2026	29 Apr 2026
30 Apr 2026	22 May 2026
29 May 2026	25 June 2026
31 July 2026	28 Aug 2026
28 Aug 2026	18 Sept 2026
18 Sept 2026	9 Oct 2026
9 Oct 2026	30 Oct 2026
30 Oct 2026	20 Nov 2026
20 Nov 2026	18 Dec 2026
31 Dec 2026	22 Jan 2027

Having issues with the graduation application?

If you are having issues with accessing the Finnish Bachelor’s Graduate Survey or with filling in the graduation application, please contact the Student Affairs Office of your faculty:

• Faculty of Education: ktk.hallinto (at) ulapland.fi
• Faculty of Law: otk.opinto (at) ulapland.fi
• Faculty of Art and Design: ttk.opinto (at) ulapland.fi
• Faculty of Social Sciences: ytk.opinto (at) ulapland.fi

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After applying for graduation

After your graduation application has been processed, you will receive an e-mail notification of your application being accepted and of your graduation date. You can see when you have been marked as a graduate from your study right information in Peppi. If you need to prove your graduation for e.g. job searching before receiving your degree certificate, you can compile the necessary documents yourself by downloading your transcript of records and study certificate from Peppi.

After your certificate is ready, you will receive a download link to your e-mail that directs you to Peppi for downloading the certificate. The certificate is available for downloading for 30 days after the link has been sent. The download link will be sent to the e-mail address that has been provided in the Other e-mail address field under the Contact information section in Peppi.

If you are living in Finland at the time of graduation and have indicated in the application that you would like a printed, unofficial copy of the certificate, it will be sent to you as a regular letter after the certificate delivery date. Unofficial copies are printed on regular copy paper. If you print a paper copy of the certificate yourself, you can pick up a cardboard folder for it from the information desk in the main lobby of the university. Note! Unofficial copies will not be mailed abroad.