Guide for students with children

You have the right to register for non-attendance due to a new arrival in the family if you do not have the time to participate in teaching. When registering for non-attendance for the duration of your parental leave, you are entitled to a corresponding extension to your study right. Further information on extending your study right is available here.

You have the right to mention that you have children and request more flexible ways to complete courses based on it. Please contact us or the University’s equality liaison if any of your courses does not facilitate flexible practices. However, remember that the University is not obligated to remake the whole course separately for students with children. You are most likely to get some flexibility by requesting it early enough. A conciliatory attitude often yields the best result. Compromising on learning objectives due to family situation or any other personal reason is not an option. If you encounter challenges on courses due to having children, you can also mention it in the course feedback. This may result in the situation improving in the future.

Everyone has the right to be absent from teaching when sick or tending to a sick child. Despite this, deviations from the permitted number of absences or required assignments on courses cannot be made. Instead, you may be provided with some flexibility through compensating for absences with other study assignments.

You have the right to bring your children to lectures. However, please consider the interests of both the child and your fellow students by not bringing a sick or crying child to a lecture. If you are breastfeeding a baby, you can request special arrangements for breastfeeding them during an exam.

If studying during the day is difficult for you, certain study spaces can also be used in the evening and at night. For this, you will need a separate key. You can read more about the night-use facilities and acquiring the key here.

You can apply for an extension to the duration of your studies once or several times. It is not necessary to apply for the extension to begin immediately after your study right ends. The recommendation is to apply for the extension when you actually intend to continue your studies. However, when assessing the situation, you also need to account for possible provisions on the expiry of studies and to remember that the extension must be used on actively completing your studies. If you do not use the granted extension on completing your studies, getting a new extension may become more difficult.

There are other family types than just families with two parents of different genders, such as single-parent families, same-gender parent families, multiparent families and blended families. You have the right to be recognised as having a family by the University and society regardless of your family type.

NOTE! These instructions only apply to students covered by the Finnish social security system. Remember to check the up-to-date instructions primarily from Kela’s website.

Kela awards a maternity grant to everyone who has had a health check by the end of the 18th week of their pregnancy. You can choose to have the grant awarded as either a maternity package or a cash benefit.

You can take a pregnancy leave before your child is born. A pregnancy allowance is paid to the pregnant parent during their pregnancy leave. You may be entitled to special pregnancy allowance if you have to stop working or studying earlier due to exposure to infectious diseases, radiation or chemical substances at your place of work or study.

Parental allowance is paid during a parental leave, which you may begin after the child is born. The size of the allowance is based on your annual income. You can apply for the allowance when you know when you are going to take your parental leave. If you receive the study grant, the allowance will be paid at the minimum rate.

After your child is born, you can apply for a child benefit, which is paid for children under the age of 17. The amount of the benefit depends on your number of children, whereas a single parent can get a single-parent supplement for each child.

You can continue receiving student aid after your child is born if you are able to study and look after your child at the same time. In this case, you are also entitled to the provider supplement of student aid. You do not need to apply for the provider supplement – it is granted automatically based on your information in the population register. The number of children you have does not affect the size of the supplement. However, remember to take the study credit requirements and income limits into account. Parental allowances are considered income in the income control for student aid.

Having your general housing allowance checked after your child is born is recommended. The changes in the size of your household and in your income will affect the amount of housing allowance you are awarded. You can also apply for a family apartment from the Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region or the cities of the Capital Region.

After your parental allowance ends, you can either tend to your child at home or place them in municipal or private day care. If the child is in home care or somewhere else than municipal day care, you are entitled to either child home care allowance or private day care allowance. The allowance consists of care allowance, care supplement and a municipal supplement available in many municipalities. We recommend checking whether the supplement is available in your municipality. The child home care allowance is paid to you, whereas the private day care allowance is paid directly to the childminder or day care. You can receive student aid while being paid child home care allowance or private day care allowance. However, please remember that the child home care allowance is only awarded for tending to children under the age of three and will be considered as income in the income control for student aid.

If one of the child’s parents does not permanently live with the child, the child is entitled to receive child support from them. If the other parent does not pay child support, if the amount of the child support is smaller than child maintenance allowance would be or if the child has no legally established other parent, the child is entitled to receive child maintenance allowance from Kela. The city’s child welfare officers offer help with making a maintenance agreement. If you cannot reach an agreement and the matter has to be taken to court, you can seek legal aid from the legal aid office.

You can choose to go on exchange during your studies. As a student with children and the legal guardian of a minor, you are entitled to a monthly additional grant in Europe in addition to the regular Erasmus+ grant. A few students’ experiences of studying on exchange with a family are available to read here (in Finnish).

Further information on students’ subsistence is available in HYY’s Survival Guide.

If you have a home municipality in Finland, you are entitled to use the services of the city or municipality in question. You can read more about the right to a home municipality here.

Children below school age are entitled to early childhood education organised by your home municipality. The size of the early childhood education fee depends on your family’s income. No fee is collected from the most low-income families. Getting an early childhood education place close to your home may be difficult at short notice. For this reason, it is advisable to apply for a place as soon as you know your desired starting time. In addition to this, organisations such as the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare and the Family Federation of Finland (in Finnish) offer temporary childcare help for a charge.

The City of Helsinki also has other services available for families with children. The city organises free club activities at playgrounds for children aged 2–4. The club activities are organised on 1–4 days a week, 2.5–3 hours per day. They are meant for children who are in home care on child home care allowance. If you receive private day care allowance, your child cannot take part in these clubs. If you need support with your everyday life, you can apply for home services, which are subject to a charge. You may be entitled to use home services due to a decreased ability to function, family situation, sickness or being overburdened, for instance. The home services are temporary.

You are entitled to free health clinic services provided by the city. The health clinics offer various services and health checkups during pregnancy and while the child is below school age. You can read more about the services of the City of Helsinki here.

Little HYY is our childcare service that offers temporary childcare help for HYY’s members. It operates on the City Centre campus at Siltavuorenpenger 3 C, offering both individual reservations and regular time slots. Reservations should be made well in advance. The regular time slots for the academic term open for reservations in the autumn but can be inquired about throughout the academic year. At the beginning of the academic term, you can reserve two regular slots for one week, with the maximum length of the reservation four hours at a time.

The reservations are made by email. Please remember to cancel your reservation if you do not end up needing it. The full price is collected for uncancelled reservations.

The minimum age for children is 6 months, and there is no maximum age.

Little HYY is open at 8 am–4 pm on Mon–Thu and at 8 am–2 pm on Fri.

You can contact the childminders by email at pikkuhyy(at)hyy.fi or by phone at 050 303 8333.

The price is €5/hour, sibling discount available.

Read about HYY’s other member services here.

If you are having trouble coping with everyday life and feel the need to talk to someone, support is available from the University and many organisations. Study psychologists offer individual and group counselling for students who want some support with issues related to studying skills, motivation, time management, coping, anxiety or writing theses. University chaplains offer a safe space for everyone regardless of belief, gender or sexual orientation. You can contact a university chaplain if you want to discuss spiritual matters, studying, work, relationships or anything else going on in your life.

The FSHS offers mental health services as part of student health care. These include preventive and therapeutic groups as well as short-term therapy. The University of Helsinki Valo Fund offers students of the University of Helsinki support with continuing their rehabilitative psychotherapy after Kela’s support for it ends during the third or fourth year.

Nyyti ry is an association promoting students’ mental health and study ability. Nyyti’s chat is a place for sharing thoughts and experiences together. The group-form chat allows you to talk about various themes connected to student life. Nyyti also hosts smaller groups and discussion events as well as publishes a podcast and material on student wellbeing and mental health.

The main purpose of the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL) is to promote the wellbeing of children, young people and families with children. MLL offers peer support and advice with tricky situations concerning parenthood. For instance, you can talk to someone on the helpline for parents or participate in a family coffee hour (links to Finnish pages).

Is your family a rainbow family? Advice is provided by organisations such as SETA and Sateenkaariperheet ry.

One way of taking care of your social networks and taking a break from daily routines is participating in the activities of some of the around 250 organisations and committees operating under HYY. In addition to subject and faculty organisations, there are also student nations, hobby organisations, choirs, sports clubs and many other types of organisations operating under HYY! Read more here.