Stu­dent, Oulu Is the Best Deci­sion of Your Life – Here’s 5 Rea­sons Why

Now is the per­fect time to join the group of over 20 000 sat­is­fied stu­dents liv­ing in Oulu. In addi­tion to high-qual­i­ty teach­ing, as a stu­dent in Oulu you get to enjoy first-class liv­ing – and espe­cial­ly the active cul­tur­al offer­ing of the city. After all, Oulu has been select­ed as the Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture 2026. We have made a list of the top five rea­sons for why Oulu is the best place in the world for a stu­dent.

1. The cost of liv­ing in Oulu is afford­able

Liv­ing in Oulu is notably cheap­er than liv­ing in many oth­er big cities in Fin­land. There are plen­ty of cozy and rea­son­ably priced homes avail­able both in the city cen­ter and near the uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus­es in Lin­nan­maa and Kon­tinkan­gas. The local stu­dent hous­ing foun­da­tion PSOAS and Otokylä ry are rent­ing out stu­dio apart­ments, shared apart­ments, and fam­i­ly apart­ments. There are also plen­ty of apart­ments to choose from in the pri­vate mar­kets, and the prices are not sky-high.

Read more about liv­ing in Oulu (opens in a new tab).

Also take a look at an arti­cle pub­lished in sum­mer 2024: Up to 200 euros cheap­er: stu­dents’ liv­ing expens­es are the low­est in Oulu (opens in a new tab)

2. Vari­ety of events with some­thing for every­one

The Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture 2026 offers ver­sa­tile events that pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty to have fun and relax. There is no rea­son for a stu­dent to leave Oulu even for the sum­mer: there are plen­ty of things to do and unique things to see here all year round.

In addi­tion to numer­ous stu­dent events, large music fes­ti­vals such as Qstock and sev­er­al kinds of small­er, unique events are orga­nized in Oulu every year. By the way, did you know that ice hole pitch­ing and air gui­tar world cham­pi­onships were born in Oulu? In the sum­mer, peo­ple gath­er to enjoy Park Pic­nics, dur­ing Oulu Days at the begin­ning of Sep­tem­ber the city is filled with fes­tive fun, and in the dark­ness of Novem­ber we cel­e­brate Lumo Light Fes­ti­val. If you are inter­est­ed in events, you can also explore the offer­ings of The Cul­tur­al Cen­tre Valve and the events orga­nized by the cul­tur­al asso­ci­a­tion Oulu Urban Cul­ture.

Take a peek at Mun Oulu’s event cal­en­dar to find the best upcom­ing events (opens in a new tab).

3. Ver­sa­tile hob­by oppor­tu­ni­ties

Do you want to work up a sweat or enjoy a slow­er way of liv­ing in your free time? In Oulu, you can do both.  The aca­d­e­m­ic sports ser­vices pro­vid­ed by Uni­Move offer, among oth­er things, dance cours­es, mar­tial arts, and a vari­ety of rack­et sports. In addi­tion, there are dozens of high-qual­i­ty fit­ness cen­ters in dif­fer­ent areas of the city. There are also many won­der­ful out­door exer­cise tracks in Oulu that are suit­able for, for exam­ple, moun­tain bik­ing and cross-coun­try ski­ing. Fur­ther­more, you can go down­hill ski­ing at Rusko­tun­turi or unwind by vis­it­ing the nature des­ti­na­tions sur­round­ing the city.

You may also throw aside your every­day oblig­a­tions, for instance, by going to the movies, to your favorite artist’s con­cert, or to the the­ater. And don’t for­get Oulu-opis­to, which offers hob­by oppor­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple of all ages: you can choose from, for exam­ple, var­i­ous hand­i­crafts, arts, sports, lan­guage, music, and bak­ing cours­es.

Read more about leisure options in Oulu (opens in a new tab).

4. You can move from one place to anoth­er with­out has­sle

In Oulu, you do not have to waste time sit­ting in traf­fic. The dis­tances are short any­where you want to go, and in 20 min­utes you can eas­i­ly get from one side of the city to the oth­er. Oulu is famous for its exten­sive cycling lane net­work, which is kept in good con­di­tion also in the win­ter­time. With pub­lic bus ser­vice pro­vid­ed by Oulu Region­al Trans­porta­tion (OSL), you can get from the city cen­ter to all uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus­es in just fif­teen min­utes.

See more about mobil­i­ty in Oulu (opens in a new tab).

5. In Oulu, you are always close to nature

In addi­tion to the cam­pus­es being close to the city cen­ter, they are also locat­ed right next to nature. More­over, here you are guar­an­teed to get to expe­ri­ence the beau­ty of all four sea­sons.

Between class­es, you can, for exam­ple, go for a short walk or sit out­side and relax while lis­ten­ing to the wind in the trees. Near the city cen­ter, there are sev­er­al beau­ti­ful parks for recre­ation – not to for­get the beach­es locat­ed in the sea­coast and along the Oulu­jo­ki riv­er. It is also easy to take a trip from Oulu to, for exam­ple, Syöte, which is the south­ern­most fell in Fin­land, or to the unique Rokua Geop­ark.

Here you can find more infor­ma­tion about the nature des­ti­na­tions in Oulu (opens in a new tab).

P.S. Explore the study oppor­tu­ni­ties in Oulu and apply here:

• Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences (Oamk) (opens in a new tab)
• Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu (opens in a new tab)