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University of Helsinki campus tour: Senate Square and beyond
What to see at the University of Helsinki: the Main Building on Senate Square, the National Library, Kaisa House, the Botanic Garden and student traditions.
The University of Helsinki is Finland's oldest and largest university, and its front door opens onto the most famous square in the country. Founded in 1640 in Turku and moved to Helsinki in 1828, it has no gated campus: its historic buildings are part of the capital's neoclassical centre, and three further campuses are spread across the city. This guide walks through the central campus, explains what happens at the others, and describes the traditions that make student life here distinctive.
Four campuses in one city
- City Centre: the Main Building, the libraries and the faculties of arts, law, theology, social sciences and education, in the blocks around Senate Square.
- Kumpula: physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science and the geosciences, on a hill a few kilometres north of the centre.
- Meilahti: medicine, next to the university hospital.
- Viikki: biosciences, agriculture and forestry, pharmacy and veterinary medicine, on the north-eastern edge of the city beside fields and a nature reserve.
Trams and buses link them, but most visitors will spend their time in the centre.
The Main Building and Senate Square
Senate Square was laid out in the early 19th century, when Helsinki became the capital of what was then a Grand Duchy under the Russian emperor. The German-born architect Carl Ludvig Engel designed all of it: the Government Palace on the east side, the university's Main Building facing it on the west, completed in 1832, and the white, green-domed Helsinki Cathedral at the top of its wide flight of steps. The two long, pale yellow buildings were deliberately made to match.
The university arrived here after the Great Fire of Turku in 1827 destroyed much of its original home. It was known as the Imperial Alexander University until Finland became independent, and the statue in the middle of the square is of Emperor Alexander II. The Main Building holds the Great Hall, where the academic year is ceremonially opened and where doctoral conferment ceremonies, with their top hats and swords, are held.
The National Library of Finland
Immediately north of the Main Building is the National Library of Finland, also by Engel and often counted among his finest works. Behind a plain facade of columns are three connected halls with painted vaults, galleries and marble-effect columns, and a later round annex with rings of book galleries rising to a skylight. The library is run by the university and has generally been open to the public; check its own pages for current access.
Kaisa House and Think Corner
The university's working library is a block further on. Kaisa House, opened in 2012, is a dark brick building pierced by enormous arched windows, with an oval opening rising through the floors inside. It sits directly above a metro station that is named after the university.
Around the corner, Think Corner is the university's public living room, with a café and a programme of talks about current research. It is a simple way to get a feel for the place without an appointment.
The Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden
A few minutes' walk north, behind the central railway station, the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden has been part of the university since 1829. The outdoor garden is a quiet park of labelled beds and old trees; the 19th-century glasshouses hold palms, water lilies and plants from warmer climates. The university has a second, larger botanic garden at Kumpula.
Science at Kumpula, Meilahti and Viikki
The science campuses are modern rather than picturesque, but prospective science students should see where they would actually study. Kumpula's main buildings, named Physicum, Chemicum and Exactum, stand on a rocky hill with a view back to the city centre. Viikki mixes laboratories with farmland; the university keeps a research farm there. Meilahti is essentially a hospital district with research institutes attached.
Bachelor's teaching is mainly in Finnish and Swedish, as the university is officially bilingual, and many master's programmes are taught in English.
Student life: nations, overalls and Vappu
The Old Student House, built in 1870 where the city's main shopping streets now meet, belongs to the Student Union, as does the New Student House beside it. Social life is organised through subject associations and through osakunnat, student nations based on the regions of Finland, similar to those at Uppsala and Lund.
Two traditions stand out. Students wear boiler suits in the colour of their subject, covered in sewn-on patches, to parties and events. And on the eve of May Day, known as Vappu, students gather at the Havis Amanda fountain by the Market Square to place a white student cap on the statue's head, the start of a citywide celebration that continues with a picnic in Kaivopuisto park the next day.
Most students live in shared flats or studios run by a student housing foundation or rented privately, spread around the city rather than on campus.
Visiting as a prospective student
There is no campus gate and no need to book to see the outside of the buildings, the square or the Botanic Garden grounds. Finnish universities do not generally run North American-style admissions tours; the University of Helsinki has provided online information events and guidance for international applicants instead. Check the university's official pages for prospective students and visitors for what is currently available.
Getting there and around
- By air: Helsinki Airport is connected to the central railway station by a commuter train that takes about half an hour.
- By sea: ferries from Tallinn and Stockholm dock within tram or walking distance of the centre.
- In town: Senate Square is about ten minutes on foot from the central railway station. Trams cover the centre, and the metro stops beneath Kaisa House.
Where families usually stay
- Around Senate Square and the Esplanade: closest to the central campus and the harbour.
- Near the central railway station and Kamppi: the most practical base for transport to the other campuses and the airport.
- Kallio: a livelier, younger district a few tram stops north, popular with students.
Practical tips
- Helsinki is very different in June and in January. If you can, visit during term to see the university at work.
- Combine the central campus with the cathedral, the Market Square and the short ferry ride to the Suomenlinna sea fortress.
- Comparing Nordic universities? See also our University of Copenhagen campus tour.
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Cover photo: Leonhard Lenz, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
