University of Tartu follows admissions schedule as much as possible

Admissions to the University of Tartu take place based on the schedule announced in winter. According to current plans, admission requirements will remain largely unchanged.

The application period to Estonian-taught master’s programmes runs until 1 July. From 18 June to 1 July, applications are accepted to bachelor’s, professional higher education and integrated curricula, and from 1 May to 15 June, to doctoral programmes.

It is possible to apply for programmes of all levels of study even if, due to the emergency situation, the applicant’s previous studies end in July or August. It does not matter whether the graduation has been postponed at the University of Tartu or at another educational institution in Estonia or abroad. However, the admission decisions are provisional: the university is entitled to cancel an admission decision if in August it appears that an enrolled student has not completed previous studies.

At present, the university is not going to change admission requirements. We will take into account the entrance exams, state exams and/or grades as announced in the Admission Rules in winter. While it was not clear whether state exams take place this year, according to the plans of the Ministry of Education and Research, secondary school leavers can take state exams in Estonian, Estonian as a second language, and mathematics. The state exams are carried out at the end of May and beginning of June and their results will be out on 30 June, one day before the application deadline.

Admissions to master’s and doctoral studies also take place according to the planned admission requirements.

The university currently assumes that the state exams take place, but we are keeping an eye on the situation. If in May it turns out that the state exams are not held at the planned time, the university will organise the admission of this year’s school-leavers without state exams. Solutions are found for each curriculum; for example, admission may take place based on a planned entrance exam only, or the state exam in Estonian and mathematics is replaced by the academic aptitude test or an entrance exam in the subject. The university will communicate further information for each curriculum at the earliest opportunity after the cancellation of state exams is announced.

This year the academic test was cancelled due to emergency situation and will not be held for admission under special conditions. The academic test will be conducted as a compulsory entrance exam for Psychology and Dentistry on 6 July.

This year the final round of certain subject olympiads was not held and this affects admissions under special conditions based on the results of olympiad. If the final round of an olympiad was cancelled, the university will take into account the final results of the county olympiad instead. To find the best students in Year 11 and 12, ranking lists are made of applicants with the highest scores in county olympiads. Instead of the results of the final round, the university takes into account the invitation to the final round.

Entrance exams scheduled for the beginning of July will take place in accordance with the requirements in force at that time. The university has made preparations in case, due to gathering and movement restrictions, the entrance exams cannot be held in the form they were planned. If necessary, oral entrance exams will be conducted via electronic channels (for example Skype, Teams, Zoom, etc.). We are also looking for solutions to conduct written exams.

Further information: Tuuli Kaldma, Head of Student Admissions, University of Tartu, +372 737 6391, tuuli.kaldma@ut.ee