Oamk_Highway – New route for young people towards engineering degree in Northern Finland

The Finland higher education (HE) system is based on the dual system with the Universities and with the Polytechnics also
known as Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS). The students pursuing for HE admission can have various routes to acquire
their right to study in the Universities or in the UAS’s. These options can be e.g., official entrance exams or by the evaluation
of grades from the vocational or high school diploma. Oulu University of Applied Sciences (OUAS) is in the northern Finland,
in the city of Oulu. OUAS has c.a. 9500 students and around 500 staff members. The School of Engineering and Natural
Resources as c.a. 2400 students, and c.a. 150 staff members. This paper introduces a new pathway by the OUAS School of
Engineering and Natural Resources to acquire new engineering students from the vocational and high school level in
Northern Finland. This is called Oamk_Highway, in which the students in the vocational or high school studies 15 credit
points of specified OUAS HE studies, and together with the vocational of high school degree diploma, the student will get
direct admission to engineering degrees in the OUAS. The 15 ECTS constitutes from mathematics (5 ECTS), physics (5 ECTS)
and engineering degree subject matter studies (5 ECTS), which can be freely selected by the student from the list of specified
Oamk_Highway courses. The courses are mainly organized by online course and are taught by the OUAS teachers (Senior
lecturers or Principal lecturers), however, the mathematics course is organized locally and taught in the high school or in
the vocation school by using the materials, exams and support provided by the OUAS. There are totally 5 engineering
degrees available for the students to choose from after admission via the Highway concept. These degrees are: Mechanical
Engineering degree, Building Services Engineering degree, Electrical and Automation Engineering degree, Energy and
Environmental Engineering degree, Construction and Civil Engineering degree.