Throughout the world, students are seen as a good migration as they often pay for their studies and therefore bring the host Higher Education (HE) provider an income. Furthermore, the geographical area where the Higher Educational Institution (HEI) is situated gets new citizens that bring in money by everyday consumption, rents but also in some cases are seen as cheap labor. The number of international students studying abroad has increased annually and in Finland the government has been very favorable towards international degree students. Finland has increased its international students from around 6000 in 2000 to 22800 in 2025. International students that study in Finland are a very heterogeneous group, they stem from many different countries, the age range is big and the reasons for choosing Finland are vast. We have in an earlier paper described the reasons for international students to choose Finland. In this paper we want to describe the experiences international students have while studying in Finland.

This study is done as an abductive study with 27 interviews. The interviews were conducted in the autumn of 2023 and consisted of students (N=20) and alumni (N=7). We have studied the experience international students have when studying in Finland. This study is unique as it looks at a fairly big interview sample from the most international university of applied sciences in Finland. All respondents also represent the same study program. Based on the data we have identified factors that are seen as favorable and others that are disadvantageous when studying in Finland. It is important for a university to understand the experiences of the students as they will be key contacts towards new students in their home countries. It is also important for Finland to have students who feel included in the society and want to stay on in Finland after graduation. During the interviews the students were asked to describe their experiences Finland.

The results show that the main factors influencing international students studying in Finland are based on both positive and negative factors. Most students have experienced both things that they appreciate and things that they feel could have been avoided by the HEI providing more service. In this paper we will discuss these more thoroughly.

Keywords: International students, higher education, integration.