More flexible degree studies – fascinating possibilities for learners and institutions on the cards

When you want to make learning easy and attractive, increasing the flexibility of degree studies is one way of achieving this. The higher education institutions are now starting to work towards this goal in their joint Digivisio project.

Fitting their studies easily in with their daily life and putting together a degree that supports their personal career aspirations are important for students. Flexible degree studies can support all this, which is why the Finnish higher education institutions are now starting to work towards this goal in their joint Digivisio project.

But what do flexible degree studies actually mean?

“They mean that students can select studies provided by another higher education institution and include them in their degrees,” says Jonna Piiroinen, Project Manager responsible for technical solutions and information security in Digivisio.

Flexible studying is already possible through the Cross-Institutional Study Service, but finding options that suit their personal situations is not easy for students. Information about them may be scattered around study guides, websites and information systems.

“At the moment, the possibilities for flexible studies are pretty well hidden from students,” Piiroinen says.

The aim is at a lower threshold for studying

To solve this problem, the higher education institutions intend to make the offer of flexible degree studies available in the Opin.fi service. This will benefit students in many ways.

It will make selecting courses provided by another higher education institution easier, which can help students put together a multidisciplinary degree or promote in-depth learning about a specific topic, for instance. It may also speed up graduation.

“If certain courses are not currently available at your own higher education institution, you can take corresponding studies elsewhere,” Piiroinen illustrates.

The benefits for higher education institutions are also obvious. Increased flexibility will improve the quality of education and lead to more efficient division of labour, as each higher education institution can focus on its strengths. This will also support Finland in attaining the important goal of raising competence levels and making studying more attractive.

What role will Digivisio play in this project?

Increased flexibility will not happen overnight. For example, it is linked to higher education institutions’ study planning processes and involves great many technical dependencies between different information systems.

The higher education institutions have already created structures for joint dialogue in the first phase of Digivisio, however, which will make the work easier. It is essential to note that increased flexibility in degree studies will be based on agreements between higher education institutions.

“The higher education institutions are free to choose the areas in which they will work together,” Piiroinen stresses.

Digivisio is in charge of technical solutions that will enable the flexibility: building the higher education institutions’ common data platform and interfaces through which data will be transferred between different systems.

Digivisio is also developing smart applications and analytics solutions. They will enable students to search for suitable studies in Opin.fi while the higher education institutions can, for example, see which content degree students find the most interesting.

This is how the work will progress over the next few years

The foundation for this work was laid in 2025. Digivisio asked study advisors, other higher education institution experts and system developers about their views. Interviews and an extensive survey, which attracted more than 1,500 responses in total, were conducted to find out about degree students’ thoughts.

“We will aim to validate the challenges while also proposing initial solutions to them.”

This is what will happen next: in 2026, Digivisio will build a data platform to be used as a repository for study data in the future. The efforts to develop the actual solutions for flexible degree studies will begin after the summer.

“According to current plans, the new features for degree studies will be visible in Opin.fi in 2027,” Piiroinen estimates.

After this, the opportunities for flexibility will expand gradually. A decision was made to postpone some of the projects, however. They include solutions that support the accreditation of studies and transitions between higher education institutions, as they will be technically complex to implement. Students will also continue to register for degree studies using their old friend, the Cross-Institutional Study Service.

“The higher education institutions will lead the work and decide which features will ultimately be implemented,” Piiroinen sums up.