9 Maturity test

A maturity test is a statutory part of a UAS or university degree (Government Decree on Universities of Applied Sciences 1129/2014) that demonstrates familiarity with the field and command of the Finnish or Swedish language. The maturity test is written in the language of the student’s school education (Finnish or Swedish). The school education language mentioned in the regulations is the language of primary school or upper secondary school.

Students who have received their education in a language other than Finnish or Swedish or abroad, may write maturity test in Finnish (Swedish), if they want, or they can apply for an exemption. Exemption is not granted on the basis of citizenship or mother tongue. See the instructions for applying for an exemption (Help). Read more from the Jamk Degree Regulations (see links).

As such, those who attended comprehensive or upper secondary school in Finnish (Swedish) must write their maturity test in Finnish (Swedish) regardless of the language of their degree programme at Jamk.

A student who has reading difficulties or other special needs, applies individual special arrangements from the head of degree programme. Contact your study counsellor for the application process. When you have the decision, inform your thesis supervisor about it so that you get additional time for writing the maturity test. The thesis supervisor writes the extended time to the Exam-maturity test (see the Exam-instructions for teachers) so that the language examiner is informed. If the language of the maturity test is approved, the process ends. If the language check fails, the language examiner asks the student to complete their maturity test. The student does not re-register for the Exam.

Time of writing

Agree on the maturity test with your thesis supervisor. The earliest appropriate time is when your thesis has results and at least some conclusions, i.e. around the time of the preliminary examination. The writing time can also be after you have submitted the final thesis version for assessment. The maturity test must be passed before the thesis can be assessed.

If the thesis is written as a pair work, both of the students must write their own maturity tests. Both of the maturity tests must be passed before the thesis can be assessed. The time allowed for writing the maturity test is 2 hours 15 minutes. Starting from 1.8.2025 the writing time is 2 hours, i.e. 120 minutes.

Bachelor’s degree

The bachelor’s degree maturity test is always written in a supervised exam setting in EXAM without supplementary material. You can write the test in Jamk’s Examstudio or at another higher education institution’s EXAM location. Agree with your thesis supervisor on the writing time and book a time from the Exam-system. You may not have any materials with you in the test.

Master’s degree

Agree with your thesis supervisor on writing the maturity test as well as its timing and submission. The thesis tutor checks the content. If you have completed a previous bachelor’s or master’s degree in Finland and passed the maturity test, the language is not checked. Notify your thesis supervisor if you don’t have previous degree completed in Finland.

Submit your master’s maturity test to Wihi. You can also write the maturity test in EXAM-system from home or you can use Jamk’s Examstudio or at another higher education institution’s EXAM location. In this case the time allowed for writing the maturity test is 2 hours 15 minutes.
Starting from 1.8.2025 the writing time in Exam is 2 hours (120 minutes).

Assessment

The maturity test is assessed on a scale pass or fail. Maturity test is required by law as proof of professional maturity and excellent writing skills in Finnish or Swedish. The factual content of a maturity test for a bachelor’s degree is reviewed by the thesis supervisor. Teacher from the Jamk Language Centre checks the language. In Masters’ level the thesis supervisor checks the content, and language is checked by the Language Center only, if exemption is not granted and it was not part of the student’s previous higher education. To pass the test, the length of the text must be 3000–3500 characters.

The text is assessed in the following areas:

1. Content: comprehensibility of the bulletin, key results of the thesis and its usefulness to the field, and competent treatment
2. Language: independence of the text (the content of the bulletin is understandable even if the reader has not read the thesis), consistency of the treatment (the structure of a bulletin), formal style and understandable language and spelling.

The maturity test is failed if the title is missing or the text is written with the first persona (‘I’ form).

Updated 25.4.2025