Student guilds
Finnish university life is all about the guilds (killat, sing. kilta). During your freshman year, you will likely meet the board (hallitus) of your guild. They will be hosting events during the year, some specifically for freshmen. In these events you will meet people from your study program and also from others. If you want to get more involved, you could apply for a position on the board of your guild.
Interest societies
If you want to meet people with similar interests, you can try clubs that gather these people together, called interest societies. There are dozens of interest societies in Oulu University: societies for games, sports, hobbies, and politics, among others. You can find an extensive list at the OYY’s webpage under Student Societies. And if there’s not a society that caters to your interests, you can start your own!
Classmates
You might have gotten used to seeing the same people in your classes during high school. In University, you can have several lectures with completely different classmates. There are people from the same program in different courses, people from different programs in the same courses, and even random students you hadn’t seen before and you’ll never see again after the course is over. During groupworks and group studies you’ll forge new relationships and maybe even friendships.
Social media
Social media is useful for so much more than posting pictures of your breakfast and getting likes from complete strangers. The true power of social media lies in connecting and organizing. Through social media you’ll be able to easily find what events are coming up and who is going. And if it feels hard to meet interesting people in your current city, you can find connections elsewhere.
Erasmus Student Network
If internationality is more your thing, you can join Erasmus Student Network Oulu (ESN Oulu) and its events, which are sure to be full of international students. ESN Oulu is a student organization which hosts events directed to international students and internationally minded Finns. Once again, if you feel like being proactive, you can apply to be on their board.
