The present education system in Finland consists of daycare programmes (for babies and toddlers) and a one-year "pre-school" (or kindergarten for six-year-olds); a nine-year compulsory basic comprehensive school (starting at age seven and ending at the age of sixteen); post-compulsory secondary general academic and vocational education; higher education; and adult education. (lifelong, continuing)
After their nine-year basic education in a comprehensive school, students at the age of 16 may choose to continue their secondary education in either an academic track (lukio) or a vocational track (ammattikoulu), both of which usually take three years and give a qualification to continue to tertiary education. Tertiary education is divided into university and polytechnic systems (ammattikorkeakoulu, also known as "university of applied sciences"). Universities award licentiate- and doctoral-level degrees. Formerly, only university graduates could obtain higher degrees, however, since the implementation of the Bologna process, all bachelor's degree holders can now qualify for further academic studies. There are 17 universities and 27 universities of applied sciences in the country.
The Education Index, published with the UN's Human Development Index in 2008, based on data from 2006, lists Finland as 0.993, amongst the highest in the world, tied for first with Denmark, Australia and New Zealand.
Admissions are based on the high school final GPA, the high school final exam (the abitur), and the university entrance examinations.
A bachelor's degree takes about three–four years. Depending on the programme, this may be the point of graduation, but it is usually only an intermediate step towards the master's degree. A bachelor's degree in a university of applied sciences, on the other hand, takes about 3.5–4.5 years. Polytechnic degrees are generally accepted as lower university degrees.