Students, check your housing benefits (now)!
The maximum amount of the student housing supplement is EUR 216–296 per month, covering up to 80% of your rent. Please check the amount you will receive, as the change may reduce your housing benefit by as much as EUR 100 per month.
Since the housing supplement is part of student financial aid, the same income limits apply to both. However, the housing supplement is not affected by your partner’s income. The housing supplement is a personal benefit, which means that all students must apply for it separately. You can apply for the housing supplement in the OmaKela e-service starting in June, and the supplement can be paid starting from 1 August 2025 at the earliest.
The housing supplement is only paid for the months when you also receive student financial aid. If you don’t receive student financial aid during the summer, you won’t receive the housing supplement either. Please note! This could mean you won’t receive the housing supplement for August. However, you may take out a student loan starting from 1 August.
If you have children, have used up all your months of student financial aid, or your student financial aid payments have been suspended, this change will not affect you, and you can continue to apply for the general housing allowance.
The Finnish Government decided on changes to housing benefits as part of public finance savings in spring 2024. Aalto University Student Union (AYY) has opposed the transfer from the general housing allowance to the housing supplement, as well as the cuts to housing benefits for students.
Further information is available on Kela’s website kela.fi/students
Read more news
The proposal for an overall reform of student financial aid is disappointing
Aalto University Student Union (AYY) made a statement on the legislative proposal of the Ministry of Education and Culture concerning the comprehensive reform of student financial aid. The proposal is disappointing because it does not solve the core problems of student financial aid or improve the livelihoods of students.
A promise of free education is not enough
The Ministry of Education and Culture has published a vision for higher education and research for 2040, which is intended to guide the direction of Finland's higher education policy. Increasing the number of university graduates in the young age group to 60 per cent, as proposed by the vision, requires investments and ambition from decision-makers. In this blog, Totti Korpua, AYY’s Advocacy Specialist, discusses the significance of the vision for students.
Queering Teekkari Village
What is it like to be queer in Teekkari Village and the Aalto community? In honor of Pride Month, Adrian Suvisaari, Ines Saikku, and Camille Fourié have written a blog post reflecting on their experiences and on challenging heteronormativity and binary conceptions of identity within our community.