International schools in Finland

Search for the best international schools in Finland; you can find a list of selected schools at the bottom of this page. Use the search filters to select only girls' or boys' schools, prep schools, senior schools or sixth forms; or you can search for schools that offer a particular curriculum, such as the International Baccalaureate, the UK national curriculum, a US-style model or the International Primary Curriculum.

In common with other Nordic countries, Finland ranks very highly on the United Nations Human Development Index, and the 2007 Education index found Finland to have the joint best education system in the world. 

The country has been described as the world’s most literate nation – not just for its estimated 100% literacy rate, but also for its number of libraries and newspapers, years of schooling, computer availability and a culture that values reading.

Many educational reforms in the latter half of the last century have culminated in the Finnish system becoming the envy of governments around the world. There are a number of remarkable aspects to this system. For example, while Finland has the same number of teachers as New York City, it has approximately half the number of students. All of these teachers are required to have master’s degrees; and 66% of their students go on to university – the highest rate in Europe. 

Finland has many international schools all over the country. A large majority use English as their language of instruction, but French, German, Russian and Swedish are sometimes used in addition to Finnish. Curricula vary from school to school – Finnish schools are granted a lot of autonomy in what they choose to teach – but they follow international standards, often based on frameworks from the UK or US. 

The International Baccalaureate has 20 authorised World Schools in Finland, every one of which teaches in English. Nearly all of them offer the IB Diploma Programme. 

If you are looking specifically for an IB World School, you can read profiles of selected schools at www.ibyb.org