Aged under 18
EUR 400 per month
Student loan for students in upper secondary school and vocational education
On this page
Student loans are part of student financial aid. In order to get a student loan you need a loan guarantee from Kela. The guarantee is also called a government guarantee. You do not need any other guarantee for the loan.
If you get a loan guarantee from Kela, you can apply for a student loan at any bank of your choice. You do not need to take out the whole student loan from the bank. Instead you can take out only the amount you need. If you wish to withdraw student loan funds, you must agree on this with the bank separately each academic year.
You must pay back the student loan to the bank. You will start to pay back the loan after your student financial aid has ended.
Can you get a government guarantee?
You can get a loan guarantee from Kela if you get study grant.
Even if you do not get study grant, you can get a loan guarantee in the following situations:
- You live with your parents, you are 18–19 years old and you cannot get study grant because the incomes of your parents are too high. If you live with only one of your parents, we will only take into account the income of this parent.
- You live independently, you are under 17 years of age and you cannot get other types of financial aid because child benefit is being paid for you. However, you can get a government guarantee, if your parents’ combined gross income is less than EUR 64,400 per year.
- You pursue the basic course for coast guards at the Border and Coast Guard Academy and you are not entitled to study grant because you receive daily allowances for the time of study from the educational institution.
You cannot get a loan guarantee from Kela if
- you live with your parents and child benefit is paid for you
- we are collecting your old student loan from you that you have not paid back to the bank
- you are serving a prison sentence in a high security prison, open prison or release unit.
How much student loan can you get?
You can get student loan for studies in upper secondary school or vocational education, i.e. upper secondary education at maximum as follows:
You cannot get more student loan than this, except if you study abroad. The student loan and other student financial aid are intended for all the months of active study during the course of study. Consider carefully how you use your student loan.
Estimate the amount of the student loan with the help of the calculator for student financial aid
Agree with the bank on when you will withdraw student loan funds. Withdrawing student loan funds means that the student loan funds are paid into your bank account.
You can withdraw student loan funds as follows:
- disbursement for August-October: earliest date 1 August
- disbursement for November-December: earliest date 1 November
- disbursement for January-March: earliest date 1 January
- disbursement for April-May: earliest date 1 April (may include disbursement for June-July)
Example
Elias, who is 17, studies in vocational school. He wishes to withdraw student loan funds on 1 August as much as possible. He can withdraw the disbursement for August-October, which is 3 x EUR 400, i.e. EUR 1,200.
You can withdraw the disbursements for the current academic year also later during the same academic year. For instance, you can wait and not withdraw the disbursement for August-October until February. However, there is a time limit for the withdrawing of student loan funds (usually 31 July).
The decision on student financial aid provides more information on the student loan amounts and the time limits when you can withdraw student loan funds at the earliest and at the latest. The decision can be viewed in the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish).
You cannot withdraw student loan funds after the last date for withdrawing student loan funds. Further, you cannot draw down any student loan funds after you have graduated or otherwise ended your course of study. However, you will be covered by any government guarantees issued for loans already disbursed to you.
If you cancel your financial aid beforehand, you cannot receive loan instalments with a disbursement date later than the date on which your financial aid was cancelled.
How to apply for a student loan
First apply to Kela for a government guarantee. When you have received a positive decision on the government guarantee, you should agree on the loan with the bank.
- Use the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish)to apply for a government guarantee with an application for student financial aid.
- Apply for a government guarantee at the same time as you apply for study grant and a housing supplement. You should apply for a government guarantee for your entire course of study at the same time.
- If you apply for a government guarantee later, apply for it in OmaKela with a notification of changes concerning student financial aid. Select the application for extended or additional financial aid.
- Take a photo of the supporting documents and send them through OmaKela.
- In OmaKela you can see if your application has been accepted, how much loan you can take out at specific dates, and how much you have taken out to date. You will also see reminders to submit any missing supporting documents. You will get a decision notice by post unless you have opted out of paper mail.
If you cannot use OmaKela, send your application to Kela by post. Save the form Application for financial aid for students OT 1e (PDF) to your device and fill it in. Print out the completed form and send it along with any supporting documents to Kela, PL 10, 00056 KELA. If you apply for a government guarantee later than for study grant and a housing supplement, use the form Notification of changes concerning student financial aid OT 15e (PDF).
The earliest you can get a government guarantee is from the beginning of the month in which Kela receives your application. Applications submitted in the OmaKela e-service arrive at Kela on the same day they are submitted. If you fill in a paper application form and mail it to Kela by post, please note that it often takes a few days for Kela to get it.
If you are granted a government guarantee for your entire course of study, you will receive a decision on the government guarantee for each academic year at a time. The next year's decision is sent to you automatically in July.
If you get a government guarantee from Kela, you can apply for a student loan at any bank of your choice. Take a look at the bank’s instructions for applying for a student loan for example by visiting its website. The bank will decide whether it will grant you a loan.
It is a good idea to contact several banks for a loan offer, because the terms of the loan may vary. The terms of the loan concern for instance the interest rate on the loan, when you will have to start paying back the loan and the period for paying back the loan.
Study the terms carefully. We will not advise you on this, because the bank should do that.
Agree on when you will withdraw the disbursements with the bank well in advance of the last date for withdrawing student loan funds. Information about your loan guarantee is provided to the bank directly from Kela, so you do not have to do so yourself. Checking the information usually takes one business day.
If you are under 18, you can apply for a student loan with the consent of your legal guardians. The bank will advise you on this.
You will automatically receive a decision on the government guarantee for the next academic year in July. However, if you wish to withdraw student loan funds, you must agree on this with the bank each academic year.
Interest and repayment
You are usually not required to make repayments on your student loan or pay interest while you receive financial aid.
The bank will automatically add the interest on the student loan to the loan principal every year on 15 June and 15 December. This is called capitalising the interest on the loan.
When your student financial aid ends
The bank will add the interest to the loan principal a further term after your student financial aid has ended. For example, if you last received study grant in spring 2025, the last time that the bank will capitalise the interest due on your loan is December 2025. As long as the interest is capitalised by the bank, you cannot pay it yourself.
When the bank no longer capitalises the interest on your loan, you must start paying interest on the loan. If your income is small, you can get assistance with student loan interest.
You will usually have to start paying back your student loan 1–2 years after you got your last student financial aid payment. Agree on the repayment schedule with your bank.
If you have difficulty making repayments or paying the interest on your loan, contact the bank in good time before the payment is due.
If your income does not exceed the income limits, you can apply for assistance with student loan interest.
Your student loan is guaranteed by Kela. If you do not pay back your loan or pay interest on time, Kela will have to pay back your student loan to the bank. After that we will collect the amount we have paid to the bank from you. This amount is called debt arising from government student loan guarantee, and it includes the student loan, interest on the loan and the bank charges. In addition, you must pay 4% in interest on the debt arising from the loan guarantee to Kela.
You can contact Kela's Overpayment Recovery Centre to discuss how to pay the debt arising from the loan guarantee.
If you do not pay the debt arising from the loan guarantee as agreed, the amount will be collected from you through enforcement procedures.
Read more about the collection of debt arising from the government student loan guarantee.
If we have to collect unpaid student loan amounts from you, you cannot get a new government guarantee while the collection process is ongoing.
If you have not been granted a government guarantee because of an ongoing collection process, you can apply for a government guarantee again and refer to exceptional reasons. The minimum requirement is that you have paid back on the debt arising from the loan guarantee according to the payment plan. You must provide documentation with the new application. Instructions for the type of documentation that is needed are enclosed with the negative decision on the government guarantee.
If you start studying again, you can agree on exemption from repayment on the student loan or other payment arrangements with the bank. If you get student financial aid for your new studies, inform the bank about this. Ask the bank when the bank will start capitalising the interest on your student loan and what interest you have to pay.
We will not inform the bank about the student financial aid granted to you until you have received student financial aid for the first term. If you start studying in August, we will inform the bank about your financial aid in December.