In order to promote the safety of minors, patients and customers, restrictions have been implemented to student admittance from the beginning of 2012. An admitted student may be requested to provide an excerpt from his or her criminal record for the purpose of assessing his or her capacity to study.
Restrictions to student admittance
In order to promote the safety of minors, patients and customers, restrictions have been implemented to student admittance from the beginning of 2012. Correspondingly, a right to study already granted may be cancelled.
The restrictions apply to the following fields: medicine, dentistry, logopedics, psychology, pharmacy, and social work and teacher training. These fields involve a requirement that the health and functional capacity of persons admitted as students are sufficient for the practical tasks or training related to the studies. A limitation related to health or functional capacity is not an obstacle to admittance if its effects can be eliminated through reasonable measures, such as special arrangements. The intention is also not to raise unnecessary obstacles to the admittance of those who are disabled or have other physical or mental limitations. Indeed, the restrictions to admittance are applied for only when the applicant has a serious illness or disruption of functional capacity of such nature that it is obvious that he or she may not participate in the studies.
Obligation to present an expert form the criminal record and drug testing during studies
A student admitted in 2012 or later may be requested to provide an excerpt from his or her criminal record for the purpose of assessing his or her capacity to study. The excerpt may be requested from only those students whose practical training or other duties related to their studies require working with minors, and it will be requested before the beginning of the practical training or duties. In order to promote the safety of minors, it is necessary to know that a student entering practical training does not have an entry in his or her criminal record for certain serious offences (indecency and sexual offences, murder, manslaughter, homicide, aggravated assault, aggravated robbery and serious narcotics offences). With certain additional conditions, being guilty of these offences constitutes grounds for the cancellation of the right to study, if the studies require working with children.
In certain very limited cases, the student may also be obligated to present a certificate of a drug test. Such cases mainly involve situations where testing is necessary in order to determine the student’s functional capacity and where certain additional conditions defined in detail in the law are fulfilled.
Guidelines of the University of Eastern Finland for the students’ excerpts from criminal records.