FI · Master's
Hanken School of Economics
MSc in Supply Chain Management
Hanken School of Economics
Deadline detail: January, through Finland's joint application at studyinfo.fi — the window is only about three weeks long and there is no second round for non-EU applicants
Course Overview
Hanken School of Economics is Finland's specialist business university — a single-faculty institution with triple accreditation, founded in 1909, teaching at Helsinki and Vaasa. Its Supply Chain Management major leads to the Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration over two years and 120 ECTS, taught in English, covering logistics and transport, procurement and sourcing, operations and inventory management, supply chain analytics, and corporate social responsibility in supply chains — a strand Hanken treats as core rather than optional.
The reason to single out Hanken rather than any of the many competent European supply chain master's degrees is the HUMLOG Institute. Hanken hosts what is genuinely the world's leading research centre in humanitarian logistics — the discipline of getting relief goods, medical supplies and equipment into disaster and conflict zones where the normal assumptions of commercial logistics do not hold. Students can specialise in humanitarian logistics within the Supply Chain Management studies, working with researchers who advise the UN agencies, the Red Cross movement and the major relief organisations. Nowhere else offers this at master's level with this depth.
For a Sri Lankan applicant, both halves of that proposition land. Commercially, Sri Lanka is a supply chain economy: the apparel sector at MAS Holdings, Brandix and Hirdaramani runs some of the most sophisticated sourcing operations in South Asia, Colombo is one of the world's major transshipment ports, and Expolanka's EFL has grown into a genuinely global freight forwarder. On the humanitarian side, Sri Lanka has lived the problem — the 2004 tsunami, recurrent floods and landslides, and the logistics of post-conflict resettlement — and the Disaster Management Centre, the Red Cross and the UN agencies in Colombo all need people who understand relief supply chains formally rather than by improvisation. Finland adds a two-year post-study residence permit for job-seeking, which is among the most generous in Europe, and Hanken's non-EU fee of €12,500 a year sits below most Western European business schools.
Entry Requirements
Academic
- check_circle A completed Bachelor's degree of at least three years in business, economics, engineering, logistics or a related field, with sufficient business and quantitative coursework — Hanken assesses the transcript against its own subject requirements.
- check_circle Sri Lankan applicants from business, management and commerce degrees at Colombo, Sri Jayewardenepura, Moratuwa, Kelaniya, NSBM, NIBM and SLIIT, from industrial or production engineering at Moratuwa, and CIMA, CILT and ACCA-qualified professionals, are the standard profiles.
- check_circle Applications go through Finland's national joint application portal at studyinfo.fi during a short January window — this is the single most important logistical fact about applying to Finland, because there is effectively no late entry.
- check_circle Hanken uses an entrance examination or an admission test alongside the documents for several of its master's routes; check what applies to the Supply Chain Management major in your application year and prepare for it rather than discovering it in January.
- check_circle Motivation letter, CV, transcripts and degree certificate, with officially certified copies following Finnish national admissions rules for Sri Lankan documents — Finland is strict about attestation format and rejects incorrectly certified files without appeal.
- check_circle Work experience in logistics, procurement, manufacturing, freight forwarding or humanitarian operations strengthens an application meaningfully.
- check_circle A Finnish residence permit for studies is required, applied for online through Migri with an appointment at the Finnish representation handling Sri Lanka; you must show the first year's tuition paid or a scholarship award, plus sufficient funds for living costs.
- check_circle Studies are full-time and on-site at the campus you are admitted to — there is no remote or part-time route.
English Proficiency
- check_circle IELTS Academic: 6.5 Overall with no band below 5.5 is the standard Finnish master's requirement.
- check_circle TOEFL iBT: 90 Overall.
- check_circle PTE Academic and Cambridge C1 Advanced are also accepted.
- check_circle Finnish universities grant English test exemptions where a previous degree was completed entirely in English in a defined list of countries, or where you hold specific qualifications — the rules are national and applied narrowly, so check Hanken's current exemption list for Sri Lankan applicants rather than assuming a Medium of Instruction letter will suffice.
- check_circle The degree is taught entirely in English and neither Finnish nor Swedish is required — though Hanken is a Swedish-language institution by tradition, its master's programmes run in English.
- check_circle Finnish or Swedish at beginner level materially improves your chances during the two-year post-study job search, particularly outside the international logistics companies. Free courses are available to enrolled students.
Estimated Cost of Study
| Expense Category | Amount (€) | Approx. LKR |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition Fee (per year, non-EU/EEA) | €12,500 | Rs. 4,312,500 |
| Living Expenses in Helsinki (per year) | €10,800 | Rs. 3,726,000 |
| Health Insurance & Residence Permit | €900 | Rs. 310,500 |
| Visa Appointment, Document Attestation & Airfare | €1,200 | Rs. 414,000 |
| Books, Laptop & Settling In | €1,000 | Rs. 345,000 |
| Total Year 1 Investment | €26,400 | Rs. 9,108,000 |
*LKR conversion based on current bank rates. Subject to change.
Career Outcomes & PR
Finland grants graduates of a Finnish degree a residence permit for job-seeking or entrepreneurship valid for two years after graduation, which is among the most generous post-study windows in Europe, and qualified employment leads on towards permanent residence. Hanken supply chain graduates go into procurement and sourcing, logistics and transport management, demand and inventory planning, supply chain analytics, and sustainability and responsible sourcing roles — at the Finnish and Nordic industrial and consumer companies (Nokia, Kone, Wärtsilä, Neste, Valmet, Fortum, Kesko, Fazer), at the global freight forwarders and shipping lines with Nordic operations, at the management consultancies, and in the international humanitarian sector. The humanitarian logistics specialisation opens a distinct route into the UN agencies, the World Food Programme's logistics operations, the ICRC and IFRC, and the international relief NGOs. Sri Lankan returnees are exceptionally well placed: the apparel sector's sourcing and planning functions at MAS Holdings, Brandix and Hirdaramani, freight and logistics leadership at Expolanka/EFL, Hayleys Advantis, Aitken Spence Logistics and John Keells Logistics, port and terminal operations in Colombo, and the humanitarian logistics functions of the Disaster Management Centre, the Sri Lanka Red Cross and the UN country offices.
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ඔබට සුදුසු විශ්වවිද්යාලයක් තේරීම, අයදුම්පත් යොමු කිරීම, SOP සකස් කිරීම සහ වීසා ලබා ගැනීම ඇතුළු සෑම පියවරකදීම, ඔබ වෙනුවෙන් සියලුම වගකීම් විශ්වාසවන්තව අප භාර ගනිමු.