Student benefits - Living cheap in an expensive country

How expensive is living in Finland? Yes, it is true that Finland belongs to one of the more expensive countries in Europe. But we can tell you there is hope. Because Finland is taking good care of their citizens and specially of their students. There are a lot of discounts and benefits available for students - and these apply for every student - also exchange and international degree students.

In fact there are actually so many different benefits, that you can sometimes get lost in them and forget to use them. That’s why we decided to write you a blog post about some of the benefits (there are literally so many, that we are not able to list them all).


Student Union & Student Card
Becoming a student union member is the most important step you do to become eligible to many of the student benefits. It is optional for exchange, visiting and PhD students but obligatory for Bachelor's and Master's level degree students and everyone living in Kortepohja student village to join the Student Union. But we would highly recommend it. If you join the Student Union you can get a student card or a digital version (Frank App) which both work to proof your student status and your student union membership.

As a member of the Student Union you are eligible to
* health care at the Finnish Student Health Service
* student-priced meals in student cafeterias (in general a student priced meal cost 2,60€). There are plenty of student restaurants all over Jyväskylä. Check them out here.
* 30-50% off the price in trains and long-distance buses (see below)

Read more about the Student Union membership benefits and the student cards here.

Also JYU has created a webpage which list many of the student benefits. Check it out here.

Frank App
After registering for the Student Union you get credentials for the Frank App, when you login to the Frank App you see a list of literally hundreds of discounts for restaurants, travel, shops and more. It is definitely worth checking out - because we can guarantee that you to find a useful discount for you there. Go to check out your Frank App discounts here (only possible if you are already registered in the Student Union)

Kortepohja @Nordic Art Network

Housing
We already had a full blogpost on this topic (check the blog post here). But if you apply on time you can get an studio or a room in an apartment of one of the student housing (KOAS and Kortepohja) which offers cheap living for students.


Public transport
As mentioned above when you become a student union member you are eligible to the student discounts on public transport like Linkki (the local bus service), VR (trains in Finland) and long distance buses like Onnibus and Savonlinja. If you want to book a bus trip the easiest way to find the best option for you is to search on Matkahuolto, because on that page all buses and prices are listed which makes it easier to compare them all.
One important fact to know, for the trains and the long distance buses often also (online) discounts exist and sometimes the online discount is even cheaper than the student price. So it makes sense to compare the discount price and the student price! :)

Food
K market
As a student you can get a free K-Plussa-card from Kmarket (which is one of the biggest supermarket chains in Jyväskylä). With the student K-Plussa card you get a 5% discount on your shopping if the overall amount exceeds 75€ per month. Check out more here or ask for more information in the next K-market.

Restaurants & Bars
Next to the big variety of student restaurants, there are plenty of restaurants in town which give a student discount on their foods and drinks when you show your student card. Examples for that are Revolution, Venn, and Maria Pizzeria.

Subject associations
For every faculty a subject association exists. We are going to write a complete blog post about that soon. But just keep in mind usually you can become a member of your faculties subject association for a small, one-time payment. After joining you are eligible to all the benefits they offer to their members. Subject associations offer variety of events (cultural and/or educational). Additionally, they often also have specific discounts for restaurants, bar or shops, which are only available for there members.


Okay, that's it for now! Thanks for reading! Have a great day and check out your discounts :)