According to Hendrik Voll, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, the university had to face several obstacles with enrolment this year. “Enrolment in TalTech is based on passing the broader mathematics state exam with at least 50 points. This year, nearly 2,200 young people passed the broader mathematics state exam with at least 50 points. More than 3,700 applications were submitted for the first level at TalTech.”

 The 3,700 applications also include candidates who had taken the state exam in previous years. However, there were also many who had passed the state exam below the threshold and took the opportunity to take the university’s own mathematics test.

 Despite young people’s seemingly declining interest in science, Voll confirms that the desire to study at a university of technology is very noticeable. “I am sure it is owed to the quality of our specialties and is based on the needs of the labour market – TalTech closely monitors that graduates can directly contribute to sectors of the labour market where demand is high and wages are also high. In recent years we have also closed some study programmes as a result. Since the funding of higher education has been frozen for a long time, TalTech has tended to reduce admissions. As a result, TalTech has raised the enrolment thresholds quite a bit over recent years. This has been the right thing to do. I can also see that it has had a significant positive effect on the quality of education and number of graduates.”

 The international initiative EuroTeQ Engineering University, that brings together universities of technology around Europe, and where TalTech students can take part in courses at Europe’s best universities of technology, will certainly contribute to the increase in the quality of education. 

 Citizens of Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania can apply to the School of Business and Governance of TalTech until 15 July, and the enrolment of new students in open learning will begin on 2 August.