University of Turku (Finland): FREE + IN ENGLISH + ONLINE + For Credit

[animuscerebri]

Hi everybody,

the University of Turku (Finland) offers some free, completely online, and (mostly) self-paced courses in English.

Bear in mind that these are RA credits when you transfer them in.

You can find the course catalog here: https://www.utu.fi/en/open-university-studies/courses

Some of the courses are already over, some will conclude in July, 2025, and others will start in spring 2026.

You can find courses that you can take now and future ones as well:

University of Turku - Free courses, LL + UL, still running:

- Climate.now (MOOC), 2025, 2 ECTS, LL, 1 US cred
- Introduction to Sustainability, 2025, 2 ECTS, LL, 1 US cred
- Evolutionary Psychology, 14.09.2025 – 17.01.2026, 6 ECTS, UL, 3 US cred
- Artificial Intelligence & Cybersecurity Course, 01.08.2024 – 31.07.2025, 2 ECTS, LL, 1 US cred
- Basics of R-Language, 31.07.2024 – 30.07.2025, 2 ECTS, LL, 1 US cred
- Biomedical Image Analysis and other biomedical-related courses, TBD, spring semester 2026, 13 ECTS, LL + UL, 6.5 US cred
- Fundamentals of Programming, 13.01.2025 - 31.07.2025, 5 ECTS, LL, 2.5 US cred
- Design and Use of Relational Databases, 04.12.2024 - 15.06.2025, 5 ECTS, LL, 2.5 US cred
- Basis of Programming - Exercise, 02.09.2024 - 31.07.2025, 2 ECTS, LL, 1 US cred
- Tools for Programming, 02.09.2024 - 31.07.2025, 1 ECTS, LL, 0.5 US cred
- Advanced Course in Object Oriented Programming, 5 ECTS, UL, 2.5 US cred

[infradata.it@gmail.com]

looks like Climate now is 30 Euro's.. these are confirmed as free (I'm in them)

Open Programming and Database Courses (All are free of charge, but has "fundamentals of programming", also free, as prerequisite)
Sustainable Web Development Studies (All are free of charge, but has "fundamentals of programming", also free, as prerequisite)
AI & Cybersecurity 2 ECTS credits (MOOC) (free of charge)
Futures Studies - Getting to Know Futures Studies 1 ECTS credit (MOOC)

- Evolutionary Psychology, 14.09.2025 – 17.01.2026, 6 ECTS, UL, 3 US cred >> must email to register for course??

Linking is "odd"... I'm still looking to register the other free ones

Finland is an oddly rich source of AI and Cybersecurity credits.... (no "intro to metal using classical instruments".... come on Finland....)
/
This is so strange, somehow my education became a remote world traveler
/
My reading "suggests" that ECTS = x0.5 to x0.75 "credit value" (sh), depending?

if 0.75 is the value ... thats a simple 40 ECTS for 30 RA Credits (free) ... lets say you have "ZERO IT SKILLZ" still over 50 ECTS in "non techy or absolute entry level "Intro to"/"Fundamentals of" courses

Dump "Full stack" and the "advanced programming I/II" (they expect ability) ... DevOps "basics" in "Docker/Kubernetes" are "very intro level" (easy for all), the AI Society stuff is the same deal
> the full Cyber Sec, Data Ana and AI courses "may" be abit tech heavy for the non-techy (if AI can teach/assist you in anything... its Py/Java/HTML/Docker-Kubernetes/Generic Programming" = "It can debug/confirm your worked out answers, just in case")
/
Space Sustainability... "Q: What is sun made of" "MC A1: Water / A2: Air / A3: Plasma" ..... (brain dead)

[animuscerebri]

My gut feeling is that you will more likely get 0.75 US cred for each 1 ECTS at WES. At ACEI, they used to have this: policy that they use 0.5 for each 1 ECTS. You can find reports on that here on Degreeforum.

The Fundamentals of Programming is basically the bare minimum to continue the subsequent CS-related courses.

The Evolutionary Psychology course will probably show a sign up link on September 14, 2025. They usually don't open up courses earlier.

Yeah, you're right. A non-techy will highly likely be able to collect 50 ECTS relatively easily and quickly. That's why, I don't think it is necessary to spend any money on a CC or any other RA creds for hundreds of dollars or even several thousands at another school like ASU. I'd consider those options if you really don't get it anywhere else. If you only need to provide RA creds, those from Helsinki are totally sufficient and you don't need more.

In my case, if I can choose between RA and ACE, I'll take RA even if it takes longer or the course is harder for my major; especially, if it's free RA and if you can collect a lot of them. Furthermore, I prefer the CS RA creds, because they will open up more doors in the future in general - be it at grad school, certain companies, etc. I loved both Programming courses and DSAs at Helsinki - way better than Sophia's Python and Java courses. Don't get me wrong, Sophia offers good value for its money and you get a good grasp of the topic, but they can't compete with those 2 from Helsinki. Moreover, the DSA courses were cool, because you went straight to coding and problem solving. However, many people don't like that, because they want extensive explanations.

BTW, Sophia should focus on creating more CS or IT courses and more UL material. DSA is so standard for CS; Sophia should have added that years ago.

"This is so strange, somehow my education became a remote world traveler" --> Me too, I never imagined that Finnish unis would shape my education that profoundly. Nonetheless, I gotta tell ya: I've enjoyed all of it

[Avidreader]

I never opened an account with Turku. Isn't that the school that has a partnership with a fellow university to offer online asian studies courses? Is Turku's space sustainability course similar to the Helsinki one?

[Pikachu]

Checked again and the courses offered are a lot less now.

[bjcheung77]

Checked again and the courses offered are a lot less now.

Darn, it would have been be good RA credits for those who wanted them...