Ammattikorkeakoulu, abbreviated amk, is a Finnish institution of higher education. Literally, the term means "School of Higher Vocational Education". In international operations, most ammattikorkeakoulus refer to themselves as Universities of Applied Sciences UoAS (joint change from Polytechnic, January 1st 2006) while a few keep using the name Polytechnic in accordance to the guidance of the Ministry of Education. Unlike universities, they focus on R&D by applying previous knowledge rather than producing new research. Personal aim is vocational competence rather than higher scientific education.

Finnish higher education has what is called a dual model, where universities (yliopisto; lit. "higher institute") focus on scientific Master's and higher degrees and UoASs mostly on Bachelor's-level vocational and practical education. The phrase "equal but different" was used in conjuction with the dual model, meaning that Finnish UoASs and universities serve different goals in the field of higher education and should not be combined on any level. But some of this ideology has changed and more is yet to come, because of the ongoing Bologna process. Changes are described in detail in Education in Finland.

There are about 100.000 students in Finnish UoASs. Most notable field of education is engineering, on which field the schools offer high level tuition starting from a broad base of mathematics and physics related to the field of study. Engineers graduating after minimum of four years and 240 ECTS credits are awarded the degree of insinööri (amk), often compared to the foreign Bachelor of Engineering.

Other typical fields of tuition in an ammattikorkeakoulu are health care (nursing), business and culture.

The term University of Applied Sciences was universally applied (January 1st 2006) to all Finnish ammattikorkeakoulus to give more correct impression of the level of education given. The term is loaned from German Fachhochschule. The decision could be made by the ammattikorkeakoulus because there is no legislation concerning the translations of Finnish terms and they are financially independent of the Ministry of Education. The ministry, nonetheless, keeps referring to the institutions as polytechnics. The academic world, inclucing Finnish Union of University Professors, is enraged of which it sees as an attempt of AMKs to disguise themselves as actual universities. Universities focus on research, while AMK's main focus is to produce branch-specific professionals for the needs of the labour market. There has been even general concern that if the dual model is scrapped, the result is "good" and "bad" universities.

Bachelor's graduates from Finnish UoASs are allowed to enter universities for post-graduate studies leading to Master's degree, should they have their degree on suitable field. However, since 2005, Finnish Parliament has approved the creation of higher UoASs degree, similar to Master's in universities. This has lead to a small scale kick off of new degree programmes (limited fields of education), the extent of 60-90 ECTS credits. These will give similar qualifications as university Master's degree in same areas of education (but a minimum amount of 3 years of work experience gained after latest tertiary degree, is needed to qualify for UoAS higher degree programme).

Recently there has been nationwide discussions about the overlarge amount of student places, especially in the fields of Engineering and Business. It is connected to a problem in funding - UoASs in Finland receive their funding quite extensively based on the amount of current students (this is changing to a more management by results -approach). This has lead to a slight oversupply of highly educated people compared to the needs of the labour market. Some cuts to the amount of starting places are being applied for the few next years.

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