With the literacy rate of the Finnish population among the highest in the world, it’s only fitting that residents here enjoy a comprehensive library system.

Reading is a global pleasure. Many keen readers enjoy buying books, new or second-hand, at bookshops and book fairs. Similar to many other countries, here in Finland you can also indulge your enthusiasm for the written word for free. Some people who move to Finland to live, study or work here are surprised by the country’s splendid public library system that is amazingly versatile, surprisingly modern and yet free of charge for users, being tax-funded. All you need is a library card, and then you are free to borrow items like books or CDs from lending libraries.

With the Minister of Education recently stating that Finland needs  the number of foreign students here to increase in future, just how will an already difficult job market cater to this influx of international resources?

Regularly appearing at the top of various polls, the Finnish education system has acquired an international reputation for its high level of quality. Thus, among the higher education student body today, currently there are some 15,700 foreign students enrolled here in Finland, divided almost equally between university and polytechnic institutions.

Although perceived as new arrivals here, Muslims actually have deep roots in Finland.

IF THE PAST is a foreign country, getting there can be tricky business. Guidebooks are sketchy and incomplete, and sometimes even finding the place on a map can be difficult – literally true in Finland’s case, as the former colonial subject of two empires with fluctuating borders. Another complication is that history is often less a story about the past than it is a function of anxieties of the present.

The boon of the information age has seen the popularity of internet dating propelled from the fringes of social acceptance to being a part of everyday life.

UP UNTIL recently, meeting potential partners in a bar or nightclub was the accepted way of bringing new people into your life. Things certainly have changed. Of course, one can still make one’s way down to a bar and try one’s hand in the minefield of game playing, posing and strutting of stuff, but more and more people these days are turning to the internet to fulfil their needs, ...

With the vast number of the population in Finland aging, immigrants may just be the answer to the concerning lack of care personnel.

IN the 19th century, Horace Greeley advised the American youth of his time to escape the impoverished and crowded cities of the East Coast and “go west, young man.” In Finland nowadays, while the prosperous southwestern triangle between Helsinki, Tampere and Turku is neither poor nor terribly crowded, officials like Marianne Mäntylehto might advise you to go north. And maybe study nursing.