Lahden lukio Gaudia is a municipal upper secondary school (lukio) of the city of Lahti, opened in 2022 by merging Kannaksen lukio and Tiirismaan lukio. The school calls itself the largest upper secondary school in Finland: about 1400 students study on the Paavola campus. Besides the general line (yleislinja) it runs three lines with a national special mission: visual arts and design, music, and the English-language IB line. The IB line runs in parallel with the Finnish lukio and lasts three years: a Pre-IB preparatory year, in which first-year national curriculum subjects are taught in English except mother tongue and Swedish, followed by two years of the IB Diploma Programme (IB1 and IB2). The other lines study in Finnish and take the ylioppilastutkinto: the school describes the IB line specifically as English-language, and applicants without a Finnish certificate may be given a Finnish language test. The school holds Erasmus+ accreditation and runs exchanges with schools in Spain, Germany, Greece, France, Italy and Japan. Together with Lahden Lyseo it provides the city's upper secondary education under shared rules and a shared course offering.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Finnish, English
Languages taught
Swedish, German, French, Spanish, Russian
About the fees Tuition is free, and the school states it directly. Original: 'Lukio-opintojen maksuttomuus koskee myös IB-lukiota.' Only students from outside the EU who come to Finland alone on a student visa pay: 10500 euros per academic year. If such a student declines the place or interrupts studies by the last day of the first academic year, half of the amount is refunded. The card shows what a family that moves to Finland and lives here pays: tuition is free; the fee above applies to students who come alone on a student residence permit.
Admissions Admission to the IB line is through the national joint application (yhteishaku) on Opintopolku with no entrance exam, based on the average of academic subjects on the basic education certificate; mother tongue, English and mathematics count double. Each autumn 33-34 new IB students are admitted. Direct entry to the first Diploma Programme year is possible if the applicant is 17 or turns 17 in the spring of application and has completed the first year of upper secondary school; such applicants contact the IB coordinator directly. Foreign applicants are accepted. Original: 'Ulkomailta hakevat rekisteröityvät myöskin hakijoina opintopolkualustalla ja he saavat erilliset ohjeet sähköpostitse koskien haastattelua.' Students without a Finnish basic education certificate apply as discretionary applicants and may take a Finnish language test. The school does not arrange housing: students from elsewhere arrange it themselves. The general line has 360 places with a minimum average of 7.0; the arts and music lines add an entrance exam.
Stages and year groups Grades upper secondary after grade 9, 3 years. Finnish lukio curriculum (at least 150 credits) with the ylioppilastutkinto on the general, arts and music lines. IB line: Pre-IB preparatory year and two years of the IB Diploma Programme (IB1, IB2) with IB final exams in May. The school names no other IB programmes (PYP, MYP, CP).
Address Terijoenkatu 7, 15140 Lahti
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeThe IB register lists the Diploma Programme at the school; it runs as a separate English-language line with a preparatory year alongside the Finnish upper secondary programme and the ylioppilastutkinto matriculation exam.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Art studio
Campus:
Clubs and activities: Opiskelijakunnan hallitus (student council board) · Tutortoiminta (student tutors) · Liikuntatutorit (sports tutors) · Hyvinvointitutorit (wellbeing tutors) · Liikkuva lukio (active school programme) · Lukion bändit, kuorot ja orkesteri (school bands, choirs and orchestra) · Teatteri- ja musikaaliproduktiot (theatre and musical productions) · Erasmus+ (international exchanges)
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
The school lists the IB coordinator and the IB line teachers with their subjects, 14 people in total: Finnish, English, Spanish, economics, theory of knowledge, history, environmental systems, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, visual arts. The IB line has its own guidance counsellor.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
✓Nurse or medical room
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school has two school social workers (kuraattori), a psychologist, school health nurses and a special education teacher. A community youth worker is available to students every day without appointment, and once a week the student welfare staff hold a drop-in session called Huoltamo. A school dog, Aku, visits the school.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)82 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country
Lahti, Finland · est. 2022 · State