Where is better to study? Which country has more beautiful girls? Where is better to work?
Hello everyone, I am a Russian man who has been living and studying in Finland since 2016, and I have to tell you that there are a lot of differences between these countries that share the same border. I will try to compare these two from a perspective of a 23-year old student. Part one, which you are reading, will be focused on the studies.
I have studied in a Russian university for a little bit more than two years before I decided to drop out and I think these two countries are absolutely different when it comes to a higher education.

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Finland:

1. Studies

1.1. System

The system is common for American and European universities. Finland uses the ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) and the number of credits a student must complete differs between schools and programs. I study International Business at XAMK (Kakkois-Suomen ammattikorkeakoulu; South-Eastern Universiti of Applied Sciences) and in order to graduate, I need to complete 210 credits: 30 for the thesis, 20 for specialization training, 10 for basic training, 15 for optional studies and 135 for compulsory studies. One credit equals 27 hours and courses give you from 2 to 5 credits. When you finish a course, you are assessed on the scale of 5, with a 0 being Failed.

1.2. Price

Starting from Fall 2017, tuition in Finland has become paid for non-EU/EEA students if they study in English. However, most universities provide a discount. For example, International Business in XAMK costs 6000 Euros but if you complete 50 credits in your first year, you'll get a 50% discount for the second, and so on. You literally have to forget about the university and not show up there at all to fail to get 50 credits, so the requirement is very easy to meet. I, however, was lucky enough to enroll in Fall 2016 when the education was free for EVERYONE. It will be free for me until I graduate.

1.3. Population

There are not too many people in a school. I don't have exact numbers but my university has approximately 1000 students overall, divided by six programs (International business, Game Design and Design in English and the same ones in Finnish). Out of those who study in English, we have a LOT of Vietnamese students. There are also some Russians, Finns (yes, some of them study in English), Nepalese, Pakistani. We even have a guy from North Carolina as a full-time student :) There are also quite a few exchange students, mostly from Germany and France.
The majority of teachers are Finnish but we also have lecturers from Hungary, Nepal, Germany and our head lecturer, Big Daddy as we call him, he is Welsh.

1.4. Studying itself.

It is very interesting to study in Finland. I can't say that all the classes are amazing but a majority of them are. Many courses have a lot of interactions and approximately 90% of the time you have to work in a group. Groups are created by a teacher or by students.
You can borrow a school car if you need to go somewhere for educational purposes, it can even be another city or another country. You will get a 100% compensation for oil as well. Field trips, company visits, different CEOs and businessmen giving lectures as invited guests, it's all for free. You also get 4 most recent Microsoft Office licensed copies for your own use, you can install them on your devices or share with your family and friends.
How much you study, depends on you. As a marketing student (IB students choose a specialization between Marketing and Trade), I have to attend the university from 1 to 4 days a week. This week, for example, my only contact session was on Tuesday, it was the Finnish language. Four semesters of Finnish are compulsory for all non-Finnish speaking students.

1.5. Exams

Every student in the world knows that the worst part of any semester is exams. There are not a lot of them in Finland: 1-2 midterm exams and 2-4 at the end of a semester. Some classes go without exams and when you finish them, you have to prepare a report, a presentation or a project.
Every teacher has their own assessment for your final grade, which usually consists of attendance, assignments, and exams or a final report. If fail your course, you can take a resit exam simply by registering for it. Resit exams happen once in two weeks on Mondays. You are able to re-take up to 3 exams for each class. If you are stupid enough to fail all of them, you are welcome to take this class again next year, and then you will have 4 more opportunities to pass it (a usual exam plus three resit exams). It's nearly impossible to fail 8 exams, right? You can also re-take an exam if you are unsatisfied with your grade.

Russia:

1. Studies

1.1. System

Although some Russian universities try to implement the credit system, it is done very poorly. There were no credits at the university where I studied. Instead, Russian universities have academic hours (45 minutes = 1 hour) and classes are doubled, so one class lasts for 90 minutes or more. It's called "couples" (two academic hours). Well, that's pretty much it for this bullet point =)

1.2. Price

By the law, every citizen of Russia has a right to study for free, one time for a bachelor's degree and one time for a master's degree. However, in order to do that, you have to score an appropriate amount of points for an exam that you take when you graduate from high school. I have a question here mostly for the Americans who read this: what do you think of SAT? Russian exam is kinda like SAT but it's a piece of shit. The two last years in your high school you don't do anything but prepare for the exam just to get accepted to a university for free.
Then, even if you earn the needed points for the exam, you might still not get your free education. Every Russian university has a certain amount of places for a free tuition and you compete with others for them. Some competitions may have up to 30 people for 1 place. If you lose, you have to find a different university or pay.
The cost usually ranges from 150.000 to 600.000 rubles, which is ~2100-8400 EUR. I have to say that I am from St Petersburg and I studied there so these numbers are about my hometown. Less populated cities are cheaper to study.

1.3. Population.

Everyone is Russian, haha. Some schools have good exchange programs but there are 5-10 of them in the whole country. Let me remind you, the biggest country in the world.

1.4. Studying itself.

Sucks. I mean, it is so boring and useless that after a couple of years you start asking yourself "why the hell did I choose this university/program?". Usually, you have to study 5 or 6 days a week from 8 am to 4 pm or from 12 am to 8 pm. With the amount of homework, you can't do anything else. My girlfriend, who is about to finish her bachelor's degree, can barely watch a movie with me.
The teachers are a special topic to discuss. When Finnish teachers make a lot of money, Russian ones obviously don't. Partly because of this, the classes are awful. You go there every morning with only one thought, "I want this day to end". But then you remember that when the day ends, you still have shit loads of homework to do. The quality is also very bad, I spoke English a lot better than my English teacher.
A lot of lecturers wouldn't let you print your reports. How f***ing moronic is it?! You've got a report? Please, write it using a pen. Let alone bringing laptops to the classes, haha.

1.5. Exams.

If in Finland and I believe in every country you have an exam when the class comes to an end. It doesn't apply to Russia. Well, it does, partly. Imagine, you have 8 different courses throughout the year. 5 of them in the first semester and 3 in the second. Three classes out of five are done by the end of the first semester, and you take the exams. What happens to the other two? Well, you have exams on them too! It's not called "exams" and I'm not sure which word to use but Google translate says it's Condition. So, next semester, you have 2 classes from the first semester and 3 new ones. And you have 5 new exams again. Point being, even if a class doesn't finish, you still have an exam. Just because. It doesn't happen all the time but quite often it does.
If you fail an exam, you can re-take it. The amount of attempts is different everywhere but usually, it's 1-2. If you fail again, you have it as your "debt". After you get 3-4 debts, you might be kicked off. Re-taking the course? Having more time and attempts? No such thing.
You are assessed on the scale of 5 BUT on the scale of 4. You can't get a 0 or a 1. The worst grade, which is Failed, is 2. The best possible grade is 5.

Conclusion.

There is only one thing in Russian education that is better than in Finland. With a lot of independent study in Finland, it's easy to become less responsible. However, if that happens, Finland gives you a chance. And another. And then another. Russian universities do not forgive.
Everything else is way better in Finnish colleges. I never regret my desire to study here.

credit: themetapicture.com

Thank you all for reading! What are the similarities and differences between Russian, Finnish universities and the ones in your home country? Where would you like to study? Answer in the comments :) Also, feel free to ask any questions if I forgot to mention something, I will answer right away or include the information in my next posts!
In the next part of this comparison series, I will cover living in Russia and Finland from different points of view. Bye Bye!