Welcome to the IT Helpdesk website of the University of Helsinki

The IT-Helpdesk serves the University staff and students via chat, e-mail and telephone. Support and instructions are limited to the most important devices in the university’s centralised administration and the standard programmes on these devices. The IT Helpdesk’s instructions site is available 24/7.

Popular instructions

Landing pages

Microsoft 365

This guide includes the most important instructions related to Microsoft 365 -mail. You can find more help from this instructions site by using, for example, the search. If you cannot solve the problem with the instructions, don’t hesitate to contact the IT Helpdesk.

Cannot sign in to the cloud email? Please enter an account in the form username@ad.helsinki.fi (e.g. rkeskiva@ad.helsinki.fi)

Read more about Microsoft 365

Logging in to university services

You can log in to nearly all university services using the standard format: username (for example, rkeskiva)
eduroam credentials: username@helsinki.fi (for example, rkeskiva@helsinki.fi)
Microsoft 365 credentials: username@ad.helsinki.fi (for example, rkeskiva@ad.helsinki.fi)

NB! Your email will be in the format firstname.surname@helsinki.fi (for example raimo.keski-vaanto@helsinki.fi)

Wireless networks at the University of Helsinki

These instructions include the most important information about wireless networks at the University of Helsinki. You can find more help from this instructions site by using, for example, the search.

If you cannot solve the problem with the instructions, don’t hesitate to contact the IT Helpdesk.

Connections from outside the University

The use of some of the University’s online services is limited to the university network for licence-related reasons. These services include the databases and electronic journals offered by the library. To use these services on a computer outside the university network, you are required to establish a secure connection between your home computer and the university server.

The most common technology for establishing such a connection is VPN (Wikipedia). To use a VPN connection, you need a valid university username. Check the installation instructions for different operating systems.

Some of the

Multifactor Authentication (MFA)

This landing page contains links to all the University's MFA instructions. You can find more help from this instructions site by using, for example, the search. If you cannot solve the problem with the instructions, don’t hesitate to contact the IT Helpdesk.

Multifactor Authentication (MFA) improves information security by making scam attempts more difficult for cybercriminals. MFA is a feature that provides additional security when logging in to many of the University's services, and it uses a separate device to authenticate.

Passwords

This guide includes the most important instructions related to passwords. You can find more help from this instructions site by using, for example, the search. If you cannot solve the problem with the instructions, don’t hesitate to contact the IT Helpdesk. The password linked to the University’s user account is valid for one year at a time. Of course, you can change your password more often for information security reasons.

The password reset application is available at www.helsinki.fi/password

NB! University Mac users should use these instructions to change their password (and avoid several

Links to the most used services

Change your password Log in to your email Student: Activate your account!IT Security Test for staff members IT Security Test for students Tips for buying and replacing your computer IT Center Services

Technical problems

Status of the IT Services

Current topics

13.05.2025

Learn more about the University’s cloud service policies!

The IT Center has published the University of Helsinki’s cloud service policies, the purpose of which is to improve, among other things, the conditions for using cloud services in the University’s IT environment and in the everyday life of University staff and students.

08.05.2025

Update your Zoom application to the latest version – old versions will stop working on 12 May 2025

The University Zoom service provider NORDUnet strongly recommends updating Zoom applications to version 6.4.0 or newer. The update has already been installed on most University computers. The University of Helsinki IT Center will prevent the use of earlier Zoom versions from Monday 12 May 2025.

07.05.2025

ArcGIS Desktop will be discontinued on 31 December 2025 – start using ArcGIS Pro now

Access to ArcGIS Desktop software will be discontinued on 31 December 2025, as Esri will no longer provide support for the software. At the University, ArcGIS Pro will replace ArcGIS Desktop, and you can start using it now on both your centrally administered University Windows computer and your own home computer.

07.05.2025

Microsoft limited the daily quota for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat generated images to one image per day

Microsoft limited the daily quota for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat AI assistant generated images to one image per day at the end of April 2025. Due to this, University staff and studentscan currently generate only one imageper day in the service. Previously users could generate unlimited images in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.

30.04.2025

SAP service break 30 April 2025 from 3:30 to 4:30 PM

University SAP HR Portal, BW financial reporting and BW HR reporting services will be unavailable on 30 April from 3:30 to 4:30 PM. The service break is due to system maintenance and updates.

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