As the most populous city in Northern Finland, Oulu has over 100,000 inhabitants. The city is home to the Oulu University of Applied Sciences, the University of Oulu, and a vocational college.

Urban design is a practice intended to help shape cities and towns while establishing and implementing plans to allow for future growth. Common areas of study for students of urban design include architectural design, urban planning, highway engineering and landscape design.

The formal higher education system of Finland is the 7-3-2-2 pattern. The university takes two years in vocational or technical education and finally two-year pre-tertiary education. Finland also has several public as well as private universities that have enabled accessibility of higher education to students.

The MSc, or Master of Science, is an internationally recognized academic degree that indicates proficiency and knowledge of a given topic or field. Most MSc programs take about four years to finish, after which some join the workforce while others continue on in the classroom.