The University of Oulu has five faculties with a total of some 12,000 students. The Faculties are those of Technology, Medicine, Science, Humanities and Education. The University also has independent institutes. In Finnish universities open distance education is organised by centres for continuing education, which are an integral part of Finnish universities. There are no separate distance teaching universities or open universities in Finland.
All Finnish universities are state owned.
As a traditional campus university, the university cannot any longer respond to the requirements set to it in regional development. The university has stated in its strategy paper that the new learning environments, the regional units, and regional, national and international networking are necessary for the university to take care of its core function. The university of Oulu has been developing new learning environments through three channels. The activities started in the 1980s with the open university which was soon followed by professional supplementary education. In both cases the development of the environment was based on solid cooperation with various educational institutions in the region.