The mission of universities is to promote free research and academic and artistic education and to provide higher education based on research. In carrying out their mission, the universities interact with society and promote the impact of research findings on society.

Universities provide lower (Bachelor's) and higher (Master's) degrees and scientific postgraduate degrees (licentiate and doctoral degrees). Universities may also engage in fee-paying continuing education and open university instruction.

Thirteen universities are administered by the Ministry of Education and Culture, two of which are foundations (*) governed by the Foundations Act and the remaining of which are corporations under public law.

Higher military degrees are provided by the National Defence College operating under the defence administration. The Vipunen Reporting Portal mainly provides statistics on the universities administered by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

The statistics on universities are based on data collected by the Ministry of Education and Culture from the universities, and data produced by Statistics Finland. The data is usually provided by university or field of education. The statistics on universities largely follow the Finnish National Agency for Education's 1995 classification of the fields of education. Some statistics also use the more specific 2002 classification by the Finnish National Agency for Education.

The statistics on universities in the Vipunen Reporting Portal start from either the year 2005 or 2010.