If you have a double role as both the supervisor and the supervising professor / thesis advisor of a doctoral student, please see the information below.

• Onboarding guide for new employee
• Researcher onboarding
• Information on well-being at work (e.g. occupational health care)
• Human Resource services at Aalto University

Equality, diversity and inclusion at Aalto

Tips, toolkits and inspiring reads for fostering diversity (Learning hub on diversity and inclusion)

UNIPS (University Pedagogical Support) “Being a thesis supervisor” module (external link)

Aalto Pedagogical training Doctoral supervision (3 ECTS)

More information on UNIPS online courses

Findocnet.fi (Transferable skills study opportunities, external link)

Recommendations for doctoral thesis supervision by the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (TENK) and Universities Finland UNIFI (external link)

Accepting new doctoral students

New doctoral students are accepted to the Aalto Doctoral Programme in Arts, Design and Architecture only once a year, with the application period in March for studies starting in September. Application is competitive, typically only about 25%-30% of the applicants are selected.

Exception: If the Department receives external funding for doctoral candidate's position, it is possible to handle their applications to the doctoral programme in continuous application. In such cases the Head of the Department and the Planning Officer for the doctoral programme must be contacted well in advance before the Open position call is published. In such case the applicants first apply for the open position and only the selected applicant applies for the study right in the doctoral programme in the continuous application.

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.

If the applicant is asking if a certain professor could act as their supervising professor, we cannot give promises outside the actual application, but professors can give their opinion about whether or not they would be suitable supervising professor for that particular research topic. It is recommended to let the Head of Research know about such applicants as well.

Link to instructions for the applicant

Studying from abroad

The Doctoral Programme is mostly structured so that is beneficial for the doctoral students to be present in the Helsinki region. We encourage doctoral students to spend as much of their study time as possible in the Helsinki region, to be able to connect to the Department's research community and complete the required courses.

Visiting students and researchers

Department can host a limited number of visiting researchers per semester, depending on the overall situation of the department. All visitors must have a confirmation from a host professor before applying. Visiting Researcher should have preferably secured funding for the duration of the visit before applying for this position. Visiting Researcher is expected to undertake research and publication in collaboration with Department's personnel and independent research.

More information at Workday

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.

Link to instuctions for the applicant

Accepting new doctoral students

• There are application calls two times a year for doctoral study right at our Doctoral Programme.
• Sufficient language skills of the applicant are very essential part of the qualifications. See if your student needs to present language certificate!
• Full-time students are expected to complete their degree within four years.
• The supervising professor and the applicant shall go through the applicant’s research plan, study plan, supervision plan and funding resources.
• The supervising professor submits the recommendation letter and together with the thesis advisor their sign the form for supervision plan.
• The original master's degree certificate of the applicant is needed for the registering the new student and the granted study right'

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.

Link to instuctions for the applicant

Admission of new doctoral students

• New doctoral students are accepted to the Aalto Doctoral Programme in Electrical Engineering once a month, except for in July (both for full-time and part-time applicants).
• Please check the guidelines on how to apply to the Doctoral Programme in Electrical Engineering
• Full-time students are expected to complete their degree in four years and part-time students in 4-8 years.
• The supervising professor and the applicant shall go through the applicant’s research plan, credit plan, supervision plan and funding plan.
• When signing the above-mentioned plans of the applicant, the supervising professor commits him/herself to supervise the doctoral studies. The thesis advisor commits by signing the supervision plan, where the duties are divided between the supervising professor and the thesis advisor.  Please read about the supervision of doctoral thesis and the duties of supervising professors and thesis advisors (please scroll down). 
• The original master's degree certificate and transcript of the applicant are needed before admission. If the applicant has completed his/her Master's degree outside Aalto University, please make sure that the applicant brings along either certified copies or the original degree papers and translations of them (if they are not in Finnish, Swedish or English) when he/she comes to Finland. Regular copies/colored, scanned pdf versions are not sufficient!
• Sufficient language skills of the applicant makes your job easier! Please check the language test requirements

Questions from applicants

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.

Visiting doctoral students at Aalto

A visiting international doctoral student might be eligible for an exchange student study right at Aalto. The study right can only be awarded if the student

• is nominated by their home university as an exchange student and the home university has an active exchange student agreement with Aalto School of Electrical Engineering. 
• is enrolled at their home university 
• takes courses at Aalto School of Electrical Engineering and the exchange period at Aalto is a part of their doctoral degree at the home university (e.g. research work for the doctoral thesis). 

The maximum duration of the exchange study right is one year. For more information and instructions, please contact [email protected]. 
 

Accepting new doctoral students

• The Doctoral Programme of the School of Engineering can be applied twice a year.
• The supervising professor and the applicant shall go through the applicant’s research plan, study plan, supervision plan and funding. Full-time doctoral students must be able to spend 80 % of their working hours on doctoral studies. Those applying for a full-time study mode must write a funding plan. Full-time students are expected to complete their degree within four years.
• By recommending an applicant as a doctoral student, the supervising professor will commit to act as the applicant’s supervising professor throughout the doctoral studies
• If you're recommending an applicant who has completed his/her Master's degree outside Finland, please make sure that the applicant brings along either certified copies or the original degree papers when he/she comes to Finland (if the papers are not sent via regular mail). Regular copies/colored, scanned pdf versions are not sufficient!

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to the Learning Services of the Doctoral Programme in Engineering to be answered.

Link to instuctions for the applicant

Temporal study right for visiting doctoral candidates at Aalto

• It is possible for a visiting international doctoral student, to get a temporal study right at Aalto to be able to take courses while here at Aalto. A general requirement is that the doctoral student is enrolled at his/her home university and the traineeship is part of his/her doctoral degree at the home university (e.g. research work for the doctoral thesis).
• If your doctoral student would need a temporal study right at Aalto, please ask your doctoral student to contact the doctoral programme learning services

Accepting new doctoral students

• There are application times once a month (except in July).
   
• Information about applying to Doctoral Programme in Science
   
• Full-time doctoral students are expected to complete their degree within four years. They must be able to spend 80 % of their working hours on doctoral studies. For part-time doctoral students the study time is longer, up to 8 year.
   
• The supervising professor and the applicant shall go through the applicant’s research plan, study plan, supervision plan and funding plan (incl. in the research plan).
   
• The supervising professor commits by the above mentioned forms and the thesis advisor commits by signing the supervision plan. By signing the forms the supervising professor commits to act as the applicant’s supervising professor throughout the doctoral studies. Please read the supervision of doctoral students section below.
• The original master's degree certificate and transcript of the applicant are needed, if the applicant's degree is outside Aalto University. If the applicant has completed his/her Master's degree outside Finland, please make sure that the applicant brings along certified copies or the original degree papers when he/she comes to Finland. Regular copies/colored, scanned pdf versions are not sufficient!
• Sufficient language skills of the applicant make your job easier!

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.

Link to instuctions for the applicant

Visiting doctoral students at Aalto

• It is possible for a visiting international doctoral student to get an exchange student study right at Aalto to be able to take courses while here at Aalto if the student's home university has a partnership contract with Aalto. A general requirement is that the doctoral student is enrolled at his/her home university and the traineeship is part of his/her doctoral degree at the home university (e.g. research work for the doctoral thesis). The maximum duration of the exchange study right is one year. For more information and instructions, please contact [email protected].
• Please note, if the student's home university does not have a partnership contract with Aalto, visiting doctoral students can take courses at Aalto by applying for non-degree study right. More information can be found here.

A professor may become the only supervising professor of a doctoral student in the partner school if:

• The professor has a double affiliation agreement with the partner school (signed by the department heads of both schools)
• The professor has been assigned to a research field of the partner school for the fixed term of the double affiliation. The professor can be assigned to the research field of the partner school, only if the department head of the department where the research field is located supports this. The professor has to give reasons for this need (e.g. he/she has acquired funding to a project in the partner school)
• The degree and the result of the degree in the funding model will go only to the partner school (i.e. the school of the doctoral student).

Please note:

• The doctoral student and the supervising professor will follow the processes and requirements of the partner school, i.e. the school that has granted the study right for the doctoral student.
• The matters regarding this doctoral student will be processed only in the partner school (i.e. school of the doctoral student).
• The double affiliation professors assigned to a research field at the partner school will not be listed on the research field list at the Into web-pages.
• In cases where a double affiliation professor (fixed term) takes a new doctoral student in the partner school, the supervision plan needs to include the name of a second  professor from the partner school (i.e. school of the doctoral student), who is willing to continue as the supervising professor of that doctoral student if he/she has not graduated before the double affiliation agreement has expired.

SCI Doctoral Programme Committee 13 June 2017, updated 20.3.2018

Research collaboration may include collaboration on supervising doctoral students. There are 3 different types of collaboration in supervision of doctoral students:

• one of the collaborators is the supervising professor of the doctoral student (the supervising professor and the doctoral student are in the same school) and the other collaborator is the thesis advisor (partner school). The degree and the result will go to the school of the supervising professor.
• both schools will invest money in the project of the doctoral student (e.g. salary for the student) and thus the result of this doctoral degree will be divided between the schools in the funding model. In this scenario, one professor becomes the supervising professor (same school as the student) and the other professor the co-supervisor (partner school).
• in special cases a professor may become the only supervising professor of a doctoral student in the partner school (school of the doctoral student). This is possible if the professor has a double affiliation agreement to the partner school (please see below).

Teaching doctoral students follow the same principles as all other teaching leading towards a degree offered by Aalto University: it is planned and offered in the 2-year curriculum planning cycle, following the University's guidelines and schedules.

Each doctoral programme has its own curriculum, which consists of the degree requirements and course descriptions approved by the Academic Committee of the School, and which follows the degree structure presented above.

Courses aimed for doctoral students bear the letter 'L' in their course code. Often Master’s level courses bearing the letter ‘E’ in their course code are also planned so that they can be included in doctoral studies.

If you are interested in offering a course for doctoral students in your School, contact the planning officer of your School and note the 2-year planning cycle.

Curriculum design at Aalto University

Course practicalities for teachers

In addition to the courses taught at Aalto University, doctoral studies often include independently completed individual studies, e.g. conference presentations, summer schools, publications (not included in the thesis), literature reviews, etc. The supervising professor and the doctoral student agree about the inclusion of these type of studies and about their completion in the Doctoral personal study plan (credit plan) before hand. After the student has completed the studies and given a report, the supervising professor evaluates the studies and grants the credits for them.

Independently completed individual study courses

As part of the curriculum 2024-2026, course descriptions and codes have been created for the most typical independently completed individual studies in each doctoral programme. The course descriptions provide more information on the types of activity that can be credited and how many credits can be granted. The grading is always pass/fail. You can find the course descriptions in Sisu with the course code. Each School has their own codes and course descriptions, which might be slightly different from each other.

The curriculum of the doctoral programme dictates what kind of individual studies can be credited and how many of these credits can be placed in each study module of the degree (General research studies and Research field studies). Here is a list of the type of activities that can be credited through the independently completed individual study courses - note that all of them are not available in all Schools:

XXX-L2010 Presenting research at a conference I D
XXX-L2020 Academic advising I D
XXX-L2030 Teaching at higher education I D
XXX-L2040 University practices I D
XXX-L2050 Reviewing a scientific manuscript I D
XXX-L2060 Literature I D
XXX-L2070 Publishing research I
XXX-L2080 Summer or Winter Schools I D
XXX-L2090 Art production I D

(XXX represents the School code, e.g. ARTS or SCI)

Full list of individual study courses and codes in each School (aalto.fi) 

Doctoral students will present to their supervising professor a filled-out form and any possible additional report of the completed activity (e.g. their presentation, literature review or written/oral report). Reporting can also happen in the form of a book exam or other form of assessment.

Other independently completed individual studies

Supervising professors can also grant credits for students following the old system, if the student has started their studies before 1 August 2024, or if there is a need to give credits beyond the course codes (as long as it is not restricted by the curriculum of the doctoral programme).

In this case, the same form is used, but the student submits the form differently in Sisu and the study attainment will have a different kind of code created automatically by Sisu.

Instructions for doctoral students (aalto.fi)

Before pre-examination

It is responsibility of the supervising professor to

• ensure that the doctoral student is aware of the requirements for a doctoral thesis and of the stages included in the preliminary examination and the public examination of the thesis
  • General quality requirements for doctoral thesis at Aalto University
  • Different formats of doctoral thesis
  • Stages of pre-examination
• confirm that the manuscript is ready for pre-examination
• confirm that the authors contribution description written by the doctoral student in the doctoral thesis is correct and also, if applicable, that the clarification of subcontracting is correct.
• strong recommendation: use the Turnitin originality report in their evaluation of the unpublished parts of the thesis in order to notice possible plagiarism (see below)
• agree with the doctoral student about the language revision of the thesis, following their School's guidelines.
• find two independent pre-examiners for the doctoral thesis and ensure their impartiality, see below more information on Proposing pre-examiners and opponents
• fill out the necessary parts on the pre-examination application form (306). Application form available at the page Doctoral student forms.

During pre-examination

After the pre-examiners have been appointed in Doctoral Programme Committee meeting, the Doctoral programme's Doctoral education services (in BIZ, Department's secretary) will send them further instructions and the manuscript.

When the statements have arrived the Doctoral Programme sends them to the doctoral student and the supervising professor.

After pre-examination

It is responsibility of the supervising professor to make sure that the doctoral student makes all the necessary corrections to the thesis manuscript that have come up as a result of the pre-examination process.

The Doctoral Programme Committee grants the permission for public defence (i.e. permission for publishing the dissertation and to proceed to the defence). The opponent can be appointed directly after the pre-examination stage, if all the needed details are available.

After the pre-examiners have been appointed in Doctoral Programme Committee meeting, the Doctoral programme's Doctoral education services (in BIZ, Department's secretary) will send them the manuscript with further instructions. The instructions linked below can also be used to explain the responsibilities of a pre-examiner to potential examiners.

ARTS instructions
BIZ instructions
CHEM instructions
ELEC instructions
ENG instructions
SCI instructions

The pre-examinerscannot

• have had significant collaboration, such as co-authored publications, with the doctoral student.
• have had significant collaboration, such as co-authored publications with the supervising professor or advisor of the student, especially during the previous five years.

The pre-examiners cannot

• have co-authored research papers with the doctoral student or supervising professor or thesis instructor or collaborated with in research in the past five years
• have close collaboration with the department of the supervising professor - such as postdoc position at the department within the past five years

For more questions, please contact the CHEM Doctoral Programme Committee.

The pre-examiners and opponents cannot

• in the past five years have co-authored research papers or currently be working on one with the doctoral student, supervising professor nor advisor, or otherwise collaborated within research 
• be from the school of the doctoral student, the school of the supervising professor / the co-supervisor / the thesis advisor, or from the research group in which the doctoral thesis is done. Only for very special reasons the examiner can be appointed from another school of Aalto (written motivation why nobody outside Aalto could be appointed).
• have a degree from the past 5 years from the school of the student

The supervising professor should strive to find experts from all over the world and thus it is recommended that at least one of the examiners is working outside Finland.

The pre-examiners cannot have co-authored research papers with the doctoral student or collaborated with in research in the past five years.

The pre-examiners cannot have had significant collaboration, such as co-authored publications with the supervising professor or advisor of the student, especially during the previous five years.

• At least one of pre-examiners should have substantial experience on supervising doctoral students. This should be shown by presenting the pre-examiners’ and opponents’ CV (including a timeline of academic appointments and doctoral student supervision experience) and a separate list of publications (Google scholar or equivalent is satisfactory). 
• When selecting examiners, we wish to remind you how important it is to give full consideration to all genders and members of underrepresented minority groups. 
• The pre-examiners / opponent(s) cannot have co-authored research papers with the doctoral student or collaborated with in research in the last five years
• Any joint research papers between the pre-examiners / opponent(s) and supervising professor or thesis advisor in the last five years must be unrelated to the doctoral thesis. A short clarification must be given in case joint papers exist.
• The pre-examiners and opponents cannot be from the school of the doctoral student, the school of the supervising professor, the co-supervisor or the thesis advisor or the research group in which the doctoral thesis is done. Only for very special reasons the examiner can be appointed from another school of Aalto (written motivation why nobody outside Aalto could be appointed).

Majakka – Doctoral Education Project

Operating within the Water & Development Group, Majakka focuses on co-creating doctoral
education and water research. Its aim is to make doctoral education increasingly systematic and better supervised, and thus to enhance its role in and for the society. The main goals of Majakka was to create a systematic model to support practices and supervision on doctoral education and research collaboration.

Key factors:

• Academic freedom combined with academic responsibilities
• Subsidiarity & co-creation
• Clear roles, goals, and feedback
• T-shaped competence profile and linkages to industry

Key benefits:

1. Diverse research activities and continuous development, excellence reputation
2. Work-life skills, including teamwork, communication and networking
3. Early actions to meet the rising needs, self-organizing culture and activities without professors facilitating and coordinating everything
4. Supervising professors and thesis advisors have active collaboration networks and innovative, proactive team to work with
5. Highly engaged team to apply for external funding
6. Holistic wellbeing and resilience to sudden changes
7. Respect and appreciation of all

Read more about Majakka: Making Waves: Joining forces for better doctoral education in
water research

For any questions regarding Majakka, please contact Postdoctoral researcher Maija Taka
([email protected])