Doctoral education

Language of doctoral thesis and degree

The main language of instruction in Aalto doctoral programmes is English, but students have the option to complete their degree and write their doctoral thesis in Finnish or Swedish as well (in the business field, only English or Finnish are permitted). Typically, the language of your degree is the language in which you write your thesis.

Changing the language of the degree and thesis

You can apply to change the language of your doctoral thesis and the degree on reasonable grounds. The change of language requires updating your doctoral personal study plan and getting the approval of your supervising professor.

Submit the free format application with shortly explained grounds for the change in writing to your doctoral programme, with your updated doctoral personal study plan, and confirmation by email from your supervising professor.

Degree certificate

The language in which you have completed each course will be described on your degree certificate.

If your degree language is English, you will receive two original copies of your degree certificate: one in English and one in Finnish/Swedish. If your degree language is Finnish/Swedish, you will receive one original copy of the degree certificate in Finnish/Swedish and an official translation in English.