Doctoral education
The University of Eastern Finland offers high-quality research opportunities after obtaining your Master’s degree, including a doctoral degree. Some fields also offer professional postgraduate degrees, such as the medical physicist’s and chemist’s degrees. The aim of scientific doctoral education is to educate professionals in research who have the capacity to work independently in solving scientific problems and producing new scientific knowledge. A doctorate can be a qualification requirement for some positions.
A doctoral degree consists of a doctoral dissertation and compulsory doctoral studies (30-50 credits). The dissertation is to be defended in a public examination. More information about the degree can be found on Introduction to doctoral education- page.
The aim is to complete doctoral studies in four years.
Applying for a right to doctoral studies
The four faculties at UEF are responsible for the administration of 13 doctoral programmes which are thematic or discipline-specific. The faculty in question grants the right to pursue doctoral studies, appoints the supervisors and approves the research plan.
You may apply for one of the university’s doctoral programmes.
Before applying
- Ponder why you wish to pursue for a doctoral degree, what is the contentual area on which you want to create new knowledge, how much time and effort you can allocate to your doctoral studies and what is your target schedule for the doctoral degree.
- Make sure that you are eligible for doctoral studies (see below). In addition, you must fulfill the language requirements of the doctoral programme.
- Select the right doctoral programme based on your previous education and potential research interests, and familiarise yourself with its requirements.
- Find yourself a supervisor. The right for doctoral studies cannot be obtained without a consent from the supervisor. Potential supervisors can be found by browsing the webpages of the doctoral programme introducing the researchers and research groups working in the research areas of the doctoral programme. See also the requirements for supervisors.
- Familiarise yourself with the application instructions of your target doctoral programme (see below), and prepare the required documents.
- Research plan is the most important part of the application.
- In addition, you will need officially certified paper copies of your degree certificate and transcript of records, as well as language certificates. Check also if there is a country specific requirement for your documents.
- Get to know your funding options.
- Start preparations in good time! Finding a supervisor and preparing the research plan may take months.
According to the Universities Act (558/2009, section 37): “Eligible applicants for studies leading to an academic or artistic licentiate or doctoral degree have completed:
- relevant Master’s degree awarded by a university;
- a relevant Master’s degree awarded by a university of applied sciences; or
- a relevant applicable study programme abroad which in the awarding country gives eligibility for the corresponding level of higher education.
If the student applies for a doctoral study right in a different subject than the major subject of his/her degree, the university can require the student to complete the required amount of supplementary studies to obtain the abilities required for the studies.
Applying in practice
The application is submitted via Studyinfo.fi-portal. Follow the instructions of your doctoral programme in detail and submit your application on time.
Below you can find links to the application requirements of the doctoral programmes.
Instruction for applying on the webpage of the doctoral programme.
A signed engagement from your supervisors is required as an attachment to the application. You can seek for it with a WebPropol form.
Instruction for applying on the webpage of the doctoral programme.
A signed engagement from your supervisors is required as an attachment to the application. You can seek for it with a WebPropol form.
Instruction for applying on the webpage of the doctoral programme.
A signed engagement from your supervisors is required as an attachment to the application. You can seek for it with a WebPropol form.