Graduate schools in Finland
Finnish graduate schools (tutkijakoulu) provide systematic education and guidance for Doctoral students. Students in graduate schools are mostly paid and work full-time on their research.
The Finnish graduate school system was established in 1995, with the financing of the Ministry of Education, universities and the Academy of Finland. Annually, the Ministry of Education has granted up to €36 million to graduate schools. The Academy of Finland allocates more than €4 million to graduate schools nationally for their course activities, coordination and internationalisation. There were 124 graduate schools in the system at the beginning of 2006 in Finland. Altogether over 4,000 graduate students are working full-time on their Doctoral dissertations in graduate schools.
One of the key objectives of Finnish graduate schools is to assure the quality of high-level education, shorten the time it takes Doctoral students to write their dissertations and therefore lower the age at which doctoral candidates defend their dissertations. The goal is that the students write their Doctoral dissertations in four years. With a view to more international Doctoral education, the aim is to increase the share of foreign Doctoral students in the graduate schools to 20% on average by 2012.
More infomation and statistics can be found on the webpages of the Finnish science and technology information service.
University of Turku graduate schools
The University of Turku coordinates 15 graduate schools which are funded by the Ministry of Education. There are also several graduate schools which are coordinated by other Finnish universities in cooperation with the University of Turku. Furthermore, there are graduate schools funded by the University of Turku itself. University of Turku graduate schools only cover a select number of specialised disciplines.
University of Turku graduate schools at the faculties:
It is possible to pursue a Doctoral degree in virtually all fields at the University of Turku.