100 New Doctoral Candidate Positions Are Open for Applications Next Autumn

​– In these times, it is significant that we can open one hundred new local doctoral candidate positions, says Kalervo Väänänen, Rector of the University of Turku.

During the renewal of the UTUGS, 16 doctoral programmes were established. They cover all the disciplines and doctoral candidates of the University of Turku. With the renewal the amount of the doctoral candidate openings increases 14 %. This year, there are 175 positions funded by the university and starting from next year the number is 200.

The first places will be exceptionally filled for one to four years. This way we are able to make a gradation to the system and this guarantees about 50 new, university funded doctoral candidate openings every year.

– The 100 university funded doctoral candidate positions that are open for applications next autumn will be filled for the period of one to four years so that from now on we can offer local education positions yearly. The goal is that in the future there would be 50 new openings every year, says Pirjo Nuutila, Director of the University of Turku Graduate School.

Programmes Cover all Disciplines and Doctoral Candidates

During the present period, there have been doctoral programmes funded by both the university and the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) and the Academy of Finland (AF). In the future, all of these will be included in the 16 doctoral programmes of the University of Turku.

– These selected doctoral programmes cover the doctoral candidate training of the university better than the previous ones. We have also been able to place all the doctoral candidates, whose working period is granted by the MEC continues for two more years, to these 16 doctoral programmes. In addition to the increase of the positions, an improvement is that all the doctoral candidates of the University of Turku can apply to the salaried training positions, Nuutila emphasises.

An evaluation which encompassed all the applications of the doctoral programmes of the whole university was carried out for the first time. When decisions about the programmes and number of positions were made, information about the research work of the supervisors, the general number of the graduates and the number of foreign graduated doctorate holders, the action and education plans of the programmes and networking of the programmes were utilized.

– Above all, these demonstrations and plans presented in the applications affected the number of the positions of the doctoral programmes. Also, information about the employment and placement of the doctoral candidates and especially their placement in the local area and the affect they have on the local business life was taken into account, Nuutila tells.

UTUGS Accelerated the Graduation of Doctorate Holders

The doctoral training of the University of Turku has been systematically developed since the year 1995. In August 2011, the operations were accelerated when doctoral programmes that previously worked in the subordination of faculties and MEC & AF doctoral programmes were gathered together and the University of Turku Graduate School was established.

– One concrete example of the advantages of the new kind of operations is that 182 doctors, more than ever before, graduated from the University of Turku last year. Previously, the maximum amount was about 150. Doctoral training has become a vital part of the university’s activity, Nuutila says.

All 1800 doctoral candidates, who are doing their doctoral thesis research in the University of Turku, belong to UTUGS. Part of them does their doctoral thesis as paid employees of the university, part alongside their own work part-time and part on their free time.

Text: Erja Hyytiäinen
Translation: Henna Borisoff
Photograph: Hanna Oksanen