Doctoral Programme in Exact Sciences - Admission Criteria and Instructions for Applicants

• Make sure you are eligible to apply for a study right in the Faculty of Science (under "Who can apply").
• Read the call for applications (found at the bottom of the page).
• Application attachments: Prepare all the required application attachments according to the call for applications. Please note these differ in the spring and autumn calls.
• Funding plan: Prepare a funding plan as a right to study does not include funding or scholarship from the University. In the September call, in addition to a right to study, you can also apply for a fixed-term doctoral researcher position under an employment contract. 
• Degree certificates: Prepare your original degree certificates, original transcripts of study records and other original educational documents for the application. If needed, obtain officially certified copies with English translation.
• Proof of language requirements: If you need to verify your language skills with a language test, make sure that you book your test time well in advance. Instructions for language requirements for right to study for a doctoral degree and when is a language test not required.

September call for applications 2025:

Materials will be uploaded here closer to the call.

March call for applications 2025 (call closed):

During the application period 3 – 14 March 2025, it is possible to apply for a right to pursue a doctoral degree. An applicant has to agree with supervisors and a research director about supervision and research plan before the application can be made. This means that you must contact potential supervisors and make a supervision plan and a research plan in collaboration with them.

You will need to include a signed supervision plan with your application.

What is the supervision plan?

• The supervision plan is a plan that you make together with your potential thesis supervisors and your research director (see the Faculty of Science Code of Conduct for information about their roles).
• The blank supervision plan form can be found under at the bottom of the page.
• Get to know the research and potential supervisors:
  • Research and Personnel at the Department of Chemistry
  • Research and Personnel at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics
  • Research and Personnel at the Department of Physics and Astronomy
  • Research at the Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA)
  • Research at the Turku PET Centre
  • Research at the Turku Research Institute for Learning Analytics 
• A few rules about potential supervisors and research directors in the Faculty of Science: 
  • A doctoral researcher should have a research director, a principal supervisor and at least one other supervisor.
  • The research director should have an employment contract to the department where the major subject of the doctoral degree is based and the title of the research director should be a professor. In an exceptional case, if there is no professor available, an associate professor can be nominated as a research director.
  • The principal supervisor should be a professor, associate professor, assistant professor or adjunct professor/docent and in most of the cases have an employment contract to the University of Turku. Other supervisors should hold a doctoral degree.

September call for applications 2024 (call closed):

In the September call, it is possible to apply for both (1) a right to pursue a doctoral degree and (2) a fixed-term doctoral researcher position under an employment contract.The application process of having the right to pursue a doctoral degree has two application phases:

1. In the first phase, the applicant submits an application (the electronic form on My StudyInfo) where they describe themselves and their plans regarding the doctoral studies and a dissertation. The doctoral programme evaluates all the applications and checks the eligibility of the applicant, how the applicant’s research topic interests fit the profile of the programme, and assesses the merits of the applicants. Moreover, the doctoral programme checks if it can offer two suitable supervisor and research director to the applicant. The most competitive applicants for whom the programme can offer two supervisors will be invited to the second phase.
2. In the second phase, together with supervisors the applicant compiles a second phase application which includes a research, funding and supervision plans.

• Read the Call for applications (found under "Applications documents and guidelines") carefully before filling in the electronic application.
• Make sure you have attached all the required attachments (see the call for applications).
• Technical issues in applying for the doctoral researcher position under an employment contract? How to submit a job application in TalentAdore service

The application attachments differ in the autumn and spring calls. Attach the required documents in PDF-format to your electronic application form, unless otherwise stated. Please read the call for applications carefully to check which documents are mandatory for you.

The University of Turku follows the Rector’s decision (15 Aug 2019) on the means of verifying their language proficiency.

Please check the language requirements and whether you will need to provide a proof of language proficiency from the University’s graduate school website.

Please note! If the applicant is required to prove their language proficiency with a language test, a scanned certificate of a completed language test must be attached to the application.

Prepare to deliver your original or originally certified degree certificates to the University of Turku if you are granted the right to study a doctoral degree.

Instructions on delivering certificates and country-specific requirements on the Information for admitted students page.