The doctoral degree in the Faculty of Science can be completed in four doctoral programmes.
It is also possible to belong to the doctoral programmes coordinated in the Faculty of Medicine and complete your degree in the Faculty of Science:
NATURAL SCIENCES
Graduate School's call for applications
You can see the call for applications only during the application period.
There are two application periods for the doctoral study right each year (in March and September).
The application is filled in via the electronic application form of the doctoral programme.
The decisions of September application round will be informed by the end of November and decisions of March application round will be informed by the end of May.
The application call, a link to the application form and detailed instructions for applying will be published on the websites of each doctoral programme. Please read carefully the instructions of the doctoral programme before your start filling in the application form.
Persons who meet the eligibility criteria for pursuing a doctoral degree, as stipulated in the Universities Act (558/2009, Section 37) as well as the eligibility criteria for the right to study for a doctoral degree at the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Eligible applicants for studies leading to an academic or artistic licentiate or doctoral degree have completed
You can apply for the right to study for the doctoral degree from the Faculty of Science, even if the degree awarding the qualification is not quite completed at the end of the application period. The qualifying degree must be completed and the applicant must submit scanned certificates of the completed degree to sci-docstudies (a) utu.fi by the deadline.
For the March application round, it is a prerequisite that, before applying, the applicant has discussed supervision arrangements with their future supervisor and drafted a study plan. In this plan, supervision arrangements are agreed upon: supervisors and the Research Director are named.
For the September application round, not unlike the March application round, most doctoral programmes require that the applicant has discussed his/her study plan with the future supervisor beforehand. See the requirements on the doctoral programme's page.
Ensure that you have the necessary documents of your certificates. See Delivering degree certificates below.
Prepare all required application documents. See Application documents below.
Consider your possibilities for funding the doctoral training.
Read carefully the application instructions of your doctoral programme and the application call.
On admission to the faculty, doctoral researchers are appointed a principal supervisor, who has an employment contract to the University of Turku, another supervisor and possible other supervisors. In an exceptional case, the principal supervisor can be a person who does not have an employment contract to the University of Turku. In this case, the principal supervisors has to be a docent of the University of Turku and there has to be another supervisor appointed who has an employment contract to the University of Turku. The principal supervisor should always be at least a docent and the other supervisors should hold a doctoral degree.
The duties of the supervisor are, among others:
On admission to the faculty, doctoral researchers are appointed a research director. Faculty appoints the research director based on the proposal made by the department which is responsible for the research field in question. A person eligible for research director is an employee of the faculty whose title is professor. In an exceptional case, if there is no professor available, the associate professor can be nominated as a research director. The research director has to represent the department/unit where the discipline is connected.
A professor may continue as a research director after they have retired. However, a Professor Emeritus/-ita cannot be appointed as a research director.
The research director may also be one of the supervisors.
The duties of the research director include:
The doctoral researcher has the primary responsibility for the progress of their studies. The responsibilities of the doctoral researcher are defined as follows:
Attach to your electronic application as a scanned copy:
If the original degree certificates and other educational documents are not written in English, Finnish or Swedish, official translations to one of these languages must also be submitted. An official translation here refers to a translation of the educational documents issued by the awarding institution or a translation made by an authorized translator. A transcript in English can be replaced by a Diploma Supplement awarded by a European educational institution if it contains the information about completed courses and other study attainments.
Those applicants who have been granted a right to study and who have completed their prior degree abroad have to submit either the original degree certificates or certified copies of the degree certificates and other educational documents and the official translations of the documents to the University of Turku as instructed in the admission notification. If the admitted applicant does not deliver the required certificates by the deadline set in the admission notification, he/she forfeits the study right. Instructions on delivering certificates and country-specific requirements are available here:
Doctoral researchers must have good English language skills and a certificate that proves those skills.
Language requirements for right to study for a doctoral degree
The doctoral programme evaluates the applications once the application period is over. Selection is based on the information presented in the application and its appendices. If necessary, the doctoral programme may use external experts for review purposes and also evaluate the suitability and motivation of an applicant by conducting interviews.
In addition to the eligibility criteria for doctoral degrees, the educational and research-related merits, the quality of the research plan, and the research potential based on the application are used in the evaluation and selection of doctoral researchers. In the selection process, applicant's motivation, merits, completed studies, and the grade a Master's thesis (or equivalent) will be taken into account. An absolutely necessary prerequisite is that the doctoral researcher can be assigned at least two supervisors who meet the scientific merits required of a supervisor. The doctoral researcher's research topic must fit in with the faculty's and its departments' research profile.
In order to be accepted as a doctoral researcher, an applicant is required to have completed the advanced studies in the Master’s degree with a “Good” grade or equivalent (Grade 3 in the Finnish grading system). If this is not the case, or if the subject of the Master’s degree differs from the field of research of the intended postgraduate studies, doctoral researchers will be asked to supplement their knowledge and skills to achieve the required level.
Vice Dean of the faculty decides on the study rights based on the evaluation of the doctoral programme and the statement from the department. The applicants will be individually informed about the decisions.
Should an applicant be dissatisfied with the decision, he/she may appeal against it by delivering a written, substantiated appeal to the Faculty of Science within 14 days of being informed about the decision. The appeal is delivered by email to: sci-docstudies@utu.fi.
When applying for a study right, the degree certificate and transcript of studies of the degrees (Master's or equivalent) which grant the eligibility to apply as well as other selection criteria-related study certificates must always be attached to the electronic application as scanned copies.
If the certificates are in a language other than English, Finnish, or Swedish, a scanned copy of an official translation to one of these languages must be attached to the electronic application. A translation provided by the institution which has granted the degree, a translation by an authorized translator, and a certified copy of the institution's or an authorized translator's translation all count as an official translation.
To maintain your right to doctoral studies, you have to confirm the study place in the MyStudy info service by th deadline informed in the acceptance letter.
Confirming a study place is a binding choice, and you cannot cancel or change your choice later. When you confirm a study place, you will no longer be able to confirm any other study places which start at the same term in Finnish higher education institutions.
After you have confirmed the study place, you will be registered as an attending student at the University of Turku for the next academic season/year. When this is complete you will get an email which also includes the instructions on how to get an UTU account and a password.
A student completing a postgraduate degree is required to enrol annually as instructed by the university. Only a student who has enrolled as "attending" may participate in teaching and complete studies at the university.
All questions regarding applying can be sent to sci-docstudies@utu.fi
Contact information for the faculty's doctoral training services