Admission to doctoral training

Each doctoral researcher must have a principal supervisor who commits to the supervision of the doctoral training. Each applicant is responsible for finding and contacting an appropriate principal supervisor affiliated with a research unit of the University of Oulu. The study right will not be granted without supervisors’ and research unit’s commitment. The applicant and the supervisors agree on the supervisory arrangements, and the process of the doctoral research in supervision plan.

Agree upon a research topic with your proposed principal supervisor and write the research plan and the abstract. The length of the research plan is 3-6 pages + abstract with font size 12 pt and should consist of the following parts:

1. Tittle: Working title, or topic, of the doctoral thesis research
2. Abstract of the research plan (max. 2500 characters). The abstract must include the following information: a) Scientific background of the research. b) Scientific aims of the research. c) Approaches and methodologies to be employed to achieve the aims of the research. d) Scientific and societal impact of the research
3. Rationale/background/introduction. Background and significance of the research project in relation to current knowledge. Describe how the project is linked to previous international or national research. State of the art.
4. Objectives and expected results. Describe the theoretical premises, aims and objectives of your research. Hypotheses or research questions. Expected research results and their anticipated scientific impact, potential for scientific breakthroughs and for promoting scientific renewal. Describe the effects and impact of the research beyond the scientific community.
5. Research methods and materials. Describe what kind of research material and data will be used. Describe justifications, how data will be collected, acquired and used, taking into account IPR and other relevant issues. Describe research methods and how they will contribute to answering the research questions or confirming the hypotheses, or how they will support the chosen approach. If relevant for the project, describe the statistical methods to be used.
6. Ethical issues in research (if relevant) Provide information on the ethical issues, e.g. ethical governance procedures, informed consent, anonymity of subjects and withdrawal from research, that concern the chosen topic, methods and data, as well as on any research permits granted or pending.
7. Implementation. Stages and schedule of research, and funding plan.
8. Research team, supervision, and collaboration. Include also possible research mobility.
9. Literature/ bibliography. Literature is not counted in the page numbering.

The applicant has completed a relevant Master of Science degree, or an equivalent degree giving eligibility for corresponding university studies in the country that issued the degree. The Doctoral Training Committee evaluates the validity of the previous degree for doctoral training, taking into account the major skills required. If the applicant plans to undertake doctoral studies in any other field, they may be required to follow bridging studies considered necessary to start in the chosen major subject.

Depending on the applicant’s academic background and experience, granting the doctoral study rights may also require complementary university-level studies, or “bridging studies,” up to a maximum of 60 ECTS credits, which must be completed with good grades (at least 60% of the maximum score). The Doctoral Training Committee approves the applicant’s study plan for the bridging studies, which are proposed by the principal supervisor and the doctoral degree programme director. If the principal supervisor and doctoral degree programme director are the same person, the doctoral degree programme director will be substituted by another expert appointed by the chairperson of the Doctoral Training Committee. If more than 60 credits of bridging studies are deemed to be necessary in order to undertake the doctoral training, the applicant will be directed to apply for study rights to complete an appropriate master's degree at the university-level before applying for the doctoral study rights from the Graduate School.

An applicant with a bachelor’s degree may be admitted to the Graduate School to undertake doctoral studies, if the applicant has at least a Bachelor of Medicine or Dentistry degree, is a student of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oulu, and is conducting research in a research group (only applicable for applicants aiming to pursue a degree of Doctor of Medical Science, or of Dental Science).

The above-mentioned degree must have been completed with good grades (at least 60% of the maximum grade, or 3/5, in both taught studies and the master’s thesis). In exceptional cases where the applicant's grades obtained for the master's degree (or equivalent) do not meet the requirements for admission to UniOGS, it may be possible to compensate for the insufficient grades.

If the applicant has a master's degree in a relevant field from a university of applied sciences, either from Finland or abroad, the prerequisites for admission and the capabilities for successful doctoral training will be examined case-by-case, dependent upon the applicant and the major subject. In this case, the applicant's grades must be very good (at least 80 % of the maximum score for both the taught studies and the thesis).

All applicants must possess sufficient language skills in order to follow the doctoral studies. The teaching languages ​​at the University of Oulu are Finnish and English. All applicants who have not completed a secondary or higher education degree in the Finnish language, must demonstrate that they possess sufficient English and/or Finnish language skills with one of the following options:

• TOEFL iBT or TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition 92 (with a minimum of 20 in the Writing section)
  • When completing the TOEFL Registration Form, please fill in the University of Oulu's Institution Code 0229 in the Score Report Recipient field. The University of Oulu will verify the TOEFL results through the online verification system provided by ETS. Upload a test score report to the electronic application.
  • TOEFL scores are valid for two years from the test date.
• IELTS Academic or IELTS Indicator 6.5 (with a minimum of 5.5 per each section)
  • Upload a test score report to the electronic application. The University of Oulu will verify the IELTS results through the online verification system.
  • IELTS test report forms are valid for two years.
• Pearson Test of English, PTE Academic 62 (with a minimum of 52 in the Writing section)
  • Once you receive your test score, send it to the University of Oulu from your PTE account. After this, the University should have access to your test results within 48 hours. Be advised that online language test results will only be accepted from the test organiser. Upload a test score report to the electronic application.
  • The PTE Academic scores are valid for up to two years from the date of the exam.
• C2 Proficiency (former Cambridge English: Proficiency, CPE) Pass Level A, B, C or level C1 certificate or C1 Advanced (former Cambridge English: Advanced, CAE) Pass Level A, B or C
  • No expiry date for test result.
• National Certificate of Language Proficiency Skill level 5 in the following subtests; reading, writing, listening and speaking
  • Upload a copy of the National Certificate of English Language Proficiency by Finnish National Board of Education to the electronic application. University of Oulu will verify the results from the test organiser.
  • No expiry date for test result.
• Bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree in English in a university or university of applied sciences in an EU/EEA country, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, or the United States, excluding online degrees and offshore campuses.
  • Upload a copy of the transcript of records of the bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree conducted in the English language to the electronic application. If original document is not issued in English, Finnish or Swedish, translation to one of the languages is also required.
• 20 ECTS credits of studies conducted in English at a Finnish university or a university of applied sciences.
  • Upload a copy of the transcript of records from a Finnish university or university of applied sciences in Finnish, Swedish or English, clearly stating the courses completed in English to the electronic application.
  • Studies conducted in English at a university abroad e.g. during student exchange are not accepted.
• Statements of skills from the proposed principal supervisor and one independent scientist (anglophone or equivalent language skills) at the Oulu University, based on an interview.

Supervision plan, and commitment of supervisors and research unit must be added to the application form in Studyinfo.

• In the supervision plan, doctoral researcher, principal supervisor and co-supervisors agree on the supervisory arrangements, and the process of the doctoral research. Supervision plan advances co-operation between the doctoral researcher and supervisor/s, prevents problems, and clarifies the division of labor between the parties. Supervision plan is based on the recommendation to the universities by The Finnish National Board on Research Integrity and Universities Finland UNIFI.
• Supervision plan is recommended to be updated yearly. However, plan is delivered to graduate school only during the application phase.
• Principal supervisor and co-supervisors must commit to the supervision of doctoral researcher. The applicant and the principal supervisor must ensure that the research site has all the necessary resources (supervision and other resources) for the applicant’s doctoral training. In addition, head of the research unit must recommend granting the doctoral study right, and sign the commitment.

UniOGS organises two separate four-month call periods each year:

• Call 1: 1 January - 30 April (at 3.00 pm Finnish time)
• Call 2: 1 July - 31 October (at 3.00 pm Finnish time)

New applications cannot be submitted outside of the two four-month call periods. New applications submitted during the call periods will be processed at each of the monthly meetings of the Doctoral programme committees, from January to May (Call 1; 5 meetings) and from August to November (Call 2; 4 meetings).

Applications submitted during each call period, but for which the DPC requests further information, will also be processed in the June (Call 1) and December (Call 2) DPC meetings, respectively. In order to be processed at one of the monthly Doctoral Programme Committee meetings, new applications and revised applications must be submitted at least 14 days before the date of the meeting.

Applications that have not been accepted before the next call period opens (or if the applicant has not accepted the study place within 10 days following a positive decision to grant the study rights) will be removed from the admissions system and the applicant will need to submit a complete new application in order to be considered again for admission to the Graduate School.

If you need to search for a suitable principal supervisor and/or co-supervisors, there is the "Oulun yliopisto tutkii" - database (i.e. the "University of Oulu research" -database) containing annually up-dated information on the experts of the University of Oulu and also their other merits and activities. It is possible to make different searches concerning experts and publications, etc.

Another useful source is the open access repository Jultika (maintained by the Publications Services). Jultika contains online versions of publications of the University of Oulu, and you can find almost all of the doctoral theses (electronic versions) that have been written at the University of Oulu.

In most cases the webpages of the Faculties and Units contain a lot of useful information of different research projects and their contact persons (research group leaders).

You can find contact information for personnel from the University of Oulu phonebook.

Also look for suitable open positions in calls for doctoral students.

The University of Oulu has a strong commitment to the development of the research environment and research career: The Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R).

In general, doctoral training is funded by either doctoral programmes of the University of Oulu Graduate School, grants from foundations, carrying out teaching duties at the University, or from the research group/project funds. Before deciding on funding, check if any funded doctoral positions are open amongst the open positions at the University of Oulu, or discuss with your prospective supervisor about the funding. The research plan attached to the application must also include a funding plan, that describes the planned sources of funding for the training (eg. possible grants from foundations, teaching duties, etc). In addition, the other costs directly related to the research project should be taken into account in the Doctoral Training Plan.

You can also find funding sources from both Finland and abroad from the Aurora database. There you will find all the foundations and other non-research funding agencies from which you can apply for a grant for doctoral training, travel, etc. Finnish foundations can also be found from here. Also EDUFI promotes international cooperation and mobility and has a scholarship pool and fellowships for doctoral training.

The University of Oulu provides the following funding options for grants:

• Scholarship Fund of the University of Oulu (link to Patio intranet)
• The University of Oulu Scholarship Foundation
• The Tauno Tönning Foundation and grant system

See also information about the Finland Fellowship Programme for doctoral researchers.

Make sure that you have good-quality, electronically scanned copies of:

• A completed Supervision plan, and commitment of supervisors and research unit form signed by all the proposed supervisors and the head of the University of Oulu's research unit (your principal supervisor can help identify the head of the unit).
• All diplomas and transcripts of the records (color copies of all pages in the original language and, when necessary, official translations to English or Finnish) relevant to the application, including documented evidence of language skills. These documents, required for all applicants, must be compiled into a single PDF document.
• If selected for admission to UniOGS, applicants will be required to present the original copies of all certificates/diplomas mentioned above if they were not obtained from the University of Oulu. Degree certificates/diplomas obtained from some countries may have to be authenticated with some other official documents or stamps (further details will be provided following the decision to grant the study rights).

You may need to consult your proposed Principal Supervisor in order to provide the correct information in some fields of the application form. Such information includes:

• The name of the doctoral degree programme, the major subject, and the doctoral degree for which you are applying for study rights at the University of Oulu. Note that, in order to access the correct application form in Studyinfo online system, you must use the link to the correct doctoral degree programme.
• The faculty and research unit of the University of Oulu in which the doctoral research is to be carried out.
• The full names, titles, affiliations and contact data (phone & e-mail) of the principal supervisor and of any co-supervisors (up to two).
• Information concerning any relevant statements or permits that are required for the doctoral research and that have been applied for, or obtained, from Ethics Committees.

The application form can be completed in multiple sessions, and may be modified at any time before it is submitted. However, once you have started to fill in the form, you must add data to ALL fields indicated with an asterix (*) as being obligatory, as well as the obligatory attachments, before you can “save” the form.

In order to save your completed (or partially completed) application form, click on the “Send” button at the top of the form and follow the instructions provided.

The first time you do this, you will be provided with a link and other information allowing you to access and continue editing your application later, until it is submitted or until the close of the call.

Please note that subsequent clicks of the “Send” button simply result in saving the form in the system: the application will only be submitted when you have followed the submission procedure described below.

Remember to save your data regularly, particularly before you leave the system after modifying the application.

Applications cannot be saved, or submitted, if they lack any information or attachment marked with an asterix (*) as being obligatory.

When your application is complete with all of the required information and attachments and is ready to be submitted, indicate this as follows:

• At the end of the online form (Section 9), select “This application is complete” from the pull-down menu.
• Type the date of submission in the text box provided.
• Click on the “Send” button at the top of the form.

Applications that have been identified as being complete will be processed for admission as described at the deadlines and application process page.

Please note that:

1. Applications that have not been identified by the applicant as being complete (see above) will not be processed before the close of the call. All such applications remaining in the admissions system when the call closes will be considered to be complete and will be processed as such.
2. Changes made to an application after it has been identified as being complete (see above) may not be taken into account.
3. Applications cannot be modified after the close of the call period.

Depending on the date of submission of the application by the applicant, it may take one – two months before the decision to grant the study right is valid.

The applicant must confirm their acceptance of the study right in the Studyinfo online system within 10 days after the decision to grant the study rights has been received (instructions for this will be provided with the decision).

The doctoral study right will start when the applicant has confirmed their acceptance in the Studyinfo online system.

Students who are admitted to the Graduate School will receive further information about the next steps to be taken from the Graduate School at that time, using the contact information provided in the application form.

Foreign students are responsible for making their own arrangements to obtain visas, work permits, etc.

Doctoral researchers who have completed their master's degree outside Finland and have accepted the study place must present their original degree certificate, transcript of records, and identification document. Please make an appointment with your UniOGS coordinator to show the documents (see contact information).