Admissions to doctoral studies
Planning to apply for a doctoral study right in the Doctoral Programme in Science? Good choice! Pay attention to the application deadlines, start preparations in good time, and make sure you've acquainted yourself with the selection criteria before you apply.
Admissions periods
The next application periods are 1st to 16th April 2026 and 20th to 30th July 2026 (University of Helsinki graduates only). Detailed application instructions will be published on this page in early 2026, as well as application periods for academic year 2026-2027.
Who can apply?
Eligibility to apply
Target degrees and faculties
Doctoral Programme's selection criteria
Supervisory arrangements
- Each applicant must have at minimum, a main supervisor and a coordinating academic. The coordinating academic can also be the main supervisor.
- The main supervisor must have a PhD.
- If the candidate applies for a study right from the Faculty of Science, the coordinating academic must be a professor (associate or full professor) or docent, employed by the Faculty of Science, and familiar with University of Helsinki doctoral education practices.
- If the candidate applies for the study right from another faculty, the coordinating academic must come from the same faculty and fulfil the qualification criteria for a coordinating academic at that faculty.
- SciDoc recommends that all PhD researchers have at least 2 supervisors.
- The named supervisor(s) and coordinating academic must have confirmed their commitment to supervise the student in a signed supervision agreement.
- The supervision agreement is submitted when applying for the study right. Applications lacking a signed supervision agreement will not proceed to academic evaluation.The supervision agreement can be electronically signed.
Mikko, can we have a uniform SciDoc template? Here, including a prompt on funding accuracy, as per Anca's suggestion.
Criteria for research plan
Academic success and study plan
Additional language skills