Doctoral Programme in Social Sciences

The Doctoral Programme in Social Sciences is a collaborative effort between a number disciplines at the University of Helsinki that aims to create the best research environment for doctoral training in social sciences. It covers the widest areas of social science research in Finland.

The disciplines included in the programme offer field-specific teaching and supervision to doctoral researchers. The programme annually organises courses, seminars and other events open to all of its doctoral researchers, including teaching by both international scholars and its own experts.

The programme provides an extensive, interdisciplinary operating environment to support doctoral researchers and their supervisors as well as tools for productive cooperation between disciplines and research communities.
Key Research Areas

The Doctoral Programme in Social Sciences is coordinated by the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Social Sciences, a leading scholarly unit in the field. The Faculty’s comprehensive range of disciplines and broad-based interdisciplinary collaboration provide doctoral researchers with a large international research community. Faculty disciplines included in the programme are global development studies, political history, social and cultural anthropology, social psychology, social work, sociology, economics, economic and social history, social and public policy, political science, and media and communication studies. From other faculties, the programme encompasses area and cultural studies, Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian studies, and human geography. It also includes five research units of the Faculty of Social Sciences: the Centre for European Studies, the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy, the Centre for Consumer Society Research, the Helsinki Institute for Demography and Population Health, the Centre for Social Data Science and the Aleksanteri Institute at the Faculty of Humanities.

Events and Activities

Will be published in the spring 2026.

Courses and Studying

Will be published in the spring 2026.

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