Consideration of the field of the docentship must be based on section 52, subsection 2 of the Regulations, according to which the title of docent can be granted if it is appropriate for the operations of the faculty or discipline. The field of the docentship should be closely connected to the operations of the faculty or discipline, and it is often appropriate that the field follows the organisation of disciplines established at the faculty. Also possible are, for example, the titles of professorships or assistant or associate professorships connected to the University’s profile building. If the field of a docentship proposed to the chancellor is new at the faculty, the faculty council must justify why the proposed field is appropriate for the operations of the faculty or discipline. The field of the docentship must not be too limited, and specifications made using a phrase such as ‘with a focus on’ or more narrow specialities indicated in brackets must not be used in the titles of docents (Chancellor’s guidelines, 12 May 2024, HY/19207/01.08.03/2020). If the field of the applied docentship is new (the Faculty has no previous docents in the field), the professor or associate professor representing the field at the Faculty must submit a statement to the Faculty Council describing the field and giving grounds for establishing such a docentship.
The field can also be a combination of two fields (e.g., docent of the study of religions as well as sociology) represented by one or more faculties. If more than one faculty is involved, the faculties must ensure that the assessor statements cover the applicant’s scholarly qualifications in both fields. In other words, the assessor statements must cover all of the qualifications required by the field of the prospective docentship (Chancellor’s guidelines, 2024).
Recommendations of the Faculty of Pharmacy for the fields of the title of docent (these fields are not new at the Faculty): biofarmasia (biopharmacy), farmakologia (pharmacology), farmaseuttinen biologia (pharmaceutical biology), farmaseuttinen kemia (pharmaceutical chemistry), farmasian teknologia (pharmaceutical technology), kliininen farmasia (clinical pharmacy), sosiaalifarmasia (social pharmacy) or teollisuusfarmasia (industrial pharmacy).
The Faculty of Pharmacy also requires that applicants for the title of docent have a publication history in addition to an approved doctoral thesis. These publications must be in the field of the docentship and must equal a second good-quality doctoral thesis in terms of scholarly significance and scope.
The Faculty requires that in assessing the competence of an applicant, sufficient attention be paid to whether the applicant:
The Faculty requires that the assessors indicate in their statement explicitly whether the applicant fulfils the requirements for the title of docent. For this reason, the assessors must analyse the scholarly works of the applicant at sufficient length in the statement.
At the Faculty of Pharmacy, docentship applications are accepted once a year. The application period is from 1 to 31 January. The docentship must be applied for in the University’s recruitment portal during the application period. Application link: Currently not available.
The Faculty requires applicants to carry out a self-assessment related to meeting the requirements for the title of docent before submitting their applications. Following the self-assessment, applicants can assess the timeliness and chances of success of applying for a docentship. The response to all of the self-assessment questions does not have to be “yes”, but the majority should be.
Self-assessment on meeting the requirements for the title of docent
Publications
•Has the applicant published articles in international refereed journals after their doctoral thesis without a thesis supervisor YES/NO
•Are the applicant’s postdoctoral publications in the field of applied docentship YES/NO
•Does the applicant have a significant number of postdoctoral publications (typically at least 10) YES/NO
•Is the applicant the first, second or last author in the most central publications of their field YES/NO
Other evidence of an independent research career, research management and skills development
•Has the applicant secured funding for their own research from the Research Council of Finland or Business Finland YES/NO
•Has the applicant secured funding for their own research from other Finnish sources YES/NO
•Has the applicant secured funding for their own research from the European Union or from other international sources YES/NO
•Does the applicant have evidence of managing scholarly research projects YES/NO
•Does the applicant have evidence of completing postdoctoral education in Finland or abroad (e.g., a postdoctoral term) YES/NO
•Does the applicant have evidence of active participation in scholarly conferences in their field in Finland and abroad YES/NO
Teaching skills (please see also the
•Does the applicant have experience of teaching and of developing their own teaching YES/NO
•Has the applicant actively contributed to the supervision of bachelor’s and master’s theses YES/NO
•Has the applicant contributed to the supervision of doctoral theses as the primary supervisor or in a role other than primary supervisor YES/NO
•Has the applicant completed training in university pedagogy or other equivalent training YES/NO
•Does the applicant have evidence of using and producing learning material YES/NO
•Does the applicant have any other teaching merits and qualifications YES/NO
Interest in participating in the operations of the Faculty of Pharmacy
•Is the applicant interested in contributing to or supporting teaching at the Faculty YES/NO
•Is the applicant interested in contributing to or supporting research at the Faculty YES/NO
•Is the applicant interested in contributing to or supporting other Faculty operations YES/NO
1) Applicants who believe their timely applications for the title of docent have the potential to succeed must submit their applications in the University’s application system during the application period. The application documents should be submitted in English in case an international assessor is appointed.
Docentship applications are submitted as a single document composed of the following:
•A title page indicating the name of the relevant field in Finnish and English
•A researcher’s curriculum vitae*
•A report on teaching skills up to four pages in length, in line with the assessment matrix for teaching skills (the teaching skills section of the researcher’s CV may refer to this report)**
•A list of the applicant’s publications and other research output drawn up in accordance with academic bibliographical practices*
•A list of the five most important publications related to the field of the applied docentship and a brief description of the significance of each publication, including links to the publications if open access*** (1–2 pages)
•A description of up to two pages of the applicant’s potential contribution to teaching, research and other operations of the Faculty
•A self-assessment of eligibility for docentship
*Model for a researcher’s CV and list of publications:
**Teaching qualifications must be described in accordance with the Faculty of Pharmacy’s assessment matrix for teaching skills:
***If one of the most important publications is not openly available, it must be submitted in the application system as a separate attachment (max. 5 MB), or a link to it must be provided to OneDrive or other location.
2) After the application period closes, the docentship committee of the Faculty will review the applications and the fields of the docentships as well as decide which applications may proceed. If the field is new, the matter will be handled at the Faculty Council. Otherwise, the matter will proceed directly to external assessment. The purpose of the docentship committee is to make the application process smoother and to harmonise the requirements for docentships at the Faculty. The docentship committee will notify those whose applications are not recommended for consideration by the Faculty Council of the decision, including a brief justification. Potential grounds include insufficient overall teaching qualifications, no evidence of an active and independent research career or an independent research profile and insufficient knowledge in the field of the docentship. Even if the docentship committee does not propose to initiate the docentship assessment process, the presenting official may refer the matter to the Faculty Council if the applicant so wishes.
3) The docentship committee appoints the assessors at the proposal of the Professor or Associate Professor in the field. Assessors must have the qualifications of at least a docent (Professor, Associate Professor, Docent) and be able to assess also the field of the docentship in question. The Faculty recommends that at least one assessor would be from a University.
Assessors assessing the scholarly qualifications of applicants for the title of docent must be impartial and independent. Assessors must come from outside the University of Helsinki. Exceptionally, members of the University of Helsinki’s teaching and research staff can be used as assessors if there are particularly compelling grounds to do so related to, for example, the rarity of the field of the prospective docentship and the limited number of relevant experts; these grounds must be presented in the proposal submitted to the chancellor. Even then, assessors cannot come from the faculty for which the title of docent is sought (Chancellor’s guidelines, 2024).
4) External assessors assess the application from a scholarly perspective, while the Faculty’s teaching skills committee assesses teaching skills.
5) The Faculty Council reviews the docentship application. If the Faculty Council considers the applicant to meet the requirements for the title of docent, it will propose to the Chancellor that the title be granted.
6) The Chancellor decides whether the applicant will be granted the title of docent.
The applicant should note that it takes, on average, about six months from submission of the application to granting of the title.
Chancellor’s decisions on title of docents (dosentit, in Finnish only):