Doctoral Programme in Exact Sciences - Admission Criteria and Instructions for Applicants

• Make sure you are eligible to apply for a study right in the Faculty of Science (under "Who can apply").
• Read the call for applications (found at the bottom of the page).
• Application attachments: Prepare all the required application attachments according to the call for applications. Please note these differ in the spring and autumn calls.
• Funding plan: Prepare a funding plan as a right to study does not include funding or scholarship from the University. In the September call, in addition to a right to study, you can also apply for a fixed-term doctoral researcher position under an employment contract. 
• Degree certificates: Prepare your original degree certificates, original transcripts of study records and other original educational documents for the application. If needed, obtain officially certified copies with English translation.
• Proof of language requirements: If you need to verify your language skills with a language test, make sure that you book your test time well in advance. Instructions for language requirements for right to study for a doctoral degree and when is a language test not required.

October call for applications 2024:

In the October call, it is possible to apply for a right to pursue a doctoral degree. An applicant has to agree with supervisors and a research director about supervision and research plan before the application can be made. This means that you must contact potential supervisors and make a supervision plan and a research plan in collaboration with them.

You will need to include a signed supervision plan with your application.

What is the supervision plan?

• The supervision plan is a plan that you make together with your potential thesis supervisors and your research director (see the Faculty of Science Code of Conduct for information about their roles).
• The blank supervision plan form can be found under at the bottom of the page.
• Get to know the research and potential supervisors:
  • Research and Personnel at the Department of Chemistry
  • Research and Personnel at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics
  • Research and Personnel at the Department of Physics and Astronomy
  • Research at the Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA)
  • Research at the Turku PET Centre
  • Research at the Turku Research Institute for Learning Analytics 
• A few rules about potential supervisors and research directors in the Faculty of Science: 
  • A doctoral researcher should have a research director, a principal supervisor and at least one other supervisor.
  • The research director should have an employment contract to the department where the major subject of the doctoral degree is based and the title of the research director should be a professor. In an exceptional case, if there is no professor available, an associate professor can be nominated as a research director.
  • The principal supervisor should be a professor, associate professor, assistant professor or adjunct professor/docent and in most of the cases have an employment contract to the University of Turku. Other supervisors should hold a doctoral degree.

September call for applications 2024 (call closed):

In the September call, it is possible to apply for both (1) a right to pursue a doctoral degree and (2) a fixed-term doctoral researcher position under an employment contract.The application process of having the right to pursue a doctoral degree has two application phases:

1. In the first phase, the applicant submits an application (the electronic form on My StudyInfo) where they describe themselves and their plans regarding the doctoral studies and a dissertation. The doctoral programme evaluates all the applications and checks the eligibility of the applicant, how the applicant’s research topic interests fit the profile of the programme, and assesses the merits of the applicants. Moreover, the doctoral programme checks if it can offer two suitable supervisor and research director to the applicant. The most competitive applicants for whom the programme can offer two supervisors will be invited to the second phase.
2. In the second phase, together with supervisors the applicant compiles a second phase application which includes a research, funding and supervision plans.

• Read the Call for applications (found under "Applications documents and guidelines") carefully before filling in the electronic application.
• Make sure you have attached all the required attachments (see the call for applications).
• Technical issues in applying for the doctoral researcher position under an employment contract? How to submit a job application in TalentAdore service

The application attachments differ in the autumn and spring calls. Attach the required documents in PDF-format to your electronic application form, unless otherwise stated. Please read the call for applications carefully to check which documents are mandatory for you.

Curriculum vitae (CV) including list of publications

Link to instructions by the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK) for writing a CV. You can also choose to do a free-form resume. Links to instructions about the list of publications format in English and in Finnish.

Research plan (recommended to be written in English)

The maximum total length of the research plan is 3 pages (including references). The research plan should contain:

• Name of the applicant
• Planned title of the doctoral dissertation
• Research topic in the context of the field
• Scientific motivation and goals
• Methods and environment of the research
• Applicants own role and specialization in the study
• Timetable of research
• Current state of doctoral thesis and postgraduate studies.

The research plan should follow the guidelines for the responsible conduct of research (see Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) | Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK). The research plans can be checked with the Turnitin OriginalityCheck plagiarism detection software. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in the preparation of the research plan in a wider role other than checking grammar or generating short expressions should be clearly indicated in the research plan.

Motivation letter

The motivation letter is one page long freeform document, which includes the reasons for applying for the doctoral studies in the EXACTUS Doctoral Programme and for conducting research. If you have a right to study for a doctoral degree at another university or in another doctoral programme at the University of Turku, you must provide reasons for changing over to the EXACTUS doctoral programme in the motivation letter. A doctoral researcher may have only one doctoral degree study right at the University of Turku at a time.

1. Degree certificates and transcripts of study records
2. If you have completed your former degree(s) that make you eligible for doctoral studies at a higher education institution in Finland, you must attach the following items to the electronic application form:
   1. scanned or electronic original degree certificates
   2. scanned or electronic original transcripts of study records
   3. scanned original or electronic other educational documents which may be of relevance in the student selection and that you are applying based on.
3. If you have completed your former degree(s) that make you eligible for doctoral studies at a higher education institution abroad (i.e. outside of Finland), you must attach the following items to the electronic application form:
   1. scanned or electronic original degree certificates (in the language that the degree was completed in)
   2. scanned or electronic original transcripts of study records (in the language that the degree was completed in)
   3. scanned or electronic other original educational documents which may be of relevance in the student selection and that you are applying based on.
4. If the degree that gives eligibility for the study right for a doctoral degree is not completed by the deadline of application time, a scanned or electronic up-to-date transcript of study records must be attached to the application.

If the original degree certificates or transcripts of study records 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 and a translation made by an authorised translator. A transcript in English can be replaced by a Diploma Supplement (DS) awarded by a European educational institution, provided that it contains the information about completed courses and other study attainments.

Supervision plan signed by supervisors, a research director and the applicant

A supervision plan is a mandatory attachment of the application. A link to the EXACTUS admissions website where the supervision plan form is found.

Verification of language proficiency

The University of Turku follows the Rector’s decision (15 Aug 2019) on the means of verifying one’s language proficiency. You must carefully study the instructions on language requirements of the University of Turku. Link to the language requirements on the website of the University’s graduate school. The language test result is a mandatory attachment of the right to study application, if not otherwise stated in the University of Turku graduate school web page. If you are required to prove your language proficiency with a language test, a scanned certificate of a completed language test must be attached to the application.

Copy of a valid passport

Attach a copy of your valid passport or official identification card with photo and information on citizenship. If you have a Finnish personal identity code and you have entered it on the application form, you do not need to attach a copy of your passport. 

The University of Turku follows the Rector’s decision (15 Aug 2019) on the means of verifying their language proficiency.

Please check the language requirements and whether you will need to provide a proof of language proficiency from the University’s graduate school website.

Please note! If the applicant is required to prove their language proficiency with a language test, a scanned certificate of a completed language test must be attached to the application.

Prepare to deliver your original or originally certified degree certificates to the University of Turku if you are granted the right to study a doctoral degree.

Instructions on delivering certificates and country-specific requirements on the Information for admitted students page.