Supervisors
On admission to the faculty, doctoral researchers are appointed a principal supervisor, who has an employment contract to the University of Turku, another supervisor and possible other supervisors. In an exceptional case, the principal supervisor can be a person who does not have an employment contract to the University of Turku. In this case, the principal supervisors has to be a docent of the University of Turku and there has to be another supervisor appointed who has an employment contract to the University of Turku. The principal supervisor should always be at least a docent and the other supervisors should hold a doctoral degree.
The duties of the supervisor are, among others:
- to direct the doctoral researcher in planning and completing the postgraduate studies;
- to direct the doctoral researcher in planning and completing the research and completing the thesis;
- to follow the progress of research and postgraduate studies in accordance with the supervision plan;
- to assist the doctoral researcher in making contact with other researchers in the field and with the users of the research;
- a principal supervisor has to give a statement on the activeness of a doctoral researcher in connection with annual progress reporting;
- to assist the doctoral researcher in applying for funding by providing information on available options;
- to assist in career planning by having an annual discussion on the subject;
- to ensure that a thesis written in a second language undergoes a language check if needed;
- to be responsible for checking the originality of the thesis with the plagiarism detection system.
Research director
On admission to the faculty, doctoral researchers are appointed a research director. Faculty appoints the research director based on the proposal made by the department which is responsible for the research field in question. A person eligible for research director is an employee of the faculty whose title is professor. In an exceptional case, if there is no professor available, the associate professor can be nominated as a research director. The research director has to represent the department/unit where the discipline is connected.
A professor may continue as a research director after they have retired. However, a Professor Emeritus/-ita cannot be appointed as a research director.
The research director may also be one of the supervisors.
The duties of the research director include:
- to monitor the progress of the research work and postgraduate studies annually in collaboration with the supervisor;
- to assume responsibility for the scientific level of the degree;
- to accept the first personal study plan of a postgraduate student and the application for the final grade of the postgraduate studies module. The research director is ensures that the required learning outcomes of postgraduate studies are achieved with the completed postgraduate studies and thesis work.
- to ensure that the thesis as a whole meets the requirements regarding the extent of a doctoral thesis;
- to make a proposal for the pre-examiners, opponent and chairperson (custos) of a doctoral thesis;
- to provide the faculty with a statement approved by the supervisor, research director and student indicating the author’s contribution to the research if the thesis contains joint publications. The statement must also tell whether a part of the thesis has earlier been used in another thesis or if such use is being planned;
- to ensure that the intended final version of the doctoral thesis is delivered to the examiners by the doctoral researcher, supervisor or research director immediately after their appointment
- to ensure that the doctoral thesis is delivered to the opponent by the doctoral researcher, supervisor or research director immediately after the opponent has been appointed;
- to help solve possible cases of disagreement in supervision
Doctoral researcher
The doctoral researcher has the primary responsibility for the progress of their studies. The responsibilities of the doctoral researcher are defined as follows:
- the doctoral researcher carefully prepares for the meetings and follows the agreed schedule;
- the doctoral researcher completes postgraduate studies independently with the supervisor’s support;
- the doctoral researcher annually participates in the agreed number of postgraduate courses and ensures that they are appropriately registered;
- the sdoctoral researcher is responsible for the progress of his/her research work and for informing the supervisor and the doctoral programme on the progress made according to the agreed reporting schedule and in the agreed manner;
- the doctoral researcher informs the supervisor and the research director (+ possible follow-up group) of all changes that considerably affect working conditions, progress of the thesis project or keeping with the agreed schedule;
- The doctoral researcher hands in an annual follow-up report of the doctoral programme.