Being a supervising professor or thesis advisor at Aalto University

The supervising professor is in charge of the supervision arrangements for the doctoral student. The supervising professor is obligated to supervise those doctoral students who have enrolled as attending students, who have progressed in their studies according to their doctoral personal study plans, and who report on the progress of their studies on a regular basis. The supervising professor may either propose to assign some of the duties mentioned below to the thesis advisor(s) or also propose to act as the thesis advisor him/herself. The supervising professor agrees upon the division of responsibilities between him/herself and the thesis advisor(s), and the duties of each party are stated in the supervision agreement. What is said below of the duties of the supervising professor shall apply, as appropriate, also to the thesis advisor(s), where compliant with the division of responsibilities specified in the agreement.

The supervising professor is responsible for the supervision of the doctoral student and supports the implementation of the financing plan. The supervising professor provides guidance in the execution of the research and instructsthe doctoral student in critical and independent thinking in research and artistic activities. The supervising professor encourages the doctoral student to actively publish his/her research results in the publication for a of the field of research/art in question, and guides him/her in publication writing. The supervising professor supports and encourages the doctoral student. The supervising professor is also responsible for ensuring that full-time doctoral students are not burdened excessively with duties other than doctoral research work. Participation in teaching is, however, part of doctoral education and as such obligatory for the doctoral student (max 5%).

The supervising professor goes through and approves the doctoral personal study plan (DPSP) of the doctoral student.

In addition, the supervising professor follows up on the progress of the studies and that of the research work on a regular basis: the supervising professor and the student discuss the progress of the studies on a regular basis, and the doctoral personal study plan is updated accordingly as necessary. At minimum, the plan is checked once a year. This follow-up requirement concerns full-time and part-time doctoral students in doctoral programmes.

The supervising professor is responsible for ensuring that the doctoral student is aware of good scientific practice and the ethical principles followed in his/her field of research as well as of the regulations concerningimmaterial property rights, and monitors that the student adheres to such principles. To this end, the supervising professor and the doctoral student have a discussion at the start of their supervision relationship in order to look into the questions of research ethics and related practices relevant to the work of the student.

The supervising professor is responsible for ensuring that the doctoral student is aware of the requirements for a doctoral thesis and of the stages included in the preliminary examination and the public examination of the thesis. When the manuscript of the doctoral thesis is complete, it may only be submitted for preliminary examination after the supervising professor has issued a statement confirming that the manuscript is ready for preliminary examination. The supervising professor makes sure that the doctoral student makes the necessary corrections proposed to the doctoral thesis manuscript by the preliminary examiner(s). The preliminary examination can only start when course requirements are fulfilled.

The supervising professor assists the doctoral student in career planning, and ensures that the doctoral studies and research process equip the doctoral student with not only research skills but also transferable skills.

When starting doctoral studies, the doctoral student commits to long-term and goal-oriented study and research. The doctoral student has a right to study in accordance with the doctoral personal study plan and to receive knowledgeable guidance in his/her studies on a regular basis. In return for such guidance, the doctoral student commits to studying in accordance with the doctoral personal study plan. Eligibility for supervision also requires enrolling as an attending student at the university. In addition, the doctoral student commits to acting in compliance with the guidelines of the National Advisory Board on Research Ethics on good scientific practice.

The responsibilities of the doctoral student are:

• preparing, in collaboration with the supervising professor, a doctoral personal study plan (DPSP) for doctoral studies at the start of the doctoral studies and updating it as necessary;
• negotiating with the supervising professor on the choice of research topic and preparing a thorough research proposal under the supervision of the supervising professor; giving an account of the objectives, contents, methods and schedule of the research;
• familiarising him/herself with the ethical principles of scientific research and acting in compliance with good scientific practice in his/her research;
• carrying out research independently and in a self-directed manner in accordance with the research proposal and within the limits of the research project, and actively publishing results in the publication fora of the field;
• providing teaching related to the research field and communicating the results of his/her research to others;
• aiming at, together with the supervising professor, securing funding for the doctoral studies;
• reporting on the progress of the research to the supervising professor on a regular basis;
• notifying the supervising professor of any changes necessary to the study plan, or of any problems with following the plan and annually enrolling at the university.

Under the Aalto funding model, the schools receive result-based funding based on the number of doctoral degrees awarded. Aalto University has agreed to enable the division of doctoral education results between its schools for the purposes of resource allocation under the Aalto funding model, in cases where the degree is produced jointly by two schools. The change is designed to boost doctoral-level collaboration between the Aalto schools and further the Aalto strategic goal of promoting multidisciplinary research.

It should be noted that the division of degrees is only a statistical tool developed for the purposes of the funding model. For the funding model the degree is divided so that both schools earn 0.5 degrees. The division of degrees does not have any other effects on the school-level statistics on doctoral degrees.

The division of doctoral degrees for funding purposes between the Aalto schools requires clear evidence of collaboration. Dividing a degree follows uniform principles in the university:

• The doctoral student and the supervising professor are from the same school. In addition to the supervising professor, the doctoral student must have a co-supervising professor at the partner school.
• A person who can act as a supervising professor in his/her own school can also act as a co-supervising professor.
• The supervising professor and the co-supervising professor draft a joint proposal for dividing the degree between the schools in which the research work is done (evidence of collaboration). The freely formulated signed proposal and the supervision plan is sent to the doctoral programme of the school of the doctoral student.
• The proposal must be made as early in the studies as possible (preferably with the application for doctoral studies).
• The decision on dividing the doctoral degree with the partner school rests with the dean of the school of the doctoral student (since this school “gives up” 50% of the result-based funding for this degree). The decision of the dean is communicated to the doctoral programme of the partner school.
• The doctoral student carries out the doctoral studies according to the process of his/her school and the degree will be awarded to the doctoral student only from his/her own school.
• Only the name of the school of the doctoral student is mentioned on the doctoral thesis cover, but on the reverse of the title page the name of the co-supervising professor should be mentioned. The collaboration of the two schools can be mentioned e.g. in the preface or in the introduction part of the doctoral thesis.

If changes need to be made to the supervisory arrangements of the doctoral student (e.g. if the topic of the doctoral thesis changes or the supervising professor retires or another advisor needs to be appointed), the change must be officially confirmed. The supervising professor should contact the doctoral education services of the doctoral programme for more instructions.

If you have a double role as both the supervisor and the supervising professor / thesis advisor of a doctoral student, please see the information below.

• Onboarding guide for new employee
• Researcher onboarding
• Information on well-being at work (e.g. occupational health care)

• Human Resource services at Aalto University

Equality, diversity and inclusion at Aalto

Tips, toolkits and inspiring reads for fostering diversity (Learning hub on diversity and inclusion)

UNIPS (University Pedagogical Support) “Being a thesis supervisor” module (external link)

Aalto Pedagogical training Doctoral supervision (3 ECTS)

More information on UNIPS online courses

Findocnet.fi (Transferable skills study opportunities, external link)

Recommendations for doctoral thesis supervision by the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (TENK) and Universities Finland UNIFI (external link)

Accepting new doctoral students

New doctoral students are accepted to the Aalto Doctoral Programme in Arts, Design and Architecture only once a year, with the application period in March for studies starting in September. Application is competitive, typically only about 25%-30% of the applicants are selected.

Exception: If the Department receives external funding for doctoral candidate's position, it is possible to handle their applications to the doctoral programme in continuous application. In such cases the Head of the Department and the Planning Officer for the doctoral programme must be contacted well in advance before the Open position call is published. In such case the applicants first apply for the open position and only the selected applicant applies for the study right in the doctoral programme in the continuous application.

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.

If the applicant is asking if a certain professor could act as their supervising professor, we cannot give promises outside the actual application, but professors can give their opinion about whether or not they would be suitable supervising professor for that particular research topic. It is recommended to let the Head of Research know about such applicants as well.

Link to instructions for the applicant

Studying from abroad

The Doctoral Programme is mostly structured so that is beneficial for the doctoral students to be present in the Helsinki region. We encourage doctoral students to spend as much of their study time as possible in the Helsinki region, to be able to connect to the Department's research community and complete the required courses.

Visiting students and researchers

Department can host a limited number of visiting researchers per semester, depending on the overall situation of the department. All visitors must have a confirmation from a host professor before applying. Visiting Researcher should have preferably secured funding for the duration of the visit before applying for this position. Visiting Researcher is expected to undertake research and publication in collaboration with Department's personnel and independent research.

More information at Workday

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.

Link to instuctions for the applicant

Accepting new doctoral students

• There are application calls two times a year for doctoral study right at our Doctoral Programme.
• Sufficient language skills of the applicant are very essential part of the qualifications. See if your student needs to present language certificate!

• Full-time students are expected to complete their degree within four years.

• The supervising professor and the applicant shall go through the applicant’s research plan, study plan, supervision plan and funding resources.

• The supervising professor submits the recommendation letter and together with the thesis advisor their sign the form for supervision plan.

• The original master's degree certificate of the applicant is needed for the registering the new student and the granted study right'

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.

Link to instuctions for the applicant

Admission of new doctoral students

• Application period to doctoral studies is once a month, except for in July (both for full-time and part-time applicants).

• Full-time students are expected to complete their degree within four years.

   Read more

• The supervising professor and the applicant shall go through the applicant’s research plan, study plan, supervision plan and funding plan.

• When signing the research proposal of the applicant, the supervising professor commits him/herself to supervising the thesis.  Please read the supervision of doctoral candidates section below.

• The original master's degree certificate and transcript of the applicant are needed before admission. If the applicant has completed his/her Master's degree outside Aalto University, please make sure that the applicant brings along either certified copies or the original degree papers and translations of them (if they are not in Finnish, Swedish or English) when he/she comes to Finland. Regular copies/colored, scanned pdf versions are not sufficient!

• Sufficient language skills of the applicant makes your job easier! Please check the language test requirements

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.

Link to instuctions for the applicant

Visiting doctoral candidates at Aalto

If you have a visiting doctoral student coming to your research group, please check our guidelines here.

Accepting new doctoral students

• The Doctoral Programme of the School of Engineering can be applied twice a year.
• The supervising professor and the applicant shall go through the applicant’s research plan, study plan, supervision plan and funding. Full-time doctoral students must be able to spend 80 % of their working hours on doctoral studies. Those applying for a full-time study mode must write a funding plan. Full-time students are expected to complete their degree within four years.
• By recommending an applicant as a doctoral student, the supervising professor will commit to act as the applicant’s supervising professor throughout the doctoral studies
• If you're recommending an applicant who has completed his/her Master's degree outside Finland, please make sure that the applicant brings along either certified copies or the original degree papers when he/she comes to Finland (if the papers are not sent via regular mail). Regular copies/colored, scanned pdf versions are not sufficient!

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to the Learning Services of the Doctoral Programme in Engineering to be answered.

Link to instuctions for the applicant

Temporal study right for visiting doctoral candidates at Aalto

• It is possible for a visiting international doctoral student, to get a temporal study right at Aalto to be able to take courses while here at Aalto. A general requirement is that the doctoral student is enrolled at his/her home university and the traineeship is part of his/her doctoral degree at the home university (e.g. research work for the doctoral thesis).

• If your doctoral student would need a temporal study right at Aalto, please ask your doctoral student to contact the doctoral programme learning services

Accepting new doctoral students

• There are application times once a month (except in July).
   
• Information about applying to Doctoral Programme in Science
   
• Full-time doctoral students are expected to complete their degree within four years. They must be able to spend 80 % of their working hours on doctoral studies. For part-time doctoral students the study time is longer, up to 8 year.
   
• The supervising professor and the applicant shall go through the applicant’s research plan, study plan, supervision plan and funding plan (incl. in the research plan).
   

• The supervising professor commits by the above mentioned forms and the thesis advisor commits by signing the supervision plan. By signing the forms the supervising professor commits to act as the applicant’s supervising professor throughout the doctoral studies. Please read the supervision of doctoral students section below.

• The original master's degree certificate and transcript of the applicant are needed, if the applicant's degree is outside Aalto University. If the applicant has completed his/her Master's degree outside Finland, please make sure that the applicant brings along certified copies or the original degree papers when he/she comes to Finland. Regular copies/colored, scanned pdf versions are not sufficient!

• Sufficient language skills of the applicant make your job easier!

Applicant requests

All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.

Link to instuctions for the applicant

Visiting doctoral students at Aalto

• It is possible for a visiting international doctoral student to get a temporal study right at Aalto to be able to take courses while here at Aalto. A general requirement is that the doctoral student is enrolled at his/her home university and the traineeship is part of his/her doctoral degree at the home university (e.g. research work for the doctoral thesis).
   
• If your doctoral student would need a temporal study right at Aalto, please ask your doctoral student to contact the Student Services of the Doctoral Programme.

Teaching doctoral students follow the same principles as all other teaching leading towards a degree offered by Aalto University: it is planned and offered in the 2-year curriculum planning cycle, following the University's guidelines and schedules.

Each doctoral programme has it's own curriculum, which consists of the degree requirements and course descriptions approved by the Academic Committee of the School, and which follows the degree structure presented above.

Courses aimed for doctoral students bear the letter 'L' in their course code.

If you are interested in offering a course for doctoral students in your School, contact the planning officer of your School and note the 2-year planning cycle.

Curriculum decision making 2022-2024 at Aalto

Course practicalities for teachers

Before pre-examination

It is responsibility of the supervising professor to

• ensure that the doctoral student is aware of the requirements for a doctoral thesis and of the stages included in the preliminary examination and the public examination of the thesis
• confirms that the authors contribution description written by the doctoral student in the doctoral thesis is correct and also, if applicable, that the clarification of subcontracting is correct.
• find two independent pre-examiners for the doctoral thesis

During pre-examination

After the pre-examiners have been appointed, the Doctoral Programme staff (in BIZ, Department's secretary) will send them further instructions and the manuscript.

When the statements have arrived the Doctoral Programme sends them to the doctoral student and the supervising professor.

After pre-examination

It is responsibility of the supervising professor to make sure that the doctoral student makes all the necessary corrections to the thesis manuscript that have come up as a result of the pre-examination process.

The Doctoral Programme Committee grants the permission for public defence (i.e. permission for publishing the dissertation and to proceed to the defence). The opponent can be appointed directly after the pre-examination stage, if all the needed details are available.

It is recommended to utilize Turnitin to get a similarity report of the text in the doctoral thesis in order to help doctoral students learn scientific writing and avoid unintentional or intentional plagiarism.

Turnitin is available in MyCourses, where each professor can have a ready-made workspace for thesis supervision (referred as “MyCourses” later on): How to order and use the MyCourses workspace for dissertation supervision

A doctoral student can submit all the versions of their journal articles / conference papers and thesis drafts to the supervising professor through the workspace in MyCourses. The Turnitin similarity reports are generated automatically on every submission. If the professor is responsible for several doctoral thesis, all submissions of all doctoral students can be viewed in the same workspace.

Inclusive usage of Turnitin in the supervision of doctoral theses is one way to ensure ethical scientific writing in Aalto University.

1. Draft versions of the doctoral thesis

The purpose of using Turnitin for draft versions  is to improve the scientific writing of the doctoral student and to prevent unpleasant surprises later in the process.

• The doctoral student submits a draft version in a "Draft" activity in MyCourses.
• The supervising professor can utilize the Turnitin report for assessing the draft. At the same time, they can also give feedback to the doctoral student with the Turnitin feedback tools or with some other preferred tool.
• The doctoral student revises the draft with help of the Turnitin report and the feedback from the supervising professor.

2. Final version of the doctoral thesis to be sent for pre-examination

The purpose of using Turnitin on the final version of the thesis manuscript to be sent for pre-examination is to check that it does not contain plagiarism.

• The doctoral student submits the final version again in the "Draft" activity in MyCourses
• The supervising professor interprets the Turnitin similarity report at the same time as they assess other aspects of the content.
  • If the interpretation of the Turnitin report indicates plagiarism, a procedure of handling plagiarism is started (this unfortunate step is unlikely if Turnitin has been used with the earlier versions of the doctoral thesis)
• If requested by the School, the professor fills in the Turnitin report ID on the pre-examination form.

3. The final version of the doctoral thesis to be published (permission for public defense has been granted)

The purpose of Turnitin usage for the final version of a thesis is twofold:

• to make sure again that there is no plagiarism in the final version (if the previous steps are done with Turnitin this is highly unlikely and barely needed).
• to secure that the doctoral thesis is protected against plagiarism by others in future. Technically, the aim is to make sure that the final version of the thesis will be indexed in the Turnitin repositories one way or another:
  • a doctoral thesis published in Aaltodoc will automatically be indexed into the Turnitin repositories (most cases).
  • if the doctoral thesis is not published in the Aaltodoc (e.g. in cotutelle cases) the doctoral student should submit the final published version of the thesis in the "Version for grading" activity in MyCourses. In this activity the submission is archived in Turnitin student papers repository.

Guidelines

• How to order and use the MyCourses workspace for dissertation supervision
• The order form for the work space can also be found at mycourses.aalto.fi > Service links > Workspace for thesis supervision
• Aalto University Code of Academic Integrity and Turnitin usage includes the handling procedure in the case of suspected plagiarism

The pre-examinerscannot

• have had significant collaboration, such as co-authored publications, with the doctoral student.

• have had significant collaboration, such as co-authored publications with the supervising professor or advisor of the student, especially during the previous five years.

The pre-examiners cannot

• have co-authored research papers with the doctoral student or supervising professor or thesis instructor or collaborated with in research in the past five years
• have close collaboration with the department of the supervising professor - such as postdoc position at the department within the past five years

For more questions, please contact the CHEM Doctoral Programme Committee.

The pre-examiners cannot

• have co-authored research papers with the doctoral student, supervising professor nor advisor or collaborated with in research in the past five years
• currently be working on one with either of them.
• work in the same school or in the research group for which the doctoral thesis is produced.

As an exception to persons employed by the department are persons within FiDiPro-programme. FiDiPro-professors and FiDiPro-fellows can act as pre-examiners if above-mentioned provisions on the disqualification is taken into account. (Decision of the ELEC Doctoral Programme Committee March 5, 2015).

At least one of the preliminary examiners must be from abroad. If it is reasonable to propose examiner who has complited their degree from the same department as the doctoral student, the proposal must be justified thoroughly and degree has been granted more than five years ago. If supervising professor sets forth a proposal with a examiner from the other Aalto school or same department, there has to be reasonsing included.

The pre-examiners cannot have co-authored research papers with the doctoral student or collaborated with in research in the past five years.

• At least one of pre-examiners should have substantial experience on supervising doctoral students. This should be shown by presenting the pre-examiners’ and opponents’ CV (including a timeline of academic appointments and doctoral student supervision experience) and a separate list of publications (Google scholar or equivalent is satisfactory). 

• When selecting examiners, we wish to remind you how important it is to give full consideration to all genders and members of underrepresented minority groups. 

• The pre-examiners cannot have co-authored research papers with the doctoral student or collaborated with in research in the last five years
• Any joint research papers between the pre-examiners and supervising professor or thesis advisor in the last five years must be unrelated to the doctoral thesis.

Majakka – Doctoral Education Project

Operating within the Water & Development Group, Majakka focuses on co-creating doctoral
education and water research. Its aim is to make doctoral education increasingly systematic and better supervised, and thus to enhance its role in and for the society. The main goals of Majakka was to create a systematic model to support practices and supervision on doctoral education and research collaboration.

Key factors:

• Academic freedom combined with academic responsibilities
• Subsidiarity & co-creation
• Clear roles, goals, and feedback
• T-shaped competence profile and linkages to industry

Key benefits:

1. Diverse research activities and continuous development, excellence reputation
2. Work-life skills, including teamwork, communication and networking
3. Early actions to meet the rising needs, self-organizing culture and activities without professors facilitating and coordinating everything
4. Supervising professors and thesis advisors have active collaboration networks and innovative, proactive team to work with
5. Highly engaged team to apply for external funding
6. Holistic wellbeing and resilience to sudden changes
7. Respect and appreciation of all

Read more about Majakka: Making Waves: Joining forces for better doctoral education in
water research

For any questions regarding Majakka, please contact Postdoctoral researcher Maija Taka
([email protected])