Doctoral thesis at Aalto University
Resources and guidelines for doctoral students and information on doctoral theses at Aalto University.
Keep your doctoral personal study plan updated. It is recommended to go through the plan with your supervising professor at least once a year. You will need to get official confirmation for your DSPS at least twice during your studies: at the beginning and before pre-examination. Apply for confirmation and store your DPSP in MyStudies.
Link to instructions and templates (Beginning your doctoral studies-page)
Sufficient and high-quality supervision based on a relationship between the supervising professor / thesis advisor and the doctoral student is a key quality factor in the doctoral training process. A shared set of university-level principles for the supervision of doctoral students contributes to the equal treatment of all students.
The supervision practices are agreed upon at the start of the doctoral studies in the form of the supervision plan, which is part of the doctoral personal study plan of the student. The supervision plan shall be updated as necessary, for example when the supervising professor or thesis advisor change.
Supervising professor is an Aalto University professor who holds overall responsibility for the degree of the doctoral student and the related supervision arrangements. The supervising professor may also be appointed to act as a thesis advisor.
The aim of supervision plan is to decide on the practicalities of the supervision. It should be a continuously updated document. The supervision plan explains the responsibilities of the supervising professor, thesis advisor(s) and of the doctoral student during the supervision process.
Supervision plan is part of the Doctoral personal study plan. The plan is valid until the scheduled time of graduation. The target time for a full-time student is four years, for a part time student eight years. It must be updated if changes occur in the supervision, for instance if the supervising professor or thesis advisor changes, or if update is requested by one of the parties involved. If the supervising professor is unable to supervise the doctoral student until graduation (e.g. if the supervising professor retires, or has a terminable contract), a successor needs to be nominated.
If you have any questions regarding the supervision responsibilities, you should primarily contact your supervising professor. If necessary, you can also contact the Doctoral education services.
Supervision plan template is available at
When starting doctoral studies, the doctoral student commits to long-term 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. 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. Please discuss also Agreeing on authorship.
The responsibilities of the doctoral student are:
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. 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 funding plan. The supervising professor provides guidance in the execution of the research and instructs the 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 fora 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 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 concerning immaterial 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.
Who can act as supervising professor?
"An Aalto University professor whom an Aalto school has appointed to hold overall responsibility for the degree of the doctoral student and the related supervision arrangements as well as for preparing the supervision plan with the doctoral student. The supervising professor may also act as the thesis advisor." (DRDE Item 1).
A supervising professor must represent the research field (BIZ: major) of the doctoral student and is appointed by the Doctoral Programme Committee of the School. A supervising professor must be a tenure-track professor of the school, though for special reasons, the dean of the School can decide that a non-tenure track professor with a doctor's degree may act as a supervising professor. A retired professor (e.g. Emeritus or Senior Advisor) cannot be appointed as supervising professor.
Who can act as thesis advisor?
A thesis advisor must hold a doctoral degree. However, in ARTS, it is possible to appoint a second thesis advisor, who does not hold a doctor’s degree, based on artistic merit or competence in the area of research.
A co-supervisor may be assigned in exceptional cases because of multidisciplinarity of the doctoral thesis (when also the result of the education, i.e. the degree, can be divided) or in internationally jointly supervised doctoral theses (based on cotutelle agreement).
The co-supervisor shares with the supervising professor the overall responsibility for the degree of the doctoral student and for the related supervision arrangements.
The proposal must be made as early in the studies as possible (preferably with the application for doctoral studies).
In such case, it is the responsibility of the supervising professor and the co-supervisor to draft a joint proposal for dividing the degree between the schools and show 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 Dean of the school of the doctoral students decides about the division of the degree.
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-supervisor 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 your collaboration with your supervising professor does not work, you can always contact the Doctoral education services of your programme and discuss how to proceed. Here are a few choices:
In challenging situations you can turn to Support for challenges during your doctoral studies.
If your supervisory arrangements, research field, thesis topic or full-/part-time status change, your School must officially confirm the change. More information on full-/part-time status (aalto.fi)
Your supervising professor is responsible for your supervisory arrangements and for making sure that you have an appointed thesis advisor. Supervisory arrangements can change e.g. if the supervising professor retires or another advisor needs to be appointed.
First discuss the change with your supervising professor and then submit the application form to the Doctoral education services of your doctoral programme.
The form "Change of supervising professor, thesis advisor, research field or mode of study" is available at
Doctoral student forms (aalto.fi)
Change of supervising professor and / or thesis advisor(s)
Change of research field
Change of topic of the doctoral thesis
Change of status (mode of study)
Resources and guidelines for doctoral students and information on doctoral theses at Aalto University.
The idea of scientific writing with references and source information is to show your own contribution (new research results) in relation to what was already known.
The requirement is that you write in your own words and give credit to the authors of the sources you have utilized. Besides being a skill, this requirement is also an ethical principle. Disregarding this principle means for example unacknowledged borrowing or plagiarism. Plagiarism is not accepted in doctoral theses. You should practice skilful writing and make sure beforehand that your text is following good practices of academic writing.
It is highly recommended to utilize Turnitin in order to identify unintentional and intentional plagiarism.
How to start using Turnitin?
The most fruitful way of taking advantage of Turnitin is to use it in co-operation with your supervising professor. You can check if your supervising professor already has a workspace in MyCourses. If your supervising professor doesn’t have a workspace, they can order a ready-made personal workspace for thesis supervision.
See detailed instructions below.
Aalto University Code of Academic Integrity and Turnitin usage includes the handling procedure in the case of suspected plagiarism
The purpose of using Turnitin for draft versions of the thesis, 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 of the thesis in a "Draft" activity in MyCourses. The supervising professor can utilize the Turnitin report for assessing the draft. At the same time she/he 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. It is also possible to get a Turnitin similarity report on your draft on your own, see Turnitin instructions for independent usage.
The purpose of using Turnitin on the final version of the thesis manuscript to be sent for pre-examination is to check that the thesis sent to the pre-examiners doesn’t contain plagiarism.
The doctoral student submits the final version of the thesis for pre-examination in the pre-examination activity in MyCourses.
The supervising professor interprets the Turnitin similarity report at the same time as she/he assesses other aspects of the content.
The purpose of Turnitin usage for the final version of a thesis is twofold:
Aalto University provides services, instructions and support to help researchers publish their research.
Aalto Current Research Information System (ACRIS) contains information about the up-to-date research and artistic activities of the university. This information is publicly available for everyone through research.aalto.fi portal. Keep your information up to date, showcase your expertise and use your researcher profile as an online CV!
ACRIS instructions (aalto.fi)For help, please contact [email protected].
Open access publishing
Aalto University encourages researchers to publish their research according to open access principles. Aalto University has open access agreements with several publishers, which provide you a possibility to publish your article open access without any cost to you. In addition, ACRIS and research.aalto.fi provide a free platform for green open access publishing.
Open Access Publishing (aalto.fi)Other platforms for promoting your research work and academic researcher career
Good research data management enables open science. Aalto University provides services, instructions and support to help researchers manage their data well. Good data management practices include e.g. ensuring safe, sufficient and backed up storage of research files and clear labeling of files to avoid confusion.
Aalto University has network of Data Agents, who are researchers specializing in research data, based at schools to help researchers with the discipline-specific challenges of research data. Aalto University also provides a broad range of training sessions in research data management and open science.
Research Data Management (RDM) and Open Science (aalto.fi)For help, please contact [email protected]
Aalto University has committed itself to follow the guidelines for ethical principles of research in the humanities and social and behavioural sciences as well as the guidelines for responsible conduct of research, both given by the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (TENK). In addition, Aalto Code of Conduct protects and preserves the Aalto community by clarifying what our common values require in terms of the way we operate. It is a set of standards that the Aalto community has agreed to adhere to in order to live up to our values, uphold Aalto as a community of high integrity and ethics, and ensure a high international standard of research, education and teaching that conforms with ethical principles and responsible research conduct.
LC-L1010 Research ethics for doctoral students (course)Link to TENK's guidelinesAalto University Code of Academic Integrity and Handling Violations Thereof
International mobility is a way to develop your research and build your international network. Mobility may have relevance to future employment prospects but also to developing an international career. Aalto University encourages every doctoral student to spend at least a six months period abroad during their studies.
When you are choosing the destination, your research should be in the foreground. Which universities, conferences or research institutes benefit your research the most? Discuss your options with your supervising professor and/or advisor(s). Professors usually have personal contacts to universities and research institutes abroad.
Mobility is usually financed by external funding: scholarships and grants, as part of a project or an individual fellowship. The funding for long distance destinations must be organized independently. While applying, besides the most obvious organisations, try to find out information of all possible foundations, both national and international. The target country may equally have some scholarships worthwhile applying for.
If you apply within Erasmus+ or Erasmus Global Mobility programme, you are entitled for Erasmus scholarship from Aalto University, which is dictated by the destination and the length of the stay.
Check out the application deadlines for funding well in advance.
What: Visits to universities, research institutes, organisations and industries.
Where to go: Discuss with your supervising professor and/or your advisor(s) about the suitable places for you as they know your research field and should be able to recommend the best option for you. Research visits are not tied to agreements between the universities.
When: There is no definite rule at which stage of a research you should go: it depends on your research and objectives concerning the visit. You agree the timing of your visit period with your supervising professor and the host university.
For how long: The length of the research visit can be anything from one week to several months.
How: Each university has its own system for receiving long-term visitors. Check out their websites and be in contact with their international office and the professors in your field to ask what is the procedure for a research visit. Note that some universities arrange application periods for visiting researchers or scholars.
Important to note: When you go abroad as part of your doctoral education, you need to enroll as an attending student to Aalto University.
What: Course-based studies at partner university of Aalto University, or in some cases, some other university (so called freemover exchange). Usually exchange studies involve both taking courses and advancing your research work.
Where to go? Check from Aalto University's destination database which Aalto's partner universities accept doctoral students. Discuss with your supervising professor and/or your advisor(s) about the suitable places for you. Based on these discussions you may also agree about an exchange to a university that is not partner of Aalto University.
ARTS Destination DatabaseBIZ Destination DatabaseCHEM, ELEC, ENG, SCI Destination Database
When? Exchange periods follow the academic calendar of the host university so the exchange begins usually in the beginning of the academic term/year and ends at the end of the academic term/year.
For how long: The duration of the exchange is from 3 months to 12 months.
How? If you apply within an exchange programme, please check the application periods and instructions.
Important to note: When you go abroad as part of your doctoral education, you need to enroll as an attending student to Aalto University.
For more information: Please contact the Erasmus contact person at your own school.
Taking part in international conferences is also one way of including international elements to your doctoral studies and research and a good opportunity to network internationally. Conferences are excellent opportunities to present your research for the international research community and experts around the world and to map possible future post doc places. Feedback received from your presentation or poster will help to improve and proceed your research work and you get to strengthen your presentation skills. To get the most out of the conferences, make both a plan of your aims concerning the each conference participation and a list of those people you are interested in meeting.
If you plan to get credits from a conference presentation, please check the section "Sisu credit plan - individual studies (custom course credit)" under Doctoral Personal Study Plan (DSPS) (aalto.fi).
If it not possible to go abroad for a longer period during your doctoral studies, short-term international summer and winter schools lasting for one or two weeks are perfect options to network, to get international dimension to your studies and to delve into some specific topic. Even a short period spent abroad discussing with international colleagues can open interesting new viewpoints for deeper understanding of your research field and development of your research.
ARTS doctoral students: In these and other short term exchanges you can apply for ARTS Grant for Short Term Exchanges
Note that you can include studies from other universities in your degree, and you should agree about it with your supervising professor in your Sisu credit plan beforehand. However, credit transfer is only possible if you have received study credits from another university, displayed on a transcript. If you have not received official credits (often in the case of summer schools or seminars), include the studies as individual studies, see more at the section "Sisu credit plan - individual studies (custom course credit)" under Doctoral Personal Study Plan (DSPS) (aalto.fi). Doctoral personal study plan (DPSP), under Sisu credit plan - individual studies (custom course credit).
Doctoral student in the field of ICT may apply to EIT Digital in which it is possible to do a six months’ researcher exchange. EIT Digital Innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) program for doctoral students in the field of ICT gives knowledge and competences to start new businesses and to launch new products and services. The program is composed of four intensive courses, six months’ researcher exchange and six months’ business development experience. All doctoral students accepted to Aalto University that are in the starting phase of their studies can apply. Please contact your supervising professor to enquire if the courses could be part of your doctoral studies. More information from the Doctoral Training Center Helsinki -webpage and local program representatives.
The following feedback is collected from doctoral students:
In addition, you are asked to give feedback for the teacher on each course you take. Your doctoral programme may also ask you to participate in their feedback events or surveys.
The primary target degree for our postgraduate students is the doctoral degree and new students are only admitted to study towards the doctoral degree. However, in the fields of technology and business it is still possible to complete a licentiate degree. We recommend that option in cases where the student and the supervising professor estimate that completing a doctoral thesis is not feasible for one reason or another. Licentiate degree is a way of demonstrating the competences you have acquired during your postgraduate studies, even if you would not be completing a doctoral degree.
Student who aim at a licentiate degree must also have an up-to-date Doctoral Personal Study Plan (DPSP) and studies are confirmed with the same process as when completing the doctoral degree.
A licentiate thesis shall demonstrate good conversance with the field of research and the capability of independently and critically applying scientific research methods.
The research topic of the licentiate thesis is related to the research field of the doctoral student and has been agreed with the supervising professor before starting the thesis.
When the thesis is ready for examination the student requests for confirmation of licentiate thesis topic, language, supervisor, thesis advisor and examiner and examination of licentiate thesis
The application includes the following:
*The licentiate thesis shall include one or two abstracts: one abstract in English and another one in Finnish or Swedish if the author has received his/her high school education in Finland.
Send the application to your School's Doctoral education services.
The licentiate thesis is examined by an independent examiner (CHEM: two examiners). The examiner cannot be from the Aalto University. The examiner must hold at least a licentiate's degree, and they are to present their own, independent evaluation of the thesis. The examiner cannot have a too close relation to the author of the thesis, supervising professor or thesis advisor, so that there will be no doubts of partiality.
The student shall not take part in selecting the examiners; however they have a chance to make a remark on the selection. Before the examiner is appointed, the supervising professor must confirm that they agree to do the examination according to the schedule.
After processing the application and upon its approval by the Doctoral Programme Committee, the Doctoral Programme sends the licentiate thesis manuscript to the examiner(s). The examiner is asked to give their statement within six weeks.
When the examiner's statement arrives, the Doctoral Programme sends the statement to the doctoral student and supervising professor. The doctoral student has up to one year to make the necessary corrections.
The doctoral student sends the corrected licentiate thesis and the clarification of the corrections to the supervising professor, who checks the corrections that have been made.
After the supervising professor has accepted the clarification and the corrected thesis, they will send a short statement of this to the Doctoral Programme. In the statement the supervising professor states that the necessary corrections have been made and that the thesis is ready to be published. If the examiner does not suggest any corrections, the supervising professor will state in the statement that the thesis is ready to be published.
The licentiate thesis is presented at the department. After the presentation the supervising professor sends a freely formulated email to the Doctoral Programme with confirmation of the presentation.
Licentiate theses are published electronically at Aaltodoc. Electronic long-term preservation and open access publishing of licentiate theses is taken care of using an electronic form. The licentiate thesis is a public document; however, in the electronic form you can decide on the degree of publicity of your full-text thesis (PDF/A file) when depositing the file in the archive. You can find more information (incl. what degree of publicity means, how and where the thesis is deposited etc.) on the electronic form.
Learning Centre will publish your thesis at Aaltodoc and helps you with all the necessary permissions needed for electronic publishing.
You can use the Aalto doctoral thesis templates in the contents section of your licentiate thesis, but please note that Aalto Publication Platform should not be used for the licentiate thesis. Cover of the licentiate thesis should be similar to theses published at Aaltodoc.
Approval of licentiate thesis can be applied for from the Doctoral Programme Committee (contact the Doctoral Services of your School) after the licentiate thesis has been published electronically at Aaltodoc. Please check the deadlines for applications from the page of your own doctoral programme.
The Doctoral Programme Committee decides on the approval of the licentiate thesis. The Committee shall evaluate the licentiate thesis based on the written statement of the examiner and other possible written statements, comments or official replies. Grades used when evaluating the licentiate thesis are pass and fail. For the Licentiate of Science (Architecture) the grades for evaluating the thesis are pass with distinction, pass and fail.
After the licentiate thesis has been approved at the Doctoral Programme Committee and the student has applied for graduation in Sisu, the Dean will award the degree if all the required studies have been completed and doctoral student has enrolled as present at the university. The licentiate degree diploma entitles to the title of
Submit the graduation request through your study plan on Sisu. Your graduation request on Sisu should be based on your up-to-date primary study plan towards a licentiate degree. Please note that you must be enrolled as an attending student on your graduation day.
Look at instructions how to request for graduation
Graduation request must be filled at once, it is not possible to stop, save and continue later on. After sending the graduation request you can cancel your request for graduation, edit it or resubmit it if you need to. You can cancel or edit your request for graduation while its status is requested. If the status is in progress, you cannot cancel the request.
Studies after licentiate degree
Normally postgraduate studies are not continued after completing a licentiate degree - if you plan to study towards a doctoral degree, you are not required to complete a licentiate degree in between. However, if after completing a licentiate degree your plans change and you would wish to continue to study towards a doctoral degree, first discuss with your supervising professor about your plans. You don't need to submit a separate application, but you need to remember to keep enrolling to the university in order to not lose your study right.
After licentiate degree, you are very welcome to keep your skills and knowledgre up-to-date with Aalto University Lifewide Learning at lifewidelearning.aalto.fi.
Doctoral education services support doctoral students, supervising professors, thesis advisors and doctoral programme directors in matters related to doctoral studies. Doctoral education services belong to Learning Services.