Approval = requesting approval for the modules in Sisu
Confirmation = confirmation of the whole credit plan PDF

Credit plan is your plan for what kind of courses and individual studies you will include in your degree. You make your credit plan at sisu.aalto.fi. Your supervising professor is able to view your credit plan in Sisu, but the confirmation process takes place outside the Sisu system. Follow the technical and practical Sisu instructions and check out the approval and confirmation process below.

Sisu instructions: Credit plan (Sisu) for doctoral students

How to choose courses for your credit plan?

1. Think about the skills and competences you need to complete your doctoral thesis in the topic you have chosen.
2. Read your doctoral programme's degree requirements carefully to check out for any possible compulsory courses or recommended studies.
3. Take a look at what else is offered at Aalto University's doctoral curriculum and also in other relevant universities in your field, if necessary.
4. Then discuss your plans with your supervising professor and modify them accordingly.

Taking courses in other universities / substituting compulsory courses

You will need to request for approval and apply for confirmation of your credit plan if you plan to take studies in other universities or substitute some of the compulsory courses.

See more information at Credit transfer: inclusion of studies from other universities

Apply for confirmation of your credit plan:

1. Take a PDF or screen shot of your whole credit plan in Sisu*
2. Send it to your supervising professor by email, asking them to confirm it. Please cc your Doctoral programme's Doctoral education services in the email.

*study drafts are not visible on the PDF version of the credit plan

Please note that approval for the modules of a credit plan that includes study drafts is conditional and you must request for final approval and confirmation after you have received the credits.

Final approval and confirmation at the end of studies

After all the courses you want to include in your degree are completed and registered:

1. Make sure that your credit plan follows the the degree requirements of your doctoral programme – if you are unsure, you can contact your Doctoral programme's Doctoral education services
2. Request for approval for all the modules that Sisu requires approval for (“approval required”)
3. Apply for the final confirmation of your whole DPSP, including the credit plan, see below (Confirmation for DPSP, 5 parts). You need the confirmation before you can start the pre-examination of your thesis manuscript.

If you already have previously confirmed old study/credit plan (e.g. PDF) and your Sisu credit plan’s content is exactly the same, you do not need to apply for confirmation outside Sisu, but you do need to request approval for the modules within Sisu.

Before requesting for approval of the modules, please check that

• Each course is included in the correct module (check the curriculum)
• You have added your doctoral thesis code under the module “Doctoral thesis” and it corresponds to your research field.
• There are no courses under Extracurricular studies (if there are, please remove them)
• There are no selections missing or against the rules or other error notifications in red

Sisu instructions: Credit plan (Sisu) for doctoral students

The research plan usually includes the following elements:

• Title
• Research aim, research questions or objectives
• Theoretical background
• Implementation: Methodology & methods
• Schedule (figure or table for four years if full-time student)
• Publication & dissemination
• References

Template for research plan at Aalto University:

Doctoral student forms (aalto.fi)More resources:

Research plan structure, Academy of Finland's instructions (aka.fi)Guidelines for research plan template, Academy of Finland (aka.fi)Aalto’s guidance and support on research data planning (aalto.fi)

BIZ: Note that in BIZ, students prepare their research plan at the beginning of their second year of study.

The aim of this supervision plan is to decide on the practicalities of the supervision. The supervision plan explains the responsibilities of the supervising professor, thesis advisor(s) and of the doctoral student during the supervision process.

Supervision plan template:

Doctoral student forms (aalto.fi)More information on doctoral supervision (aalto.fi)

Financing plan is a free format document including the following information:

1. Secured funding
   • The source of funding
   • The amount of funding
   • Start and end dates of secured funding
2. Plans of securing funding until the end of your studies
   • Where from do you plan to apply for more?
   • How much is needed?
   • For how long do you need more funding?

More information on funding your doctoral studies (aalto.fi)

Career plan is a free format document about your future career plans, career possibilities and goals. Use the following questions as a guide:

1) What are my interests and skills?
2) What is my personality like?
3) What are my values?
4) Which organizations, careers, and jobs would fit my skills and interests? 
5) What are the key competencies and skills necessary to reach my goals and how to get training for these competencies?
6) Which languages do I need in working life in the future (eg. Finnish in Finland)? Should I take language courses during my studies?
7) Which steps will help me achieve my career goals? What kind of timeline do I plan for these steps?

You can find material for your career planning from  

• Career Design Lab (aalto.fi)
• Career design for doctoral students (aalto.fi)
• Aalto Career Course for Doctoral Students D, LC-L1013 (1ects)
• EURAXESS Career development E-tool webpage.
• Book an appointment for career coaching or apply to take part in coaching process: Career coaching (aalto.fi). You can talk to a career coach and identify your next steps towards a meaningful career. If you would like to reflect on your career aspirations more in depth, you can apply for the coaching process. It consists of a maximum of 5 meetings and the content will be adapted to your needs. This coaching is targeted to students with 1-2 years left of their studies and provided by Aalto specialists trained in coaching.
• Book an appointment with Career planning psychologist (into.aalto.fi). Career counselling psychologist specializes in career management issues and supports you in career and life planning, and transition to work. Career counselling supports you in self-knowledge, building a meaningful career, identifying opportunities, and making decisions.

At the beginning of your studies and before pre-examination (and in case of major changes, see more information below):

1. Prepare the five parts of the DPSP, discuss them with your supervising professor and revise them if necessary. Please note that some parts of the plan, such as the Supervision plan, require a discussion with both your supervising professor and thesis advisor(s).
2. Upload the discussed DPSP to MyStudies as one PDF document for your supervising professor’s confirmation (Task 6 in MyStudies).*
3. Email your supervising professor to inform them that your DPSP is ready to be checked and confirmed. The supervising professor will only look at the Task 6 that includes the final pdf (including all the five parts).
4. Your supervising professor confirms the DPSP by saving it to the Notes in MyStudies. If there are issues, your supervising professor will contact you.

* New doctoral students need to first receive an email invitation to start using the MyStudies system for their DPSP - before receving the invitation you cannot submit your DPSP to the system. If you haven't received the invitation and need to confirm your DPSP, please contact your Doctoral programme's Doctoral education services.

Your DPSP is confirmed at least twice during your studies:

1. Together with the admission decision or at the beginning of your studies, depending on your Doctoral Programme
2. At the end of your studies, before pre-examination

In between, you should confirm your DPSP e.g. if:

• Your supervising professor, advisor(s), research topic or research field changes
• Your funding situation changes significantly
• You are taking courses in other universities.

In case you make changes to your credit plan (Sisu), please see "Credit plan (Sisu)" above.

1. Check your doctoral programme's curriculum to know if and how many custom course credits can be included in your degree.
2. Discuss with your supervising professor what kind of individual studies you would need.
3. Include the planned individual studies in your credit plan in Sisu as study drafts.

Sisu instructions: Credit plan (Sisu) for doctoral students: Study draftsThe supervising professor decides the amount of credits to be given for each individual study attainment (check your curriculum for possible restrictions). 1 ECTS is equivalent to roughly 27 hours of work. Please note that any work cannot be compensated multiple times: if e.g. a conference paper will be included in the thesis, it is not possible to get credits from it.

Note that you should NOT combine study attainments; each attainment should be registered individually. For example, if you have written three articles, and your supervising professor will give one ECTS for each, you should apply for a custom course credit for each of them separately. Half credits cannot be registered, only whole numbers of credits. Only if the attainment is worth 0,5 ECTS, it is acceptable to combine attainments, so that the ECTS amount is a whole number.

If you have individual studies that have been completed and registered before Sisu was in use, you can add them to your cerdit plan just like any regular courses you have completed, by using the Add to the plan -function on the right side of your study plan.

For those individual studies that you have completed, but which have not been registered (i.e. you have not received credits for them in Sisu/Oodi), you need to

1. Fill out the Custom course credit form and get your supervising professor's confirmation and evaluation.
2. Apply for a custom course credit in Sisu, either through an existing study draft or directly, if you haven't previously made a study draft of this individual study (see link to technical Sisu instructions below).
3. Attach the Custom course credit form to the application in Sisu.

Doctoral student forms (aalto.fi)

Sisu instructions: Substitution and inclusion of studies on Sisu (custom course credit)