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Being a supervising professor or thesis advisor at Aalto University
Sufficient and high-quality supervision based on a relationship between the supervising professor and the doctoral student is a key quality factor for doctoral education and research. We have approximately 3150 doctoral students at Aalto University. For them, supervision means everything.
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Good supervision allows the doctoral students to complete their studies and the associated research within the time specified in their Doctoral personal study plan. Defining a shared set of university-level principles for the supervision of doctoral students furthers the equal treatment of all students.
The doctoral programme committees monitor and develop the school-level practices of supervising doctoral students in line with the university policy. The supervision principles are defined in a manner that does not regulate supervision in too much detail but allows individual needs to be considered in each guidance case.
Supervision of doctoral studies
Supervision plan, roles and responsibilities, changes of supervision arrangements, research fields and supervising professors at Aalto University, other information and instructions
Supervision resources
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
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 & inviting visitors
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.
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.
Admission of new doctoral students
- New doctoral students are accepted to the Aalto Doctoral Programme in Electrical Engineering once a month, except for in July (both for full-time and part-time applicants).
- Please check the guidelines on how to apply to the Doctoral Programme in Electrical Engineering
- Full-time students are expected to complete their degree in four years and part-time students in 4-8 years.
- The supervising professor and the applicant shall go through the applicant’s research plan, credit plan, supervision plan and funding plan.
- When signing the above-mentioned plans of the applicant, the supervising professor commits him/herself to supervise the doctoral studies. The thesis advisor commits by signing the supervision plan, where the duties are divided between the supervising professor and the thesis advisor. Please read about the supervision of doctoral thesis and the duties of supervising professors and thesis advisors (please scroll down).
- 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
Questions from applicants
All emails from applicants / prospective applicants with questions related to eligibility or instructions for applying should be forwarded to [email protected] to be answered.
Visiting doctoral students at Aalto
A visiting international doctoral student might be eligible for an exchange student study right at Aalto. The study right can only be awarded if the student
- is nominated by their home university as an exchange student and the home university has an active exchange student agreement with Aalto School of Electrical Engineering.
- is enrolled at their home university
- takes courses at Aalto School of Electrical Engineering and the exchange period at Aalto is a part of their doctoral degree at the home university (e.g. research work for the doctoral thesis).
The maximum duration of the exchange study right is one year. For more information and instructions, please contact [email protected].
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 an exchange student study right at Aalto to be able to take courses while here at Aalto if the student's home university has a partnership contract with 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). The maximum duration of the exchange study right is one year. For more information and instructions, please contact [email protected].
- Please note, if the student's home university does not have a partnership contract with Aalto, visiting doctoral students can take courses at Aalto by applying for non-degree study right. More information can be found here.
Double affiliation
It is possible for professors to get a fixed term double affiliation in a partner school at Aalto. The purpose of the double affiliation is to establish research collaboration between schools and to have a double affiliation when applying for funding.
When a professor has acquired the double affiliation agreement with a partner school from Aalto, the research collaboration can also include supervision of doctoral students in the partner school.
A professor may become the only supervising professor of a doctoral student in the partner school if:
- The professor has a double affiliation agreement with the partner school (signed by the department heads of both schools)
- The professor has been assigned to a research field of the partner school for the fixed term of the double affiliation. The professor can be assigned to the research field of the partner school, only if the department head of the department where the research field is located supports this. The professor has to give reasons for this need (e.g. he/she has acquired funding to a project in the partner school)
- The degree and the result of the degree in the funding model will go only to the partner school (i.e. the school of the doctoral student).
Please note:
- The doctoral student and the supervising professor will follow the processes and requirements of the partner school, i.e. the school that has granted the study right for the doctoral student.
- The matters regarding this doctoral student will be processed only in the partner school (i.e. school of the doctoral student).
- The double affiliation professors assigned to a research field at the partner school will not be listed on the research field list at the Into web-pages.
- In cases where a double affiliation professor (fixed term) takes a new doctoral student in the partner school, the supervision plan needs to include the name of a second professor from the partner school (i.e. school of the doctoral student), who is willing to continue as the supervising professor of that doctoral student if he/she has not graduated before the double affiliation agreement has expired.
SCI Doctoral Programme Committee 13 June 2017, updated 20.3.2018
Research collaboration may include collaboration on supervising doctoral students. There are 3 different types of collaboration in supervision of doctoral students:
- one of the collaborators is the supervising professor of the doctoral student (the supervising professor and the doctoral student are in the same school) and the other collaborator is the thesis advisor (partner school). The degree and the result will go to the school of the supervising professor.
- both schools will invest money in the project of the doctoral student (e.g. salary for the student) and thus the result of this doctoral degree will be divided between the schools in the funding model. In this scenario, one professor becomes the supervising professor (same school as the student) and the other professor the co-supervisor (partner school).
- in special cases a professor may become the only supervising professor of a doctoral student in the partner school (school of the doctoral student). This is possible if the professor has a double affiliation agreement to the partner school (please see below).
Doctoral personal study plan (DPSP)
The doctoral personal study plan (DPSP) is a tool for discussing about your doctoral students' plans and agreeing about the framework for their thesis work and your supervisory relationship.
DPSP has 5 parts:
- Credit plan (Sisu) (a plan concerning the content, scope and duration of studies with credits)
- Research plan (free format, Aalto template available)
- Supervision plan (Aalto template)
- Financing plan (free format, separate instructions)
- Career plan (free format, separate instructions)
All doctoral students must have a DPSP and update it when necessary. Supervising professor's responsibility is to yearly follow their students' implementation of all the parts of the DPSP (according to Degree regulations on doctoral education), but keeping up-to-date with the plans of the student more often is recommended.
Supervising professors must confirm their student's DPSP at the start of the studies. After that, they should confirm the DPSP e.g.
- If the supervising professor, advisor(s), research topic or research field changes.
- If the funding situation changes significantly.
- If the student takes courses in another university.
- When the student starts pre-examination, they must have an up-to-date and confirmed credit plan (Sisu) and career plan.
DPSP is collected and stored in the Student Success Hub (interface for faculty) / MyStudies (interface for students).
Student Success Hub for Aalto faculty is used online at https://aalto.my.salesforce.com
Degree structure and curriculum
The doctoral degree at Aalto University consists of 3 modules:
- General research studies
- Research field studies
- Doctoral thesis
The study modules 'General research studies' and 'Research field studies' comprise altogether 40 or 60 ECTS (40 ECTS in the fields of art and design & technology, 60 ECTS in the field of business). The scope and content of each of the study modules are described in the curriculum of the doctoral programme. Credit points are not awarded for the doctoral thesis.
Please check curriculum requirements of your doctoral programme before confirming any DPSPs.
You can advise your doctoral student to find courses from
- Compulsory courses of the doctoral programme
- Other courses offered by the programme / School for doctoral students
- Language and communication courses for doctoral students & Finnish/Swedish courses by Aalto Language Centre
- Courses on transferable skills and competences offered at Aalto
- Courses from other Finnish universities, or from our networks like N5T, Cluster, Unite! etc.
- Aalto University Pedagogical training
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 its 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. Often Master’s level courses bearing the letter ‘E’ in their course code are also planned so that they can be included in doctoral studies.
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.
Doctoral thesis, pre-examination and defence
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
- confirm that the manuscript is ready for pre-examination
- confirm 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.
- strong recommendation: use the Turnitin originality report in their evaluation of the unpublished parts of the thesis in order to notice possible plagiarism (see below)
- agree with the doctoral student about the language revision of the thesis, following their School's guidelines.
- find two independent pre-examiners for the doctoral thesis and ensure their impartiality, see below more information on Proposing pre-examiners and opponents
- fill out the necessary parts on the pre-examination application form (306). Application form available at the page Doctoral student forms.
During pre-examination
After the pre-examiners have been appointed in Doctoral Programme Committee meeting, the Doctoral programme's Doctoral education services (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.
After the pre-examiners have been appointed in Doctoral Programme Committee meeting, the Doctoral programme's Doctoral education services (in BIZ, Department's secretary) will send them the manuscript with further instructions. The instructions linked below can also be used to explain the responsibilities of a pre-examiner to potential examiners.
ARTS instructions
BIZ instructions
CHEM instructions
ELEC instructions
ENG instructions
SCI instructions
Proposing pre-examiners and opponents
The supervising professor is responsible for proposing two independent preliminary examiners (pre-examiners) for the pre-examination and at a later stage one or two opponents for the defence. The supervising professor makes the proposal but may ask the thesis advisor(s) for suggestions for pre-examiners and opponent(s). The doctoral student cannot take part in making the proposal for the pre-examiners and opponent(s), but if they disagree (e.g. in case of bias), they can submit an official written response for the Doctoral programme committee before the pre-examiners / opponet(s) are appointed.
Note: Before making the proposal to the Doctoral Programme Committee, the supervising professor must contact the examiners and check that they are willing to examine the thesis within the given time.
The qualifications and suitability should be shown by presenting the pre-examiners’ and opponents’ CVs and lists of publications or an equivalent clarification (e.g. web links to the examiners’ home pages).
Pre-examiners
Supervising professor fills out the information on the Pre-examination application (306) form and gives the CVs and publication lists to the doctoral student to be attached to their online pre-examination request.
In addition the supervising professor may use the form Grounds for proposed pre-examiners/opponents (mandatory in BIZ & ELEC).
Opponents
Supervising professor fills out the information on the Opponent proposal (307) form, including opponent's CV and publication list.
In addition the supervising professor may use the form Grounds for proposed pre-examiners/opponents (mandatory in ELEC).
Requirements for pre-examiners and opponents
- The examiners have to hold a doctor’s degree.
- They have to possess sufficient scientific competence and authority in the thesis’ research field or fields and have a sufficient amount of scientific publications. Pre-examiners should actively publish in the field of the thesis.
- They should be among the best experts within the field from Finland or abroad. They need to be independent experts in the field, external to the School. The recommendation is to use international experts external to Aalto University.
- A pre-examiner may serve as an opponent. CHEM & ELEC: In this case, also a second opponent must also be appointed.
- Field of arts and design: It is possible to appoint a third pre-examiner on the basis of artistic merit only (without a doctor’s degree).
Objectivity and impartiality in choosing examiners
The pre-examiners and opponents are to present their own, independent, expert and impartial evaluation of the doctoral thesis and thus they cannot:
- be a close relative of the student
- be the student's immediate superior
- have a too close relation to the author of the thesis, its supervising professor or thesis advisor
Please also see Aalto University's general guidance on objectivity and impartiality (aalto.fi) and school-specific guidelines below.
School-specific guidelines regarding collaborations and more detailed requirements
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 and opponents cannot
- in the past five years have co-authored research papers or currently be working on one with the doctoral student, supervising professor nor advisor, or otherwise collaborated within research
- be from the school of the doctoral student, the school of the supervising professor / the co-supervisor / the thesis advisor, or from the research group in which the doctoral thesis is done. Only for very special reasons the examiner can be appointed from another school of Aalto (written motivation why nobody outside Aalto could be appointed).
- have a degree from the past 5 years from the school of the student
The supervising professor should strive to find experts from all over the world and thus it is recommended that at least one of the examiners is working outside Finland.
The pre-examiners cannot have co-authored research papers with the doctoral student or collaborated with in research in the past five years.
The pre-examiners cannot have had significant collaboration, such as co-authored publications with the supervising professor or advisor of the student, especially during the previous 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 / opponent(s) 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 / opponent(s) and supervising professor or thesis advisor in the last five years must be unrelated to the doctoral thesis. A short clarification must be given in case joint papers exist.
- The pre-examiners and opponents cannot be from the school of the doctoral student, the school of the supervising professor, the co-supervisor or the thesis advisor or the research group in which the doctoral thesis is done. Only for very special reasons the examiner can be appointed from another school of Aalto (written motivation why nobody outside Aalto could be appointed).
Best practices from schools
This selection of supervision practices at Aalto University is meant to serve as a tool for peer-learning, providing practical tips and illustrating experiences on doctoral supervision from the ground.
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:
- Diverse research activities and continuous development, excellence reputation
- Work-life skills, including teamwork, communication and networking
- Early actions to meet the rising needs, self-organizing culture and activities without professors facilitating and coordinating everything
- Supervising professors and thesis advisors have active collaboration networks and innovative, proactive team to work with
- Highly engaged team to apply for external funding
- Holistic wellbeing and resilience to sudden changes
- Respect and appreciation of all
| Interaction | Transparency | Diversity | Peer Support | Mindset | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students and Supervising professors & Thesis Advisors | Actively search and engage with key beneficiaries and practitioners to increase the value and impact of your research and to support decision-making (student). Be aware of interdependency risks when researchers closely collaborate with others using data or method development (student, supervisor). | Agree on expectations and structures for continuous two-way feedback focusing on encouragement and support (student, supervisor). | Acknowledge that individuals with different backgrounds have different expectations and needs (supervisor). Organize supervision in diverse teams of advisors and mentors (supervisor). | Acknowledge that risk-taking and the associated failure is intrinsic to academic work in order to prepare students for journal and grant rejection, or sudden unreliable sample results (supervisor). | Actively communicate your ideas, make bold decisions, and enjoy life-long learning (student). Recruit individuals with a curious and proactive attitude to learn (supervisor). |
| Research Group | Organize regular events to bring all staff together. Create structures to match similarities and diversity: people with a common denominator, e.g., method or stage of the thesis; Rookies or Synthesis writing clubs. Use co-creation and feedback tools, e.g., journey mapping, for systematic reflection on ways of working. | Plan and share responsibilities to support development of leadership and management skills of all team members, including doctoral students and postdocs. | Make use of group members’ diverse networks and integrate doctoral students into them. Build cohesiveness in diverse teams by identifying shared interests and organizing joint activities. | Create a sense of belongingness via virtual and physical spaces for working and collaboration, e.g., shared offices. Establish peer groups for sharing experiences, increasing accountability, and developing together. | Lead by example and promote multi- and interdisciplinary collaboration to make use of diverse skills sets, facilitate learning, and reduce competition. |
| Industry and Practitioners | Create easy beginnings for collaboration: practice-oriented events, mentorships, small pilot projects, workshops, hackathons, end-user analysis, and jointly funded PhD projects. Participate in special courses; encourage employees to strengthen their alumni relations. | Highlight the practical relevance and limitations of research and innovations throughout the project duration. | Strive for diverse and multidisciplinary stakeholder representation in boards or associations. Organize or attend seminars and workshops for academics to create shared understanding. | Communicate the practical importance of the work and help with diversifying the network. Help the researchers to identify the key beneficiaries and end-users of the research and jointly communicate the research outputs. | Acknowledge the competence of and employ PhDs to senior positions early in their career. Invest in jointly-advised industrial PhDs to strengthen the university-industry collaboration. |
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])
Management of doctoral education
Doctoral Education Working Group (DEWG)
The President has appointed the Aalto University Doctoral Education Working Group, which develops the university’s doctoral education, discusses the mutual issues on doctoral education and prepares the university guidelines.
Management of doctoral education at Aalto University
Information on how doctoral education is lead and organised and related regultions
Doctoral education services
We support doctoral students, supervising professors, thesis advisors and doctoral programme directors in matters related to doctoral studies.
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