Aalto Doctoral Programme in Arts, Design and Architecture

Degree students at Aalto University also have the possibility to study at another Finnish university.

The Flexible Study Rights Agreement (JOO) is a national agreement between Finnish universities that provides students of the universities the opportunity to include courses from other universities in their degrees. For more information, see the JOO online platform (opens in a new tab).

FITech network university
UniPID – Finnish University Partnership for International Development
University Network for Asian Studies

When you apply for a flexible study right, the study plan needs to be confirmed first.

Credit transfer means counting studies completed outside Aalto University towards your Aalto degree by either using them to substitute for an individual Aalto course or study module or including them in the degree, for instance, towards the electives.

You can transfer credits for studies completed at other higher education institutions, whether abroad during an exchange period, or in Finland for another degree or under the JOO flexible study scheme. Learning gained outside higher education can also be included in the degree (see Accrediation of learning demonstrated in some other manner). See below for further details concerning the Aalto University policy on credit transfer:

• Aalto University policy on credit transfer
• Points to note in credit transfer
• Application form and required supporting materials
• Submitting your application: Doctoral students
• Appealing a decision
• Appealing against a decision regarding credit transfer
• Appealing against the outcome of an appeal concerning credit transfer
• Transfer of credits: substitution or inclusion?
• Substitution of an individual course  
• Inclusion of an individual course
• Credit transfer of studies completed in another Aalto school
• Open University studies

All incentive scholarships are granted based on an application made by the person in question. All incentive scholarhips are applied online. Please find more information on the online application form and instructions.

• Scholarship of 500 euros for the first refereed article or artistic component.

The scholarship is paid to a doctoral student for her or his first refereed (i.e. peer-reviewed) article; the article must be included in the student's doctoral thesis and be published in an international forum or as the student's first art production or product development project.

The student must be one of the main authors in the publication or one of the main artists in the art production or product development project. In the School of Arts, Design and Architecture the article must be published in an official journal as defined by the Finnish Publication Forum (see http://www.tsv.fi/julkaisufoorumi/english.html and http://www.tsv.fi/julkaisufoorumi/haku.php?lang=en ). The Doctoral Programme Committee has paid attention to the fact that in the School of Arts, Design and Architecture doctoral theses are mainly monographs, so the incentive scholarship is not only limited to article theses. The student must be one of the main authors of the publication.

The application has to be submitted within six months of the fulfilment of the scholarship criteria.

• Scholarship of 500 euros for completing theoretical studies

This scholarship is paid to doctoral candidate, who has, within two years of the date of admission to pursue doctoral studies, completed the theoretical studies (40 or 60 credits). The doctoral studies must have been completed according to the official degree structure and accepted by the supervising professor and the head of the doctoral programme.

The application has to be submitted within six months of the fulfilment of the scholarship criteria.

• Scholarship of 2,000 euros for completing the doctoral degree

This scholarship is awarded for completing the doctoral degree, provided that the following conditions are fulfilled:

a) Theoretical studies must have been completed according to the confirmed study plan and the pre-examiners appointed (the date of the Doctoral Programme Committee meeting) no later than eight full semesters from the date the right to study was granted. The pre-examiners need to be appointed during the eighth full semester at the latest.

b)  Completion of the doctoral degree, provided the degree was earned by the end of the calendar year in which the doctoral candidate turns 30 years old.

The application has to be submitted within six months of the fulfilment of the scholarship criteria.

The time spent on maternity or parental leave as well as completed national military or non-military service (documents required) may be excluded from the calculated duration of study. However, the scholarship for those under 30-years-old, no other conditions will be taken into consideration.

The scholarships will be awarded according to the above-mentioned criteria for doctoral candidates who have met the conditions for receiving a scholarship between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2021.

The school shall award scholarships based on the application made by the doctoral candidate. The application has to be submitted within six months of the fulfilment of the scholarship criteria.

Scholarships are granted based on an application submitted by the applicant. Decisions on scholarships are made by the vice dean. Students are informed of the decision by email.

Please submit the application form to [email protected]. The details of your studies and degrees will be checked and certified as true. The applicant will be informed of the decision and the sum awarded will be paid into the bank account the applicant has indicated on the application form. Note: In scholarship forms, the bank account number must be in the IBAN format; the BIC code is also needed.

To be eligible for doctoral studies at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, students must:

• hold a master’s degree granted by a Finnish university or a Finnish university of applied sciences, providing them with the knowledge base required for the doctoral research field applied for or,
• hold a degree granted by a university or university of applied sciences abroad corresponding to the Finnish master’s degree, providing them with the knowledge base required for the postgraduate research field applied for.

Please note that from 1 August 2016 onwards students may accept only one student place leading to a higher education degree in Finland during one academic term (Universities Act 558/2009).*

*Higher education degrees include bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees awarded by universities as well as degrees from universities of applied sciences.

Degree awarded by a higher education institution outside Finland

Copies of study certificates must be certified by the issuing institution or by a notary public. The copies must be made of the original, official documents. Copies of copies will not be accepted. If the certificate has several pages, each page must be certified from the right side of the page. Each page must be certified separately and indicate clearly the date and the original signature, printed name and stamp of the certifying officer. The mere mention of the official copy (eg. stamped 'True copy') is not enough.

Degree awarded by a higher education institution in Finland

Copies of study certificates must be certified either by the issuing institution or by two unbiased signatories. The copies must be made from the original, official documents. Copies of copies will not be accepted.  If the certificate has several pages, each page must be certified from the right side of the page. Each page of the copy must carry the signature, name of the signatory/signatories and date. The signatories must see the original document and the copy of it side by side. By signing, they certify that the copy is an unaltered copy of the original document.

Before submitting your application, you may be in contact with a potential supervising professor or the head of research at the department to find out if the department has a potential supervising professor in the specific area corresponding to your research plan. For more information, see What does it take to become a doctoral candidate? - Supervising professor and research topic under For prospective students.

You must always provide proof of your language proficiency - either by means of a language test result or more specifically determined in your degree certificate. Language proficiency cannot be demonstrated by an interview or by any other similar practice. Please note that if a language test result is required, you must register for the test as soon as possible. Test organisers take quite a lot of time to submit the results. We recommend that you do the test before the start of the application period. See further information: Who can apply? - Language requirements.

An English language test is not required of applicants who have earned:

• a degree taught in Finnish, Swedish or English in a higher education institution in Finland.
• a degree in an English-medium programme at a higher education institution in an EU/EEA country, provided that all parts of the degree were completed in English. The language of the degree must be stated unambiguously in the degree certificate or its appendix, or in the transcript of records or other official document issued by the awarding higher education institution.
• an English-medium higher education degree requiring a physical on-site presence at a higher education institution in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand.

If the degree includes studies also from another institution, they too must be completed in English at an institution that meets the requirements for exempting the student from taking an English test. An exception to this are studies completed during a student exchange.

All others must submit their language test results within the application deadline.

Acceptable English language certificates and their minimum score requirements in 2020:

1. IELTS (Academic): 6.5 and 5.5 for Writing
2. TOEFL

   • iBT (Internet-based Test): 92, and 22 for the Writing section or

   • PBT (Paper-based Test): 580, and 4.0 for the Writing section or

   • PDT (Paper-Delivered Test) Reading 22, Listening 22, and Writing 24

3. Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE): A, B or C
4. Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE): A, B, C or Level C1
5. Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE A): 62, and 54 for writing

IELTS, TOEFL and PTE test results are valid for two years from the test date.

CAE and CPE certificates as well as National Certificates of Language Proficiency are valid indefinitely.

The language proficiency in Finnish or Swedish can be proven with the National Certificate of Language Proficiency (YKI) issued by the Finnish National Agency for Education at the minimum proficiency level of 4 in all subtests (reading comprehension, writing, listening comprehension, and speaking). More information about prooving language proficiency in Finnish or Swedish from [email protected]

National Certificates of Language Proficiency (oph.fi) are valid indefinitely. The tests can only be completed in Finland.

Registration for a language proficiency test

Please make sure that you register for the language test well in advance. There might not be test dates available or they may be fully booked. You need to take the test early enough in order for the result to reach Aalto University in time. Please check from the testing center how long it takes for the test result to arrive at Aalto University. To find out more about the test dates and test centres, please visit the website of the test organizer:

• IELTS (ielts.org)
• TOEFL (ets.org)
• PTE Academic (pearsonpte.com)
• CAE (cambridgeesol.org)
• CPE (cambridgeesol.org)

Applicants must submit a copy of the language certificate by the end of the application period.

Please consider the following when applying for the doctoral programme:

1. A research plan is a key document.
2. It is usually appr. 5-8 pages (line spacing 1,5, 12 pt)
3. Research plan also includes:
   • Your schedule for the completion of the required studies (60 ECTS)
   • Your schedule for dissertation work
   • Your plan for funding
   • In case you plan to include an artistic component or product development project: work plan and schedule
4. Write your research plan completely by yourself.
5. Research plans are treated as confidential in the evaluation process.

Here are some general instructions for writing a research plan. They are not compulsory – the research plan is free of form. You can find other instructions on the internet, see e.g. Academy of Finland's research plan guidelines.

Submitting the application

Applications (including its attachments in PDF form) are submitted through the electronic application system eAge. The next admission round is in March 2020.

Please carefully read the information regarding eligibility to apply, the application process as well as the required documentation before filling out an application. You can follow the processing of your application on the application system eAge. The application system is used throughout the duration of the application process. The final admission results are also published via the application system.

Applicants who are selected for phase two of the application process will receive a separate notice by email with instructions for submitting their paper documents and postal address. They are given a maximum of three weeks from the notice to submit paper copies of their degree certificates and transcripts of records. The paper copies must arrive in the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture within the set deadline or otherwise the application will be rejected.

1. Application form should be filled out in the eAge application system.
2. Submit degree certificates from each university attended, including lists from the official register of study courses taken for the degree (transcripts of records).
   • You need to scan and upload your original certificates and/or transcripts (with translations, if necessary) onto the application system. Please be prepared to send officially certified copies by mail immediately if you are notified that you are selected for phase two of the admission.
3. Your research plan should includes a schedule for the studies to be completed (i.e. a study plan), a schedule for thesis, a funding plan, a possible project plan, a supervision plan and a schedule for artistic components. The research plan is usually 5—8 pages (line spacing 1.5, font 12 pts) and can be written in a free-text format, but should include:
   • Your schedule for the completion of the required studies (40 or 60 ECTS)
   • Your schedule for the thesis work;
   • Your plan for funding;
   • The plan and schedule for working on your artistic component or product development project, if you are planning on including one of these.
   • Write your research plan completely by yourself. Research plans are treated confidentially in the evaluation process. You can find general instructions online; see e.g. the Academy of Finland's research plan guidelines.
4. Curriculum vitae (CV)
5. A copy of your passport or other official document of identification
6. Letters of recommendation and certificates of employment (optional)
7. In the field of art and design, a portfolio should be included if the research plan contains a work plan for artistic components or product development projects.
8. Proof of language proficiency (see more below under Language requirements).

Applications which do not contain all the documents deemed necessary will not be evaluated.

All documents must be in either Finnish, Swedish or English. If the original certificate is in a different language, it must be officially translated to one of these languages by an authorised translator. Copies of academic documents and their translations must be certified as authentic by a notary or a university official from your university. The translated documents you send to us should be the original official translations (in the second phase, the paper copies sent in can be officially certified copies of the original translations). Please note that you will need to submit both the officially certified copies of the original documents in their original language and the official translations.

If you are selected for phase two of the admission, you will have a maximum of three weeks to submit paper copies of your degree certificates and transcripts of records. These officially certified copies of documents need to physically arrive at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture by the set deadline or your application will be rejected.

Please note that for degrees completed at Aalto University, paper copies are not needed.

The copy of the passport does not need to be officially certified. Aalto University Learning Services does not make copies of application documents or attest them.

Portfolio

A portfolio is required if the research plan includes a plan for artistic components. Portfolio is meant to demonstrate the applicant's abilities for carrying out the planned artistic components. Portfolios can be either uploaded on the application systems in PDF form (the maximum size for a single document is 500MB) or the applicant can provide a link to an online portfolio. In the case of an online portfolio, the applicant is responsible for ensuring that the link is accessible for a minimum of 2 months after the end of the application period.