Internationality is an integral part of the doctoral education in both recruiting and educating doctoral candidates. The school of Electrical Engineering has close contacts to many top universities and research institutes in its field.
Aalto University encourages every doctoral candidate to spend at least a six-months period abroad during their studies. The doctoral candidate's international mobility is chiefly aimed at the development of research and at international networking. Mobility may be relevant not only for future employment prospects but also for developing international career opportunities.
Aalto University strongly supports doctoral degrees that are jointly supervised with an international partner. These agreements, referred to as ‘Cotutelle Agreements’, are for joint supervision of the doctoral studies and research work of a single doctoral candidate. Such doctoral candidates are awarded degrees and the associated certificates from both universities.
Cotutelle agreement – joint supervision
The aim of the research and education of Aalto University is high international quality, and international cooperation is an integral part of the doctoral education at Aalto. The joint supervision of doctoral thesis is one way of collaborating with international universities. Based on joint supervision agreements, i.e. Cotutelle-agreements, the doctoral candidate may take courses at the partner university and the doctoral thesis will have a supervising professor also at the partner university. The joint supervision has to be based on genuine scientific cooperation, bringing added value to the doctoral thesis and enhancing the quality of the research.
Doctoral candidates are advised to contact their supervising professor and/or advisor to find out which university would be most useful in terms of their education. Professors usually have personal contacts to universities and research institutes abroad and can help to select the most suitable one for each student’s research work. Visiting a foreign university or research institute often means sharing knowledge and know-how, creating new ideas, expanding international networks, and developing one’s professional skills.
Principles for joint supervision of doctoral candidates at Aalto University
The joint supervision of a doctoral candidate may be agreed on with a university, which has similar qualifications of the doctoral education as Aalto University. The partner university has to be officially acknowledged or accredited by authorities of its own country or higher education system. Cotutelle agreements should be made at the beginning of the studies, and written agreements are always made. It is highly recommended to use the cotutelle template of Aalto, which can be modified if needed. Before starting to draft the cotutelle agreement, please discuss this with the Dean of the school, a representative of the doctoral programme and the Head of Department. It is highly recommended to compare the doctoral education processes of both universities, so that the differences are know already at the planning stage and the degree requirements can be reconsolidated in the agreement. The pre-examination process has to be agreed on in detail.