Part time PhD funding

epselon1 · Post by **epselon1** » Sat Feb 06, 2016 10:46 pm

Hi,
I have been working in Finland for last 4 years and have a good paying job to manage all my expenses and other family commitments.
My plan is to register for PhD at one of the Finnish university. As there are no tuition fee and I am already managing my other living expenses well with my job, I am not much worried about the funding part of it.

Minor expenses for PhD I can manage but I am concerned about travelling to international conferences and other big money (more than 500 euros) that might be needed time to time. It would be difficult to manage these looking at my other commitments.

1. Do university sponsor these international conference travels and other expense?
2. Do I need to apply to some funding agency, will they consider my application as I already have a paying job?
3. What other options I have?

Pleas suggest.

**Sponsor:**

leisl · Post by **leisl** » Sat Feb 06, 2016 11:24 pm

Are you EU / EEA?

Because otherwise fees will definitely apply as of next year for PhD and may already be the case for some anyway.

numb · Post by **numb** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 1:04 am

leisl wrote:Are you EU / EEA?

Because otherwise fees will definitely apply as of next year for PhD and may already be the case for some anyway.

Doctoral level studies are exempt from tuition fees, check your facts before commenting.

leisl · Post by **leisl** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 5:01 am

numb wrote:
leisl wrote:Are you EU / EEA?

Because otherwise fees will definitely apply as of next year for PhD and may already be the case for some anyway.
Doctoral level studies are exempt from tuition fees, check your facts before commenting.

Why didn't you answer all the OP's questions. Since you seem to know everything.

Beep_Boop · Post by **Beep_Boop** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 7:41 am

epselon1 wrote:1. Do university sponsor these international conference travels and other expense?

AFAIK, universities do have reserved budgets for "paper dumping" in international conferences. At least I know a few students in University of Oulu and University of Tampere who get some sponsoring every year to dump their papers in IEEE-related regular (and grey) conferences.

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 1:59 pm

epselon1 wrote: Minor expenses for PhD I can manage but I am concerned about travelling to international conferences and other big money (more than 500 euros) that might be needed time to time. It would be difficult to manage these looking at my other commitments.

1. Do university sponsor these international conference travels and other expense?
2. Do I need to apply to some funding agency, will they consider my application as I already have a paying job?
3. What other options I have?

Depending on the field there can be many travel grants available. When people are on University payroll (or an a grant in a research group) the university usually pays for the travel expenses. Doing PhD full time is the most common way at least in the fields I know. The most important thing for getting accepted is finding a supervisor. It depends on them if they are interested in part time outsiders. If you write a monogram or publish in journals, it's not strictly necessary to participate in conferences.

goo · Post by **goo** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 3:29 pm

Here is what I've learned. Coauthor the papers with your professor and another student from his/her group. If you get a paper to a good conference, the professor will at least try to find the travel money for you or the other student. Depends on your field how much money there is to go around. Asking them to be coauthors is a good way to make friends and get support anyway. Once you are known to produce results for them, they will take a more positive view.

epselon1 · Post by **epselon1** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 6:13 pm

Thanks guys. Now I understand that university too have some fund to sponsor travel and other things needed. If I am lucky I would get one.
I have already found a supervisor and research topic is accepted informally. I am waiting for official enrollment at the university.

Hope everything goes well now. Do you have any idea if a part time PhD student can apply for funding to agencies like TEKES, Charity fund etc?

inkku · Post by **inkku** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 7:14 am

There are billions bigger and smaller foundations, trusts etc in Finland which fund research. Yo might Finnish to get complete/comprehensive information.

The first one is apparently the biggest database, and the second one of the biggest trusts.

http://www.aurora-tietokanta.fi/grant/e ... /refc/lang
https://skr.fi/en

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