PhD research/study in finland

[iansacs]

moi kaikille! i have been reading posts in this forum for quite a while, and i thought it was time to start asking some questions. my wife is finnish, and we are considering a move to finland in the fall of next year. i have the option of looking for work in my field (civil engineering/transportation planning) or pursuing a PhD, which is something i've wanted to do since i finished university 6 years ago. that said, there is a lot about the PhD option that i do not understand, and of course my experience from american universities is not comparable to how finnish universities function. cimo, et. al are very informative on the general aspects of studying, but there is not much on PhD studies; so, about this option, my questions are:

1. what are the typical steps in a finnish PhD program?
2. how is PhD research funded/sponsored? i have heard that private companies often fund PhD research, is this true? (ethical is another topic)
3. are PhD students expected/required/prefferred to teach classes?
4. can PhD students get any kind of stipend (i.e. for teaching or other university assistance)
5. is it true that thesis topics are not entirely the choice of the student? of course a topic needs to be approved (like in the states), but are PhD students in finland "assigned" a research topic? i have heard this and am interested if this can be confirmed.

any advice would be very much appreciated! kiitoksia paljon!

[interleukin]

1. what are the typical steps in a finnish PhD program?
2. how is PhD research funded/sponsored? i have heard that private companies often fund PhD research, is this true? (ethical is another topic)
3. are PhD students expected/required/prefferred to teach classes?
4. can PhD students get any kind of stipend (i.e. for teaching or other university assistance)
5. is it true that thesis topics are not entirely the choice of the student? of course a topic needs to be approved (like in the states), but are PhD students in finland "assigned" a research topic? i have heard this and am interested if this can be confirmed.

Hi, I am doing a postdoc here in Helsinki, but we also have some foreign PhD students in the group so maybe I can answer some of the questions.

1/ the typical steps (in my field at least, biology) are: get accepted. once a year you meet with a committee that goes through your progress. you do you labwork/experiments and write articles. you write you thesis and you defend it.
2/ Yes, the funding can come from the government, from private foundations or companies. It all depends on the project and the field.
3/ You can finish your PhD without teaching, but you would be missing out on learning a very valuable skill. If you decide to stay in the academic world, you will soon see that any teaching skill is a big help. Plus as a postdoc you will be expected to supervise students.
4/ not that I know of in my field. You teach as part of your work/studies, and your payment would be part of your normal salary/grant.
5/ Well your subject has to be something your supervisor is interested in spending money on and something he/she deems to be interesting and realistic for a PhD student. You can of course bring your own ideas and do your best to sell them.

What you should do is do some googling and find out which research groups are doing something you are interested in. Email them and present yourself and see if they are interested. If they are, you can discuss their current funding status. You might apply for your own money from home, or make a joint application to fund your studies. Just remember that even if you find a place to apply for money, the whole process can take up to a year.

Hope this helps

/interleukin

[raamv]

Another thing if you come from the US is to get your Degree accepted to the Finnish Master's standard ( beauracracy...) by the Board here so that you "Qualify" for your PHd here..
Check some basic info here:
http://infopankki.fi/en-GB/Universities ... Education/

http://www.koulutusnetti.fi/?path=universities

[iansacs]

thanks interleukin and raamv!

You teach as part of your work/studies, and your payment would be part of your normal salary/grant.

what did you mean interleukin by "normal salary/grant?" is this something that comes as part of prforming the research, or is it something that would have to be negotiated with an external employer? this is one area that has confused me in past discussions with students in finland. are PhD students also working for a company at the same time, or are they taking a break (4 years!) to study but their employer is still funding their research, or what? sorry if these seem like silly questions, but it's totally different than the "student loans or teacher stipend" process stateside.

[interleukin]

what did you mean interleukin by "normal salary/grant?

Oh, ok. I see what your question was really about

If you are doing your PhD within a company, you would do your research as part of your normal working day at that company, and yet be registered as a student at a university. In this case I think you would probably not have many ties with the university world, and not teach unless your supervisor at the company also has a teaching position at the university and asks you to do it.

The other possibility is that the company gives a grant to a researcher at the university, and asks for research in a certain field. This is not considered such a big ethical issue as long as the company does not influence the results or whether they get published (in any case this would mostly be something your academic supervisor has to figure out, not you).

So to summarise:
if you are already working for a company, talk to someone there about the possibility to continue your work and yet be registered as a PhD student.
If you want to do your PhD in the academic world, you contact a group leader doing research that interests you. Maybe part of this persons grant money comes from a company.

Obs that this is just how it works in my field, and I suspect that in your field the corporate sponsoring part is even more important.

/interleukin