Finnish Doctoral Programme of Philosophy

The Finnish Doctoral Programme of Philosophy is a national organization whose aim is to provide systematic, high-level, and supervised doctoral training in philosophy. The activities of the programme are based on cooperation between all six Finnish university departments or units where philosophy is taught as a major subject, together with various international contacts. The doctoral training aims to provide skills and competence needed for academic research positions as well as for other demanding expert positions in society.

To its members, the Doctoral Programme of Philosophy offers benefits including:

• A mailing list distributing information relevant for doctoral students
• Supervision of doctoral studies by experienced teachers
• State of the Art courses by international top scholars covering all fields of philosophy
• The possibility to apply for travel grants for participation in national and international events
• The possibility to apply for funded four-year doctoral programme positions intended for full-time work on a doctoral dissertation.

To find out more about these, see the adjoining sections on membership, supervisors, courses, other events, travel grants, and funded positions.

The programme is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture together with the Academy of Finland. The ministry funds the four-year doctoral programme positions. The Academy provides operational funding for the purposes of arranging systematic and high-level education as well as for establishing systematic cooperation on a national, international and sectoral level. These web pages constitute a central aspect of the latter.

The Finnish doctoral programme system was established in 1995, and has been gradually expanded ever since. The decision-making and responsibility for the development and monitoring of doctoral programmes was delegated in the beginning of 2008 by the Ministry of Education and Culture to the Academy of Finland.

► A note on terminology: the official term now in use is ʻDoctoral Programme’, or ʻtohtoriohjelma’ in Finnish. The old one was ʻGraduate School’, or ʻtutkijakoulu’.