AALTO UNIVERSITY

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• AALTO UNIVERSITY
• DOCTORAL EDUCATION
• Jukka Tuhkuri (TKK, chair), Anneli Ahvenniemi
  (TKK), Tapio Ala-Nissilä (TKK), Anu Bask (HSE) ,
  Päivi Hovi-Wasastjerna (TaiK), Pekka Korhonen
  (HSE), Perttu Puska (TKK), Pia Sivenius (TaiK),
  Mari Svahn (HSE, secretary), Jarno Vanhatalo
  (TKK/TKY)

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Aalto Doctoral Education Current Status

• The research conducted by doctoral students forms
  an essential part of all research in the Aalto
  University.
• Arrangements and practises vary between schools,
  and there are also differences within the
  faculties at TKK.
• In many units doctoral education is efficient and
  works well.
• We could do better in the following issues
• Many full time students make slow progress. In
  fact, we do not know who are studying slowly and
  who have dropped out.
• Lack of long term research funding forces many
  full time students to work on short term applied
  projects.
• Due to requirements of administration and project
  management, many professors do not have enough
  time for their students.
• The doctoral studies could be more systematic.

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Aalto Doctoral Education Statistics
Note that 1500 / 175 8,6. This may not be
surprising, but it is quite far from the four
year target.
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Aalto Doctoral Education Goals

• Dependence on short term funding should be
  decreased. This improves both the efficiency of
  doctoral studies and well-being of the students.
• As a main rule, the doctoral studies should be
• more systematic, and
• finished in four years.
• The key instruments in achieving this are well
  organized doctoral programmes.
• The number of foreign students should increase.
  This requires attractive doctoral programmes,
  predictable funding arrangements and global
  marketing.
• More emphasis should be put on student
  supervision. Changes in this situation require
  changes in university administration and job
  description of senior faculty members.

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Aalto Doctoral Education Structure

• Proposed structure
• Aalto Doctoral Program
• International recruiting of students
• General principles and statistics
• Allocation of possible internal funds
• Annual reviews
• Faculties / Schools / Colleges
• Doctoral Programs and coordinators
• Funding for some doctoral students
• Introductory courses
• Departments
• Supervision
• Arrangement of funding through projects
• Courses, seminars
• National Graduate Schools are independent
  consortia between several universities and are
  funded by the Academy of Finland.

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Aalto Doctoral Education Funding system

• Current main funding instruments for full time
  students
• Funding through research projects.
• National Graduate Schools provide up to 4 year
  funding for selected students.
• Others faculty grants, foundations
• Two new instruments to strengthen the system
• Aalto Doctoral Program provides up to 4 year
  funding for selected students.
• Limited number of short term (max one year)
  stipends to fill in possible gaps in funding.

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Aalto Doctoral Education Why the new system

• Secure four year funding for more students would
  speed up doctoral studies and make them more
  systematic.
• The Aalto funding with clear application
  schedule, would make application for
  international students easier.
• The need for short term funding would decrease
  and give professors more time to supervise
  students and conduct research.
• The new system would strengthen and broaden the
  doctoral school system offered by the Academy of
  Finland.
• This kind of a positive reform would be an
  important initiative inside the university and a
  part of an Aalto brand.

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Funding by the Aalto Doctoral Program

• Aalto provides 4 year funding for selected full
  time students
• Based on competition, 200 students will get 4
  year funding from the Aalto Doctoral Program. 50
  students are funded per year, and 50 should
  graduate each year (about 25 of the total
  amount).
• The four year funding is tied to progress as
  described in personal study and research plans.
• The amount of funding is of the same magnitude as
  the funding obtained from the national graduate
  schools.
• The students allocate 80 of their work time for
  research and 20 for teaching and other
  university duties.
• Other major funding sources are the National
  Graduate Schools (25) and research projects
  (50).

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Funding by the Aalto Doctoral Program

• Aalto provides short term stipends for full time
  students
• Based on application, short term (max one year)
  stipends are given to fill in possible gaps in
  funding.
• The funding is tied to progress as described in
  personal study and research plans.
• The Aalto stipend could be 1200 per month
  (14400 per year).
• The current maximum tax free grant is 18300
  per year (1525 per month). 10 of that is
  reserved for social security costs.

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Student selection

• The majority of accepted students get a promise
  of four year funding for full time studies, but
  also students without funding can be accepted.
• There will be both full-time and part-time
  students, but in both cases the students must
  have study plan and research plans, which are
  annually reviewed.
• When a four year funding is promised for a
  full-time student, the work contract is made for
  2 2 years.
• The student must report study and research
  progress annually

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Funding by the Aalto Doctoral Program

• To be discussed
• Are there limitations for the number of doctoral
  students ?
• How to select the students or units to get funded
  ?
• Is the number of short term stipends limited or
  not ?
• Application times once a year / twice a year ?

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Funding by the Aalto Doctoral Program

• Estimated costs
• Annual salary costs of a doctoral student are
  40,000 50,000 , depending on the stage of
  studies (12 x 1,3 x 2400 39312 ).
• For 200 students 200 x 45,000 9 M
• National Graduate Schools cover only part of the
  salary
• (12 x 1,3 x 1830 28,548 ). In this way 200
  x 30,000 6 M
• A 1200 tax free monthly stipend for a year for
  35 students would cost about 0.5 M.
• To be discussed
• What about additional costs as in other Aalto
  activities?
• Funds are also required for coordination,
  courses, visitors, and international mobility of
  students.

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Aalto Doctoral Education Student perspective 1

• For four year full time studies in Aalto
  University, a student may
• get funding
• from the Aalto Doctoral Program,
• from one of the National Graduate Schools,
• from an open research student position funded
  through a research project.
• In addition, a student must apply and get
  accepted into a faculty doctoral program.
• With the application, research and study plans
  for four years are required and approved.

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Aalto Doctoral Education Student perspective 2

• A student may also
• Apply full time funding from a foundation outside
  of Aalto.
• Study full time or part time while working
  outside of Aalto.
• Study part time while teaching in Aalto.
• etc.
• In these cases, a student must apply for
  admission in a doctoral program, but that
  admission is not linked with funding.
• With the application, also research and study
  plans are required and approved.

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Aalto Doctoral Education Other issues

• It is suggested, that the Aalto University adopts
  an effective award system for doctoral students
  with the exception that completing a licentiate
  degree (if such as degree exists in Aalto) is not
  awarded.
• It is suggested that all full time doctoral
  students are called doctoral students.

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Aalto Doctoral Programs Other issues to be
discussed 1

• Structure of studies
• Theoretical studies What kind? How much
• Thesis articles, essays, monograph
• Artistic parts in the theses at TaiK.
  Architecture
• Regular monitoring of study plan and research
  plan Supervision agreement
• What happens, if a student will not get a degree
  in 4 N years ?
• Licentiate thesis
• Dissertations Committee

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Aalto Doctoral Programs Other issues to be
discussed 2

• Acceptance criteria of students
• How to select ?
• Who will select ?
• Directly from foreign B.Sc. to doctoral programs
  ?
• Degrees from Institutes of Applied Sciences (AMK
  in Finnish)
• Practically oriented doctoral programs, e.g. DBA.
  
• Double degrees with foreign universities
• Transformation plans