Graduate schools

The Finnish graduate school system was established in 1995, with the financing of the Ministry of Education, the universities and the Academy of Finland. The system has been expanded gradually, and the number of schools has doubled from the original. At the beginning of 2007 the system comprises 119 graduate schools. Altogether over 4,000 graduate students are working full-time on their doctoral dissertations in graduate schools.

The graduate schools have made postgraduate education more systematic and more efficient. A key objective is to assure the quality of graduate education, shorten the time it takes doctoral students to write their dissertations and thus lower the age at which doctoral candidates defend their dissertations. The aim is to train high-level professional researchers and experts. With a view to more international doctoral education, the aim is to increase the share of foreign doctoral students in the graduate schools to 20% on average by 2012.

Most of the graduate schools are networked projects jointly run by several universities, in which older and younger researchers work in research groups together with graduate students. This creates an innovative environment conducive to research quality and a learning environment which inspires graduate students. The graduate schools provide systematic education and guidance for the doctoral students. The goal is that the students write their doctoral dissertations in four years. Students in graduate schools are paid and work full-time on their research.

The Ministry of Education has granted up to 36 million euros annually to the graduate schools. The Academy of Finland plays a key role in selecting graduate schools, based on assessment of scientific quality. Each year the Academy allocates more than 4 million euros to the graduate schools for their course activities, coordination and internationalisation. In addition, part of the funding allocated by the Academy to research is targeted to graduate education.