Student admission to Hecse

Hecse admits new students roughly once a year. Students are accepted to pursue their doctoral degree full-time in four years.

Funded vs. adjunct positions

Hecse has 25 funded positions for the period of 2012-2015. The number of vacant funded positions varies yearly. Positions without funding (adjunct positions) are also available and entitle the student to participate in Hecse events and to apply for Hecse travel funds. Students with already guaranteed funding (holding a research position or employed by a university research project) are encouraged to apply for these adjunct positions.

Why apply for a adjunct position?

If you are not accepted for a funded position (or if you already have other funding), you might still be accepted for an adjunct position. Both as an adjunct student and a funded student, you can

  • apply for travel stipends for conference trips, summer schools, research visits
  • attend Hecse courses and summer/winter/spring/autumn schools
  • attend Hecse gettogethers
  • get your own support team
  • but you also have to report about your studies to Hecse
Eligibility

The applicants are expected to have a Master or Licentiate degree, as well as an interest in scientific research and the work of a researcher. The applicants, if accepted, are expected to engage themselves in full-time research and study for a maximum of four years. They are also expected to participate in the events organized by the doctoral programme. The progress of the research has to be reported periodically to the school.

Note that a student can only belong to one doctoral programme at a time.

Location

The positions are located either in the premises of the Department of Computer Science of the Faculty of Science at the University of Helsinki (UH) or in the Department of Information and Computer Science, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, or the Department of Media Technology in the School of Science at Aalto University (Aalto, previously TKK).

Salary

The salary for a funded doctoral student is based on levels 1 - 4 of the demands level chart for teaching and research personnel. With the salary component based on personal work performance the overall salary range is currently 1716,53 - 3451,58 euro per month.

The application
A typical application would include
  • Application form properly filled out and signed
  • Letter of Introduction
  • Research and study plan
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Officially confirmed copies of all relevant diplomas
  • Transcript of studies
  • Financing plan
  • TOEFL certificate
  • Copies of publications
  • Letters of recommendation

Detailed information about how the application should look like is given separately for each application call.