Hecse - Helsinki Graduate School in Computer Science and Engineering

 
Hecse
Applications 2010
Admission (general information)
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Autumn School 2010
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Application FAQ 2009

Admission

Hecse admits new students roughly once a year depending on available funding.

Adjunct position

Students may apply for an adjunct position in Hecse without funding. An adjunct position entitles the student to participate in Hecse events. Students with already guaranteed funding (holding a research position or employed by a university research project) are encouraged to apply for these adjunct positions.

The benefits of being an adjunct student include the right to apply for travel funds from Hecse and to participate in all Hecse activities (courses, gettogethers, summer schools). Both funded and adjunct students are also assigned a support team.

All applications will be considered for adjunct positions, except if the applicant is only applying for a funded position.

Application

Applicants can submit both pre-applications and full applications.

A pre-application is submitted, if the applicant does not yet have a supervisor within Hecse. The pre-application deadline was on 15 May 2009.

Applicants who have been accepted by a supervisor in the pre-application phase or students that already have a supervisor within Hecse can submit a full application.

Both applications are submitted electronically.

Curriculum vitae

A curriculum vitae should be at most three pages long and include among others the applicant's personal information (name, contact information, age), education (institutions, degrees, grade average) and work experience.

Diplomas

Electronic copies (scanned pdf) of relevant diplomas should be included both in the pre-application and the full application. Relevant diplomas are, e.g., diplomas for MSc and BSc degrees.

Applicants that are accepted for Hecse positions must submit officially confirmed (paper) copies of relevant diplomas when registering for PhD studies at the universities.

Diplomas must be in Finnish, Swedish or English. If not, they must be translated and the translations must be officially confirmed.

Applicants who have already been accepted as post-graduate students by the University of Helsinki or Helsinki University of Technology can use the normal Finnish style of confirming copies. There is no need for official confirmation of the diplomas.

Duration of Hecse funding

The funded doctoral student positions will start on 1 January, 2010 at the earliest. Funding is provided until the projected completion of the PhD studies, maximally for 48 months

Applicants should state for how long a period they would prefer funding and when the funding period would start. In normal cases, the period would start on 1 January 2010 (the earliest), but in some cases the funding period may start later (e.g., if the applicant already has some other funding/work commitment for the spring of 2010, the period could start on 1 August 2010).

Hecse expects students to finish their PhD degrees in 4 years and will take this into account when providing funding. If the applicant is not a fresh MSc graduate, he or she should describe the current status of his or her PhD studies and research. The applicant must state the estimated date of the PhD defense, and in such cases the date is expected to be roughly four years from the start of the PhD studies (not from the enrollment to Hecse). Admission to Hecse is based both on studies and research so far, as well as on the plan to complete them.

Eligibility

The applicant is 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 graduate school. The progress of the research has to be reported periodically to the school.

The official requirements for doctoral students are found in the study guides of the universities. Applicants should check especially the study guide of the university they are going to do their studies in. Please check the web pages of the Departments, especially their Studies pages:

Full application

Applicants who have been accepted by a supervisor in the pre-application phase or students that already have a supervisor within Hecse can submit a full application.

Funded position

The number of vacant funded positions varies yearly. The best applicants (unless applying only for adjunct positions) will be considered for funding. See also adjunct positions.

Language certificates

The language of Hecse is English. Students must know English well to be accepted to the school.

Applicants must provide a TOEFL certificates of their knowledge of English unless they had their education in English or unless they have a degree from a Finnish university.

If students have already been accepted as a PhD student to either the University of Helsinki or Helsinki University of Technology, they have already submitted proof of their language skills. When applying to Hecse, the student can then use the same certificate (TOEFL or some other certificate), but should make it clear in the application that he or she has already been accepted as a post-graduate student by either university (and indicate which university).

Letter of introduction

In the letter of introduction the applicant states his/her research interests, which unit and/or research group the applicant is associated with or would like to be associated with, the reasons for pursuing graduate studies in Hecse, and career objectives. (max 1 page)

Location

The positions are located either in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki or in the Department of Media Technology, the Department of Information and Computer Science or the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Helsinki University of Technology.

PhD studies portfolio

A PhD studies portfolio must be included in the application. It should contain the following parts.

Positions

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. Students with already guaranteed funding (holding a research position or employed by a university research project) are encouraged to apply for these adjunct positions.

The benefits of being an adjunct student include the right to apply for travel funds from Hecse and to participate in all Hecse activities (courses, gettogethers, summer schools). Both funded and adjunct students are also assigned a support team.

All applications will be considered for adjunct positions. The best applicants (unless applying only for adjunct positions) will be considered for funding.

Pre-application

A pre-application is submitted, if the applicant does not yet have a supervisor within Hecse. The pre-application deadline was on 15 May 2009.

Publications

If the applicant has publications, he or she should make a list of them with explanations of how the applicant has contributed to the publications (if there are several authors) and how the publication possibly will contribute to the applicant's forth-coming thesis.

At most three publications can be included in the application.

Recommendations

For full applications, the supervisor must submit a recommendation that must contain the supervisor's commitment to supervise the studies of the applicant for the Hecse graduate school, and if accepted, continuously monitor the student's research work. This recommendation has to state

In addition to the required recommendation from the supervisor, at most two other letters of recommendation can be sent to the coordinator before the deadline. Please use the web form (link on the applicaiton page).

Research and study plan

Full applications must include a detailed research and study plan for the whole period of PhD studies from start to finish. The plan should include at least the following sections (4-5 pages, with scientific references when appropriate and a reference list at the end).

  1. State of the art of the research field
  2. Planned research including methods
  3. Expected research results and time schedule including expected dissertation date (month and year)
  4. Concrete goals for the first two years of study
  5. Financing plan. The financing plan must indicate how the applicant is going to finance his or her full-time post-graduate studies. The plan should be as precise as possible. If the applicant is applying only for funding from Hecse this should be indicated in the financing plan.
  6. Reference list.

Also pre-applications may include a research and study plan.

Salary

The salary for a doctoral student is based on levels 1 - 4 of the demands level chart for teaching and research personnel of the university salary system. With the salary component based on personal work performance the overall salary range is 1 608 - 3 209 euros per month.

Selection

Admission to Hecse is based on the quality of the research and study plan, previous studies and research (if applicable), financing plan, recommendation from a supervisor in Hecse, and other possible indicators.

Supervisors

Hecse only admits applicants supervised by a member of the Hecse board who is working at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki, or the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Department of Information and Computer Science, or the Department of Media Technology at Helsinki University of Technology.

Applicants that do not yet have a supervisor should submit a pre-application for finding a supervisor.

The applicant should discuss the full application with current or potential supervisors within Hecse.

Transcripts of studies

A transcript of studies includes a list of all courses, number of credits and grades that the applicant has passed (Fi: opintorekisteriote, Sw: studieutdrag). Make sure that the transcript is well structured and readable. The transcript should be in English, Finnish or Swedish and the grading system (if differing from the Finnish one) should be explained.

This file was last modified on 22 Sep 2010.