Hecse - Helsinki Graduate School in Computer Science and Engineering

Admission

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 who have found a supervisor within Hecse can submit a full application.

In 2010 there has been no pre-application phase (as in 2009).

Curriculum vitae

Diplomas

Electronic copies (scanned pdf) of relevant diplomas should be included in the 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.

The funded doctoral student positions will start on 1 January, 2011 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 2011 (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 2011, the period could start on 1 August 2011).

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:

Funded position

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

Location

PhD studies portfolio

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.

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

• the name of the applicant,
• the commitment of the supervisor to supervise the applicant if accepted,
• the planned topic (or field) of the dissertation,
• the estimated date for the dissertation, and
• an outline of the funding plan in case the applicant is admitted to a non-funded adjunct position

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

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.

Salary

Selection

Supervisors

Each student is assigned a support team of two reseachers. The team meets at least twice a year with the student to discuss the progress of the student, and to hear the student's presentation.

In the application, students are required to specify two support team members (typically one professor and one docent or post-doc, not from the student's or supervisor's research group, and preferrably from another department or university). In case of doubt, applicants should discuss with their supervisors about who could be their support team members.

Transcripts of studies

This file was last modified on 22 Sep 2010.