PhD survey

The survey is part of the Doctoral Experience research, which is part of the research-based development of doctoral education at the University of Helsinki. It aims to better understand the PhD process and to identify the factors that facilitate and hinder it. Doctoral researchers' experiences of working on their doctoral theses are key to understanding the doctoral process.

For example, the survey will explore doctoral researchers' experiences of motivation, well-being in doctoral studies, and support from supervisors and the research community. The survey will provide doctoral researchers with information and feedback to support their doctoral research.

• You can log to the system using your University’s user account.

The results of the survey will be published later in autumn 2025, with more information to follow.

The survey can be answered in Finnish, Swedish or English. 

Note: If you want to change the language of the survey, please change the language in the survey settings. Do not use the web browser's own translator.

Once the survey is open, the doctoral researcher will receive an invitation to the survey by email and can access the survey by logging in to the Unihow system using their university's user account. It takes 15-20 minutes to complete the survey.

The survey cannot be saved in progress, so the respondent must complete the survey in its entirety. 

Some questions are mandatory and respondents will only receive feedback on these mandatory questions.

The survey covers many topics related to doctoral research, such as: interest in doctoral studies, supervisor support, research environment and collaboration, well-being, thesis committee activities, meeting personal needs, using generative AI, teaching support, and career plans. 

The contents of the survey are based on university pedagogical research. The survey also asks for permission to use the doctoral researcher's answers in research.

After the deadline for responding to the survey, the doctoral researcher will receive an email message that his/her/their feedback is available for reading. In the feedback, the doctoral researcher will receive information and tips compiled by researchers and experts to support the doctoral research process. The purpose of the feedback is to help structure the experience of the doctoral research process and identify the factors that influence it. 

The feedback is personal and can only be seen by the doctoral researcher. The doctoral researcher can print this feedback either as a hard copy or as a PDF file via a web browser. The feedback can be discussed with, for example, the supervisor and the thesis committee.

In addition to the personal feedback, the doctoral researcher can also see how his/her/their own answers relate to those of other doctoral researchers.

After the feedback, you will receive information and tips on the following topics: 

1. motivation
2. supervisory support
3. research community support
4. research engagement
5. burnout 

Your experience may vary at different stages of the process. You can use the feedback to support your doctoral study path.

The PhD survey will be conducted using the University of Helsinki's UniHow system. The University’s Centre for University Teaching and Learning (HYPE) is responsible for the content and development of the survey and for the Doctoral Experience research. You can find out more about HYPE on the Centre's website.

The survey is hosted on the Funidata online platform, so that it can be used in the future also in other Finnish higher education institutions. As Funidata is responsible for the services of the survey, its name will appear, for example, in the email address of the invitation message. Nevertheless, the data collected from survey via UniHow is owned by the University of Helsinki.

The PhD survey uses the responses of those who have given permission for research to explore doctoral researchers' experiences of their motivation, their well-being in doctoral studies, and the support of their supervisor and research community. Please read the privacy notice for the PhD survey and the Doctoral Experience research (dated 17.2.2025, PDF-file).

The data will be analysed at HYPE. The results will be reported at group level so that individual respondents cannot be identified.

In case of revoking the survey permission, please contact lotta.tikkanen@helsinki.fi.

Please contact us as follows:

• if you have any questions about the PhD survey itself, please contact your doctoral programme senior advisor in the first instance. For contact details, see instruction page Services for Doctoral Education.
• In case of technical problems with the survey, please send an email to learn-support@helsinki.fi