Teaching and course registration for doctoral researchers

In the Course-service you can browse courses by doctoral programme or search for specific courses for example with study unit codes.

When you find a suitable course, add it to your study plan in Sisu, and then move to Sisu's study calendar to register for it:

1. First add the course to your primary study plan and then select the method of completion and teaching dates through the course brochure.
2. From the course brochure, verify the compulsory requirements and registration period for your selected course.
3. When the registration period is open, go to the Study calendar in Sisu to complete your registration.
4. For your registration to be approved, the following conditions must be met:
   1. You have registered for attendance for the duration of the course.
   2. You have a valid right to study for the duration of the course.
   3. You have included the course in your primary study plan.
   4. You have completed the prerequisites set for the course (you can find the selection criteria, if any, in the course brochure).
5. When the selection criteria have been reviewed, you will receive a tentative approval or tentative rejection of your registration. If you do not meet some of the conditions listed above, for example, you have not registered for the academic year, do so and then register for the course in question.
6. You will receive a final confirmation about being admitted to the course at the end of the registration period, when the registrations have been confirmed. For some courses, your registration might be confirmed automatically right after your registration (enrolment with direct confirmation).

For further information and detailed instructions (with screen captures) for registration to courses, see the Sisu user instruction Registering for teaching and examinations. N.B.! If there are more registrations than there are places on a course that is part of the transferable skills courses organized buy the doctoral school and the registered are on an equal footing on the basis of the selection criteria, the students are selected on the basis of a draw.

Doctoral programmes organise teaching related to the discipline-specific studies of the degree. You can look courses up in Sisu or the browse course listings by doctoral programme in the Courses service. Follow also your email: Upcoming courses are normally announced by email.

The Doctoral School organises teaching in transferable skills to all doctoral students. Information on these is also available in Sisu and the Courses service.

The Doctoral school offers regular teaching in Research Ethics, because Research Ethics is a part of every doctoral programme’s degree requirements. It’s recommendable to participate in a Research Ethics course early on in your studies, as knowing the practices and principles will be useful when conducting research work.

Some doctoral programmes organise joint teaching with master’s programmes in the same discipline. Information on these courses is available in the course catalogue of your doctoral programme. In addition, some of the master’s programmes have opened their optional study modules also to students from other degree programmes. Doctoral students can also complete these studies. The suitability of optional master’s level courses as a part of a doctoral degree must be checked separately, for example, from the supervisor or person responsible for approving the studies according to the practices of the doctoral programme. Further information about optional study modules in master’s programmes open to students from other degree programmes as well as regulations related to them is available in the instructions for undergraduates. If a master’s programme offers a module for students from other degree programmes, it does not mean that you should complete the whole module. You may also complete only an individual course that you find interesting from the module.

The Helsinki University Library organises instruction in seeking information and managing references. Further information on upcoming courses is available on the UH library website.

The University of Helsinki Language Centre provides teaching in over ten languages. Further information about the Language Centre’s course offerings is available in the instructions for undergraduate students

This page contains the key information on transferable skills studies, upcoming courses, course registration practices and admission criteria, as well as other matters to be taken into consideration. 

In addition to the doctoral thesis, the doctoral degree comprises 30-credit doctoral studies, which consist of: 

• Discipline-specific studies, primarily organised by doctoral programmes that support doctoral thesis work and the development of expertise in one's own discipline, and 
   
• Transferable skills studies, primarily organised by the University of Helsinki Doctoral School, targeted at doctoral researchers in all doctoral programmes. The goal of transferable skills studies is to support the sustainable development of one's researcher and expert identities as well as career planning. 

In Sisu, the code for general skills is PHD-990. 

The provision of teaching throughout the academic year, including teaching periods, is now available to facilitate the planning of studies. If new courses are to be organised during the academic year, we will update the information on this page and notify you by email via the doctoral school mailing list. Up-to-date information on course offerings and teaching information is also available in the Studies Service Courses-page and Sisu. 

Courses in transferable skills are organised primarily by the University of Helsinki Doctoral School (course codes PHD-XXX) in cooperation with the Language Centre (course codes KK-PHD-ENGXXX), the Library (course codes LIB-XXX) and Science Communications (course codes TIVI-YXXX) services. Doctoral programmes also offer part of the studies in general transferable skills. 

Read about the curriculum for 2026 -2030 in Sisu, as well as the available courses and other completion methods. Please note that course offerings vary from year to year. Below are the courses currently planned and known for the academic year 2026 -2027, as well as their dates and forms of teaching. 

Fall 2026

Spring 2027

CONTINUOUS AND OTHER COURSES 2026-2027    

Not all studies in transferable skills require registration in Sisu. Such studies include popularisation, tutoring, supervision, mentoring, and other similar activities that support the specialist and research community. 

Transferable skills studies may also include MOOCs and courses offered by other universities. Tohtori+ is an agreement under which doctoral researchers can apply for, free of charge, a fixed-term right to complete the doctoral theses of another university in the Tohtori+ network and include them in their degrees. 

You can read more from the Recognition of prior learning and competences instruction page. 

Nature Masterclasses service offers online transferable skills courses. The organisation licence of the University of Helsinki Doctoral School is valid until 9 June 2027 and provides all University of Helsinki users with access to the online courses. Further information on these studies is available in Sisu under the PHD-990 module.

Courses in transferable skills studies are organised on all campuses, with contact teaching, remote teaching and hybrid teaching available. Some of the courses are intensive, while others take longer courses. 

In most courses, registration opens four weeks before the beginning of the course and ends two weeks before the beginning of the course. However, this is not the case for all courses, so always check course-specific registration details: for example, some courses beginning in early January for which a longer registration period has been set due to holidays in December, some courses requiring advance assignments and some courses for which the teacher manually selects the participants. 

While general skills courses are primarily open to all doctoral researchers at the University of Helsinki, some courses organised by the Language Centre have teaching groups targeted at specific disciplines. Always check the course target group, admission criteria and other information on Sisu before registering. 

Important: Participant selection and the draw on courses that exceed capacity 

In Sisu, read the course admissions criteria before registering. If the course's participant capacity is not exceeded, doctoral researchers who belong to the target group and meet the admission criteria are usually automatically admitted to courses in transferable skills studies. 

If the course's participant capacity is exceeded and there are more people in equal standing than there are places in the course, all participants in the course will be selected for the courses organised by the doctoral school primarily with a draw that is done automatically by Sisu. At the same time, Sisu will place the rest of the registrants who fulfill the course participation criteria on a waiting list in a random order. If places become available, the course teacher will contact those on the waiting list. 

The purpose of the lottery is to ensure the fairest possible opportunity for all applicants. 

Example: A course has a capacity for 30 participants. After the registration period, 57 doctoral researchers have registered for the course, of whom 40 meet the course selection criteria. In this situation, Sisu will automatically complete a draw where it selects 30 participants from the 40 participants selected for the course that meet the selection criteria. The 10 registrants who fulfill the selection criteria but are not selected in the draw are assigned to a waiting list in a random order. 17 registered applicants who do not meet the admissions criteria will be rejected and will not be included in the draw. 

Always check the status of your registration only after the course registration has ended: During the registration process, Sisu will display the status of your registration as a current estimate. The preliminary status is not final, and nothing can be inferred from it regarding the final admissions. The final information on the selection process will be confirmed only after the closing of the registration and the potential draw. 

Cancelling your registration 

If you choose not to attend the course, it is very important that you cancel your registration in Sisu or by email at uni-help@helsinki.fi as soon as possible. Cancelled seats are offered to those on the waiting list. 

If you encounter technical problems, please contact Uni Help. 

Instructions for registration can be found here: Sisu instructions: Registration for teaching and examinations 

Course feedback is an important part of teaching development. We kindly ask all participants to provide feedback through the University of Helsinki’s Norppa feedback system after completing a course. A feedback link will be automatically sent to confirmed participants by email. 

All feedback we receive is carefully reviewed and used in support of continuous teaching development.