New Structure of Doctoral Degrees Starting August 26, 2024

The scope of doctoral studies included in the doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki will change from 40 credits to 30 credits. This decision is effective immediately, and doctoral researchers may transition to the new requirements by January 2025 at the latest. See detailed instructions for transitioning below.  

The change will affect the current curricula of doctoral programmes. You can check the new degree structure for your doctoral programme on the degree structure page of the Student services or in Sisu. Examining the degree structure in Sisu:  

1. Go to sisu.helsinki.fi.

2. Select Structure of Studies. 

3. The link opens your study plan. The study plan contains information on the degree structure of your programme or study track. 

4. You can view course descriptions by clicking on the course code.  

All doctoral researchers can immediately start following the new requirements.  

If you were granted the right to pursue a doctoral degree before August 1, 2024, you may choose to complete studies in accordance with the previous requirements of 40 credits and register them as completed entities by July 31, 2026.  

After July 31, 2026, all doctoral researchers will transition to doctoral degrees that include 30 credits of doctoral studies. In such cases, the degree certificate will indicate 30–35 credits of doctoral studies.  

You cannot include study modules or individual courses in your degree that are more than ten years old. Courses and modules remain valid until the end of the semester in which their expiration date occurs.  

If you wish to transition to the new doctoral study requirements, you need to create a new study plan in Sisu based on the 2025–2026 curriculum period. See the Sisu guide: Study Plan for Doctoral Studies, and remember to mark the plan as your primary plan. The study plan will automatically conform to the new requirements.  

The new rector's decisions do not affect the curriculum for general transferable skills for the years 2023–2026.  

Doctoral researchers, whose study right begins on 1.8.2023, will start their studies according to the curriculum 2023-2026 (OPS).

In all the University of Helsinki doctoral programmes, the studies included in the degree are divided into two study modules:

• Discipline-specific studies (20 credits)
• General competence studies (10 credits)

Doctoral researchers who started their studies before 1.8.2023 can graduate according to the curriculum 2020-2023 structure. 

Before registering for courses, change the current academic year's versions of the courses in your study plan. 

Some course codes have changed. The changed courses will be replaced, if necessary, by courses from the new curriculum according to the equivalence table. You can use the equivalence table if you are moving to a degree under the latest curriculum and have completed courses from the old curriculum that you want to fit into the new degree structure. You can also use the equivalence table if you are completing a degree under a curriculum that has expired and you are looking for substitutes for courses that have been withdrawn.

If you are moving to a new curriculum, you can use your previous courses to replace courses in the new curriculum according to the equivalence table.

See the substitution table between the new and old curriculum (docx file).

You do not need to apply for a separate approval for the course equivalences indicated in the equivalence table, but you can substitute courses in Sisu via the Substitutions tab of the course catalogue, as shown in the example:

Health-119 Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (3 credits) is replaced by the new course PHD-103. There is a direct substitution between these courses in Sisu and you can change the new course in your study plan from the Substitutions tab of the course brochure.

Note! Changes already approved in free edit mode are not automatically carried over to the new version.

If you are transferring to the new curriculum, please note that the curriculum 2020-2023 General competence studies (10 cr) module code (Health-997, YEB-997, DONAS-997, X-Y910) is now PHD-997. To change the version of a module, use the Substituting one study module with another in the free edit mode instruction.

In addition, some course names will change. The new course names will be updated in your SISU study plan when you change to the latest version of the courses, i.e. 2023-2024, before registering for the course.

Substitution table for 2020-23 and 2023-26 curricula