You must attach PDF copies of your educational documents to your application form. In addition, you will usually need to provide separate certified copies of your educational documents. These documents must be submitted either as paper copies or electronically in accordance with the instructions below.
Officially certified copies issued by a Finnish notary public will also be accepted, unless there is a country specific requirement in place.
University of Helsinki evaluates the authenticity of your educational documents. Any malpractice (e.g. counterfeit documents or fraudulent information) will be reported to the relevant university and the authorities.
In general, you are eligible to apply for a doctorate if you meet these conditions:
Doctoral programmes may have additional, programme-specific / degree-specific rules for eligibility – please see the doctoral programmes' websites for further information.
Eligibility for doctoral studies must be proven by the deadline. Each application round has its own deadline.
You can apply for a study right if all studies included in your Master’s degree (or equivalent) have been completed, but you have not yet graduated. All the studies included in your degree must be in your transcript of records by the end of the application period. The transcript of records must be submitted according to the instructions on this page. Ask your study programme’s administrational staff for a free-form statement affirming that you have completed all studies included in your degree by the end of the application period, and submit the statement to Admission Services.
There is an exception to this rule in some doctoral programmes. If you have not yet completed all your studies, check from your programme’s own instructions, if you can still apply.
Attach a PDF copy of your degree certificate and transcript of records to your application form. These documents are used in the academic evaluation.
If you have completed your degree in Finland in 1995 or after, in general, you do not need to submit officially certified copies of your degree certificate and transcript of records. We get the information electronically
If you do not have a Finnish personal identity number, or if you have graduated before 1995, you should always submit officially certified copies according to the instructions listed below.
Follow these instructions to find the correct way to submit your official educational documents. If your educational document is not issued in English, Finnish or Swedish, you must submit the official translation following these same instructions.
Exception: Educational documents from China must be submitted in a specific way. Please see the country-specific instruction for China.
You must provide a proof of your language proficiency. Please find all the accepted methods of proving your language proficiency with detailed instructions here:
Please note that the University of Helsinki has a specified list of acceptable methods of proving your language proficiency. You cannot prove your language proficiency with any other methods
Some programmes require an application to be accompanied by a signed supporting statement form / contract / email from the instructor confirming that he/she is willing to act your supervisor. Please attach the document requested by your programme in PDF format in the space provided on the application form.
A student who has received a degree certificate has graduated. The degree certificate is a document issued by an institution to a student who has successfully completed all studies included in the degree. The degree certificate must include the following information:
NB: Never send us your original degree certificate, as enclosures to applications will not be returned. Only send attested copies of degree certificates.
You may be awarded a temporary or provisional degree certificate if you have completed all the studies included in the degree programme and the degree has been awarded or conferred, but your final degree certificate cannot be issued to you immediately upon graduation due to technical or administrative reasons. The temporary or provisional degree certificate must include the same information as a final degree certificate (see above).
Please note that a document stating only that the student has completed all the courses is not sufficient as a temporary degree certificate.
If your degree is a top-up degree, you must submit degree certificates or diplomas for the earlier parts as well as your final degree certificate.
Top-up degrees are, for example, higher national diplomas followed by a one-year bachelor’s top-up programme, or ordinary bachelor’s degree followed by a one-year bachelor honours degree.
If you receive two degrees at the end of your programme, you can choose which one or ones you wish to submit.
Dual degrees are programmes where, usually, two universities jointly run a programme and both award their own degree at end of the programme.
A transcript of records is a document listing the courses/study units you have completed at the institution. Other names for the document are, among others, academic records, marksheet, grade report etc., depending on the institution.
The transcript of records includes the following information:
Course names are required information for a transcript of records. If your transcript does not list course names, the document is not accepted.
If your transcript of records does not include the names of each course you have completed, for example if it only lists course codes, you must supplement your transcript with a document that lists the names of the courses. This can be, for example, a syllabus/course catalogue from the time of your studies.
Course grades (letter, numeric, or percentage) are required information for a transcript of records. If your transcript does not list course grades or some other form of course evaluation, the document is not accepted.
If your transcript does not list the grades awarded for each course you have completed, you must supplement your transcript with a document that lists the grades awarded for each course.
If your institution does not award grades for courses, you must supplement your transcript with an official document issued by the degree awarding institution that explains the evaluation system used at the institution.
If your institution does not use a credit system to describe the amount of study required per course, other systems such as marks or study hours per course are also accepted.
Course credits are recommended information for a transcript of records. If your transcript does not contain course credits, your transcript can be accepted, but it may affect the evaluation of your previous studies.
Course completion dates are accepted as exact dates, as months of completion, as semester of completion, or even as the year of completion.
It is also accepted if the transcript states your date of enrollment and graduation. Your date of enrollment and date of graduation are stated in your other officially certified educational documents.
Your transcript of records must mention the name of the degree programme that you are completing. If the name is not mentioned on the transcript of records, you must submit an official statement from your home institution indicating the name of the degree that will be awarded to you.
Transferred credits should be listed with the same information as courses completed at the transcript issuing institution. This means that transferred courses should have their names, grades, credits, and completion dates listed.
You can also submit an official transcript of records from the institution where you originally completed the courses.
If your degree contains studies completed at different institutions, for example as top-up studies, you must submit a transcript of records for each part of your degree.
For example, if your degree is a higher national diploma followed by a one-year bachelor’s top-up degree, you must submit a transcript of records for the higher national diploma as well as the top-up bachelor’s degree.
Additionally, if you have gained direct access to an advanced level in your degree, for example your transcript starts directly at second year or 200-level etc., you must submit a transcript of records or another document that cover the previous studies based on which you were admitted to the degree programme.
Any supplementary document to a transcript of records is considered an educational document and must be submitted following the instructions for submitting official educational documents. Please see the instructions for submitting educational document in the section "How to submit documents".
If your educational documents have not been issued in English, Finnish or Swedish, you must also submit official translations into one of these languages. You must also submit your official educational documents in the original language.
Official translations can be done by an official/registered/authorised translator or by the institution or organisation that issued the document in the original language.
Official translations must be certified on each page with the stamp and/or signature of the translator.
Applicants’ self-made translations are not accepted.
The translation of an educational document must be submitted as an official educational document. Please see the instructions in the section “How to submit documents”.
If your home institution uses an electronic credential service or there is a national register of educational documents that allows you to share your official educational documents, please use that service to share your educational documents directly from the service to the University of Helsinki.
Select the University of Helsinki from the service's list of registered recipients or, if the service requires a contact email address for sharing, use phd-admissions@helsinki.fi as the contact address.
Please refer to your institution’s own instructions for more details on how to access the service that your institution uses. University of Helsinki is unable to assist you in using your home institution’s services.
Below is a list of some common electronic document services that are accepted by the University of Helsinki Admission Services:
If your institution uses a service that is not listed here, please contact us, and we will investigate whether we can accept your documents through this service as well.
Please note that the University of Helsinki reserves the right to make the final decision on whether a service is accepted or not. If we are unable to verify the required information, you must submit a paper copy of the document, officially certified, in accordance with the general instructions.
We accept electronic educational documents that contain a verification code that can we can use to verify the document and its contents using an electronic verification service used by the degree awarding institution.
The following requirements must be met for the the verification to be accepted:
Please note the following restrictions:
Please note that we cannot guarantee that we can accept verification services in languages other than English, Finnish or Swedish. If the service is available only in other languages, we will try our best to use the service. However, if we are unable to use the service due to it being in another language, you must submit your documents via some other accepted method.
We accept documents that have been electronically signed with a valid digital signature (so called Adobe blue ribbon) by the awarding institution. A valid digital signature appears as a blue ribbon when the document is opened in Adobe Reader. The signature must be issued by the awarding institution, and the signature must be valid when the document is opened.
The University of Helsinki reserves the right to evaluate each digitally signed document case by case and reject documents that do not meet the requirements.
Upload the digitally signed document as a PDF file in the application system after you have submitted your application.
Conditionally accepted applicants: Send the digitally signed document by email to phd-admissions@helsinki.fi Please write "Conditionally accepted applicant" and your application number in the email subject field.
Note! You must have submitted your application and received an application number before using this delivery method.
If your institution does not use any electronic credential services (such as Digitary, Parchment, MyEquals, CSSD/CHESICC, Truecopy etc.) to share official educational documents, you may ask that your institution sends your official electronic educational documents by email directly to the University of Helsinki to the following email address:
In order for the document to be accepted, certain requirements must be met:
Documents sent by email that do not meet the above requirements are not accepted. Please give the above instructions to your institution's representative when requesting that they send your documents.
1. You submit your documents via Digitary by the deadline. Your documents will be accepted and your application will proceed to evaluation.
2. Your electronic document contains a link to your institution's verification service. The service verifies all the information in your document. Your documents will be accepted and your application will proceed to assessment.
3. Your document has a QR code, which when scanned opens a text file that says: "Document is valid". The text file will not be considered as a verification of your document, and your application will not proceed to evaluation.
4. You have received an official PDF document with security features from your institution. You attach an additional page to the file to say that the degree has been completed in English. Due to the addition the security features in the document become invalid. The document is no longer officially certified and your application will not proceed to evaluation.
5. You provide a link to a verification system. The system requires a separate application to be downloaded. This is not possible. Your documents cannot be verified your application will not proceed to evaluation.
6. You send us scans of your documents that cannot be verified electronically. Your application will not proceed to evaluation.
7. You attach to the application form PDF copies of paper documents that you scanned yourself. The documents cannot be verified by any electronic system. Your application will not proceed to evaluation.
8. You have received officially certified paper copies from your institution. You scan them and send them to us by email. The documents you have submitted are not officially certified and your application will not proceed to evaluation.
9. Your institution sends us PDF copies of your documents. The sending address belongs to a professor who does not have an administrative role. The documents will not be accepted and your application will not proceed to evaluation.
10. Your institution sends us PDF copies of your documents via email. The sending address is not available on the institution's public website. The documents will not be accepted and your application will not proceed to evaluation.
You only need to submit physical copies of your educational documents if none of the electronic delivery methods mentioned above are not available to you.
If that is the case, you must submit your official educational documents or officially certified copies of your educational documents as physical documents to the Admission Services.
Please note that you should not send any unique documents that you cannot have easily replaced, as the sent documents will not be returned to the applicants after the application round.
If you choose to provide us with the original documents, the following requirements apply:
Please note that physical educational documents awarded in certain countries must be certified and/or submitted following country-specific requirements. These requirements must be followed first and foremost, whenever applicable, if you are required to send physical documents. Please find the requirements here:
The University of Helsinki will only accept officially certified copies of educational documents. Country specific requirements take precedence over these guidelines, so please check the country specific requirements first.
The authenticity of an official copy of a document can be attested in the following ways:
Other copies will not be recognised as officially certified copies. For example, the following are not officially certified copies:
If you request officially certified copies from an educational institution, make sure that the copies you submit to the University of Helsinki meet the following criteria:
o Official stamps of educational institutions usually bear the name and symbol of the institution.
o A stamp that simply says "certified copy" is not an official stamp of the institution.
If you cannot obtain officially certified copies of your academic documents from the awarding institution, you may submit legalised copies of your academic documents.
Legalisation takes place by two different means depending on whether the country where the documents were issued is a signatory to the Hague Convention of 1961. Documents issued in countries that have ratified the Hague Convention are legalised by the issuance of an Apostille Certificate. The Apostille Certificate is a stamp or paper certificate attached to the documents. Documents issued by other countries are legalised in two steps: first by the foreign ministry of the issuing country, then by a competent Finnish Embassy or Finnish Consulate of that country.
The Apostille Certificate (stamp or paper certificate) is necessary if the document has been issued by the authorities of a country that has ratified the Hague Convention of 1961. Information on the Hague Convention as well as an English language list of its member states can be found through the link below.
Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents
The same link also provides information about the authorities issuing Apostille Certificates in the various countries.
The Apostille certificate must be firmly and clearly attached to all the documents whose authenticity it verifies.
If the country where your educational documents have been issued is not a signatory of the Hague Convention, a document is legalised in two stages. First the foreign ministry of the issuing country legalises the documents. Then a competent Finnish Embassy or Finnish Consulate in that country certifies the competence of that foreign ministry to issue such legalisation.
1. You submit a paper copy, certified by a German notary. This authentication is not accepted and your application will be rejected not proceed to evaluation d.
2. You have had an apostilled copy of your documents made. You scan and print the apostilled documents and send us the copies you have made yourself. Your self-produced copies will not be accepted and your application will not proceed to evaluation.
3. You send us the paper copies certified by a Finnish notary public. The documents will be accepted and your application will proceed to evaluation.
If you are submitting paper attachments, please clearly mark on the envelope that it is for a doctoral application by writing the name of your doctoral programme in the address information. If you are applying to several doctoral programmes at the University of Helsinki, you only need to submit each document once.
Courier services (e.g., DHL, UPS) are often the fastest and safest way of sending your educational attachments.
Please Note! When sending out your documents make sure to send them to the address below. Do not send your documents to any other mail box, pick up location, parcel point etc. as we do not have access to any third party pick up location. Your documents must arrive at University of Helsinki directly.
University of Helsinki
PhD Admissions
Doctoral Programmes / name of the programme
Unioninkatu 40
00170 Helsinki
Phone number: 02941 21601 (no customer service, only for courier services)
We recommend using a courier service to be able to track your shipment. University of Helsinki is not responsible for services provided by courier services, or any delays or damage caused by them.
We strongly recommend using a courier service for shipments from outside the European Union instead of regular mail.
If you send the documents by regular mail, kindly note that all documents coming from outside EU/EEA -area need to go through custom clearance. To avoid custom clearance, do not indicate any monetary value to your documents when mailing them.
If your documents go through customs clearance, you need to do the clearance beforehand by using this form Private person’s declaration of goods imported from outside the customs and fiscal territory of the EU.
If an amount is required and 0 € is not allowed, a sum of 0.01 € (or equivalent in your own currency) can be given.
It is always the applicant’s responsibility to make sure that the application documents reach the University of Helsinki by the deadline. University of Helsinki will not process any application documents that have arrived after the deadline.
Please Note! When sending out your documents make sure to send them to the address below. Your documents must arrive at University of Helsinki directly.
University of Helsinki
PhD Admissions
Doctoral Programmes / name of the programme
PL 24
00014 Helsingin yliopisto
University of Helsinki is not responsible for services provided by postal services, or any delays or damage caused by them.
You can drop off your attachments in the letterbox located at Unioninkatu 40, on the corner of Unioninkatu and Yrjö-Koskisen katu streets in Helsinki. Attachments can be dropped off in the letterbox at any time, but please note that the attachments must be dropped off in the letterbox before 15.00 local Helsinki time to be considered as having arrived during the same day. If you drop off attachments in the letterbox after 15.00, the attachments are considered to have arrived on the following weekday.
NB! Do not give documents intended for Admission Services to porters or drop them off in any other letterbox than the one designated for this purpose.
If you have read all the instructions, and you still have questions about applying for doctoral studies, please contact Admission services: phd-admissions@helsinki.fi You can also reach us via phone and chat: You can find the contact information and opening hours here.