Information for rejected applicants

If you were not granted a study right in a University of Helsinki doctoral programme and you consider the admission decision to be erroneous, you may lodge an appeal for rectification.

The appeal is meant for a situation where University of Helsinki has made a mistake in the processing or evaluation of your application. If the rejection is due to something other than our mistake, the decision cannot be changed by lodging an appeal.

In the appeal you must clearly state which mistake the University of Helsinki has made and how we should correct the mistake.

An appeal cannot be accompanied by a supplemented research plan or by the submission of enclosures for which the deadline for submission has expired.

The appeal must be submitted in writing, indicating the following:

• Appealed decision
• Section to be rectified in the decision
• Manner of rectification
• Grounds for the appeal
• Your contact details (name, address, email address, telephone number)

All supporting documents must be submitted together with the appeal.

Please draft an individual appeal for each application option whose admission results you consider erroneous.

Appeals can be submitted to the University of Helsinki Admissions Services after the student admission results have been published. The exact deadline for appealing is stated separately for each application period. Appeals received after the deadline will not be processed.

You can submit your appeal to University of Helsinki Admissions Services in any of the following ways:

1. Email

You may submit your appeal by email to the following address:

Please write Appeal in the subject field, followed by the application option that your appeal concerns (for example, Appeal: April round, Doctoral Programme in Economics). Submit your appeal preferably from the email address you entered in the application form used to apply to the University of Helsinki.

2. Encrypted email

If your appeal contains confidential information, you may submit your appeal as an encrypted email.

In most cases, it is not necessary to include confidential information, such as your national identification number or information about your health or life situation, in your appeal as they are not included in the admissions criteria that are considered in the admission process. If you wish to include confidential information in your appeal, we recommend that you submit your appeal by encrypted email.

To submit an encrypted email to the Admission Services, please follow the instructions on this website: 

3. By regular mail or personal delivery to the Admission Services mailbox

If e-mailing your appeal is not possible, appeals can also be submitted by regular mail or by delivering them personally to the Admission Services mailbox. Please follow the instructions under

Please note that appeals submitted by regular mail must arrive to the Admission Services by the deadline announced in your admission results letter. All deadlines are receipt deadlines, not postmark deadlines.

Please submit your appeal to Admissions Services in only one of the three methods stated above. It is not necessary to submit your appeal in multiple different ways. Please note that appeals must be submitted specifically to Admissions Services, and not to any other unit of the University of Helsinki (such as the Registry, faculties or Student Services).

University of Helsinki Admissions Services reviews all appeals in an expedited process. The approximate processing time for appeals is one to two months. After your appeal has been processed, we will notify you of the decision by email or regular mail. If your appeal is rejected or not considered, instructions for appealing the decision through the administrative court will be given with the notification.

1. Your application has been rejected because you have not submitted the required enclosures by the deadline. You ask to reconsider your application. There has been no mistake on the part of the University of Helsinki and the decision will not be changed.
2. Your application has been rejected because you have not proven your language skills. However, you have submitted the required documents of a degree that meets the language requirements. In your appeal, you show that the language requirement has been met and ask for your application to be reconsidered. The University of Helsinki has made an mistake and your application will be re-examined.
3. Your application has been rejected due to inadequate supervision arrangements.
   1. In your application, you have named the supervisors that interest you, but you have not provided a supporting statement, even though your programme required one. There has been no mistake on the part of the University of Helsinki and the decision will not be changed.
   2. The supervision arrangements you have listed do not meet the programme or faculty requirements. There has been no mistake by the University of Helsinki and the decision will not be changed.
4. Your application has been rejected because there were insufficient supervision resources available. You have applied for a programme where the initial support of one supervisor is sufficient at the application stage. A second supervisor and/or coordinating academic for your research project has not been found during the application process. In order to be accepted, your application must have two supervisors and an coordinating academic. No mistake has been made by the University of Helsinki and the decision will not be changed.
5. Your application has been rejected because your research plan has been found to be insufficient. You submit an edited research plan with your appeal. The appeal concerns the application that you have submitted within the application period. An appeal cannot be used to complement your application. The edited research plan will not be taken into account in the evaluation of your application. 
6. Your application has been rejected because your previous academic record was insufficient. The University of Helsinki's doctoral programmes are competitive and not all eligible applications are successful.
7. Your application has been rejected because your educational background does not provide a sufficient basis for your chosen target degree. In many programmes, you will have to choose from several possible faculties and degrees. However, not all degrees can be obtained with any educational background. Check your programme’s admission instructions for specific requirements.