Applying docentship

According to Section 89 of the Universities Act (558/2009), a university may award the title of docent to a person who has comprehensive knowledge of his or her own field, a capacity for independent research or artistic work demonstrated through publication or some other manner, and good teaching skills.

A docent must possess the language skills required of teaching and research staff at the University of Helsinki. Applicants for the title of docent must display command of the language of instruction (Finnish or Swedish) and satisfactory oral and written skills in Finnish and Swedish. According to Section 32 of the University Regulation, en exemption from the language requirements for docents can be granted without a separate application to foreign citizens, non-native Finnish citizens or citizens who have not been educated in Finnish or Swedish.

According to Section 52 of the University Regulations, the Chancellor shall grant the title of docent.

Before deciding on the matter, the Faculty Council will request statements on the applicant's academic qualifications from two scientific assessors, unless, for special reasons, the Council considers the statements unnecessary.

The Faculty´s Teaching Skills Committee will issue a statement on the applicant's teaching skills.

If the Faculty Council finds that the applicant fulfills the requirements for the title of docent, the Council will submit a proposal of appointment to the Chancellor. 

The Faculty of Science requires that applicants for a docentship have enough scientific publications in addition to the doctoral dissertation for the publications in the field of the docentship to equal another dissertation evaluated with the grade good in terms of scientific significance and scope.

In addition, the Faculty requires that the applicant shows evidence of having pursued an independent line of research and thus of independence in general.

The Faculty requires that in assessing the competence of an applicant for docentship, sufficient attention be paid to the following:

• the applicant’s publications in international refereed publication series, 
• the applicant’s contribution to authorship in his or her most central publications, 
• whether the applicant has proof of embarking on an independent career as a scholar (for example, funding received for research), 
• the applicant's participation in the supervision of theses and scientific research, and 
• the applicant's active participation in the international activities and conferences of his or her field.

The Faculty requires the scientific assessor to explicitly state in their report whether these conditions are met and whether the applicant fulfills the requirements for docentship. For this reason, the assessor must analyze the scientific works of the applicants at sufficient length in the statement.

The special status of the docentship will be taken into consideration when assessing the good teaching skills required of a docent. A docent may participate in the teaching of his or her discipline as agreed on a case-by-case basis, but will have no teaching duties.

In compliance with the Chancellor’s instructions, a demonstration of teaching skills is normally required of all applicants for the title of docent. The duration of the lecture will be approximately 25 minutes. The topic of the demonstration should be of interest to students of the field, and should be such that it could be part of the curriculum of the discipline. The applicant may use notes when giving the lecture. The teaching demonstrations related to docentship applications at the Faculty of Science are organized remotely via Zoom. When assessing the lecture this table is used in support.

Quality categories approved by the Faculty will be used to assess the demonstration, taking into consideration the structuring of the teaching situation and the topic, the presentation of the scientific background of the topic, as well as the applicant’s interaction skills and ability to utilise teaching aids and materials. The demonstration lecture will be graded as follows: passable – satisfactory – good – very good – excellent.

Academics often apply for a docentship at a stage of their career when they have less extensive teaching experience or pedagogical training than for example university lectureship applicants. Consequently, the quality of the teaching demonstration often carries considerable weight in the overall assessment of the applicant’s teaching skills.  

In the assessment of the applicant’s teaching skills, prior teaching experience, pedagogical training, the ability to produce teaching material, additional teaching qualifications, the demonstration lecture and the subsequent discussion with the Committee for the Assessment of Teaching Skills will each be considered separately. Thus the applicant always receives a statement describing both the strengths displayed during the assessment and the areas related to teaching in which he or she has thus far shown fewer merits.

The overall assessment of the teaching skills will summarise whether the applicant meets the docentship criteria (i.e., whether his or her teaching skills are sufficient). When a docent applies for a teaching and research position, his or her teaching skills will be evaluated separately in view of the qualification requirements of the position in question. In this assessment, the applicant’s teaching skills are deemed insufficient for the position of a professor or university lecturer.

At the Faculty of Science the application periods for title of Docent are fixed. In the academic year 2024-2025 the applications periods are 15.-31.8.2024, 15.-31.10.2024, 15.-31.1.2025, and 15.-30.4.2025. The dates for teaching demonstrations are 15.11.2024, 15.1.2025, 15.4.2025 and 13.6.2025.

The title of docent can be applied by submitting an application through the University of Helsinki´s recruitment system during the application periods.

• External applicants apply by logging into the recruitment system here, first by creating an account.
• Applicants with helsinki.fi user account and either a valid employment contract, grant researcher contract, visiting researcher or visiting professor contract at the University of Helsinki apply here by first logging in with the UH user ID.

The Faculty requests that prospective applicants for a docentship first consult with a relevant department head or discipline coordinator before submitting an application. In addition to other issues related to the application of a docentship (the field of the docentship, scientific qualifications), there will also be a preliminary consideration of the applicant’s teaching qualifications at this point. The department’s position on the field of the docentship will be clarified in the consultations. If the field of the title of docent is new (the Faculty has no docents in the field), the department must provide the Faculty with a statement describing the docentship and its purpose. 

Only applications submitted through the recruitment system in accordance with the application instructions and sent within the application periods will be processed at the next meeting of the Faculty of Science Docent Committee. Deficient applications are not considered.

Application

The following attachments as PDF files in English must be enclosed to the application:

1. An application letter addressed to the Faculty of Science Docent Committee, which communicates
   • the field of the applied docentship (in Finnish or Swedish, and in English) and the department in which the docentship would be located
   • information on which department representative the applicant has consulted with regarding the application
   • the desired topic, target group, language (Finnish, Swedish or English) and date of the teaching demonstration
2. A cv, a list of publications and a description of the applicant´s teaching merits or an academic portfolio incorporating the aforementioned documents
   • The applicant is asked to list the publications that are in Web of Science and to mark the publications that they have made since their dissertation. In addition, the applicant is asked to indicate which post-PhD publications they personally think would as a whole form another good dissertation.
3. The applicant´s self-assessment of their teaching skills
   • The applicant is asked to assess their teaching skills against the Faculty of Science´s assessment matrix for teaching skills by giving themselves a grade (passable – satisfactory – good – very good – excellent) in each area of assessment (excluding the demonstration of teaching skills) and motivating the grades with their related teaching merits.

In addition

• If the applicant is not employed by the University of Helsinki and cannot be granted an exemption from language requirements (see Granting the title of docent), copies of certificates attesting to the applicant’s skills in the Finnish and Swedish languages must accompany the application. The required language skills are typically incorporated into the applicant’s studies and are indicated in the degree diploma. Official certificates of language proficiency are also considered proof of language skills.
• If the non-Finnish is not an employee at the University of Helsinki, they must also present copies of their passport and doctoral diploma, certified by two people.

The applicant does not have to submit their publications when submitting the application, but they can be sent directly to scientific assessors at a later stage of the application process.

For more information on applying, please contact hr-kumpula@helsinki.fi. 

Received applications are processed by the Faculty of Science Docent Committee, which includes a professor representative from each department of the Faculty. The committee always assembles approx. 2-3 weeks after each application period to process applications.

If the Docent Committee supports an application, it proceeds to the assessment of scientific competence and/or the assessment of teaching skills. The Committee can also choose not to support an application. Information on this decision and its grounds is sent to the applicant. At the same time, the Committee gives instructions on how to supplement the application. If the Docent Committee does not support the application, the applicant may apply again after obtaining the missing merits.

After receiving statements from the scientific assessors and the the Teaching Skills Committee, the Faculty Council will decide whether the applicant meets the requirements for the title of docent and whether a proposal of appointment will be made to the Chancellor.

For more information on the process, please contact hr-kumpula@helsinki.fi.