To verify your eligibility when applying for a doctoral study right, you must submit certain educational documents to University of Helsinki Admission Services within a set time limit. The documents can be submitted as paper copies or electronically, following the instructions detailed below. All educational documents must be officially certified by the awarding institution, or legalised. There are country specific requirements for documents issued in some countries, when sending paper copies of the educational documents. You must follow these country specific requirements, as they replace these general instructions.
Officially certified copies issued by a Finnish notary public will also be accepted, unless there is a country specific requirement in place. If you have graduated from the University of Helsinki you do not need to submit paper copies of your documents. Even in this case, you must attach the documents to the application form as PDF-files.
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.
According to the Universities Act (558/2009) section 37 eligible applicants for studies leading to a postgraduate research degree have completed
An applicant may also be admitted to pursue a postgraduate research degree if the University finds him or her to have otherwise obtained the required knowledge and skills. Doctoral programmes may have additional, programme-specific / degree-specific rules for eligibility – please see the doctoral programmes' websites for further information.
Submit the following educational documents for the degree that you use as a basis for your eligibility for doctoral studies (usually master’s degree or equivalent). The required documents are:
All educational documents must be officially certified or legalised (further information later on this page). Don't forget to acquaint yourself with the country-specific requirements that may concern attesting or submitting educational documents. If there is a country specific requirement in place for your documents, you must follow the requirement. The country specific requirements replace the general instructions explained on this page. If your document’s language is other than Finnish, Swedish or English, an official translation to one of these languages must also be submitted.
There are some programmes you can apply to even if you have not yet graduated. This is dependent on the programme, so always check the website of the relevant doctoral programme. The main rule is that all studies included in your degree must be completed and registered by the end of the application round. If you have not graduated by the time the application period for the programme ends, you are required to submit an officially certified copy of your latest transcript of records (please also note country-specific requirements).
General information on degree certificates, transcripts, official translations, and officially certified (attested) copies can be found below.
If your degree awarding institution gives out transcripts or degree certificates in electronic form, the degree awarding institution must provide a reliable way for the electronic documents to be verified. More information about accepted ways of submitting electronic documents below, in the section "Submitting electronic documents".
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.
Attach copies of your degree certificate and transcript of records to your application form as PDF files.
Please note that if you have completed your degree in one of the following institutions, or you have completed your degree prior to 1995, you must always submit officially certified copies according to the instructions listed below
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:
*The date of award/conferral of the degree means the date when the degree was awarded/conferred to you. It is the date when you are officially given the recognition and status of holding the academic degree you have completed. This is not necessarily the date of the graduation ceremony, as there is often a delay between the award/conferral date and the graduation ceremony.
Please note that possible country specific requirements are to be followed before these instructions.
NB: Never send us your original degree certificate, as enclosures to applications will not be returned. Only send attested copies of degree certificates.
A temporary (provisional) degree certificate is a document issued by an institution to a student who has been awarded or conferred an academic degree. The holder of a temporary degree certificate has graduated. The temporary degree certificate is issued as a replacement for the actual degree certificate. This can be done in case the actual degree certificate cannot be given to the student immediately after the studies have been completed due to technical or administrative reasons. Please note that a document stating only that the student has completed all the courses is not sufficient as a temporary degree certificate.
The temporary degree certificate must include:
A temporary degree certificate is accepted if it was issued no more than five years earlier. The five-year validity period begins from the date on which the degree was conferred and must not expire prior to the application deadline. If the temporary degree certificate was issued more than five years ago you must present your final degree certificate, as the temporary degree certificate will no longer be accepted.
*The date of award/conferral of the degree means the date when the degree was awarded/conferred to you. It is the date when you are officially given the recognition and status of holding the academic degree you have completed. This is not necessarily the date of the graduation ceremony, as there is often a delay between the award/conferral date and the graduation ceremony.
Please note that possible country specific requirements are to be followed before these instructions.
The official transcript of records should include the following information:
The transcript must cover the full length of studies. If you have completed course units at another institution and these courses are not indicated in detail on your transcript of records, you must submit a separate transcript of records regarding the transferred credits. This can be, for example, a transcript of records from an institution where you did exchange studies. Please also note possible country-specific requirements when submitting the transcript of records.
If you have not yet graduated the transcript of records must include the name of the degree that will be awarded to you when you graduate (Master of, etc.) If you have not yet graduated, all the studies included in the degree, must be completed and written on the transcript of records by the application deadline. In some programmes, there may be exception to this rule.
University of Helsinki only accepts official transcripts of records.
Please note that possible country specific requirements are to be followed before these instructions.
University of Helsinki does not accept regular photocopies of educational documents. All educational documents must either be officially certified (attested) by the awarding institution, or legalised (see below). For some countries, there are country-specific document requirements that override any other requirements for document attestation. Always follow the country specific requirements.
If there is no country specific requirement, officially certified copies issued by a Finnish Notary Public are also accepted. Look for further information from the website of your Local Register Office (Maistraatti). Officially certified copies issued by notaries public in other countries are not accepted without legalisation.
If you have graduated from the University of Helsinki, you do not need to deliver the documents as paper copies. You do need to attach the documents to the electronic application form as scanned PDF-files.
Officially certified copies of academic documents can be issued by the awarding institution. If you request officially certified copies from the awarding institution, make sure that the copies you submit to University of Helsinki meet the following criteria:
The officially certified copy can be sent to University of Helsinki either by the applicant or by the awarding institution. In either case, the applicant is responsible for assuring that the required documents arrive to the UH Admission Services by the end of the application period and that the documents meet UH requirements.
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.
1. Apostille
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.
2. Legalisation without the Apostille Certificate
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. In the process you need to contact both the country’s foreign ministry, and a competent Finnish representative office for that country.
Note the country specific requirements for legalisation of documents. If your educational documents have been issued in a country that has specific requirements for submitting or legalising of documents, follow the specific requirements.
You scan the original document. You have a plain digital copy of the document.
A plain paper or digital copy usually does not meet our requirements.
Exceptions to this rule are documents that can be verified from a reliable service with information available on the document itself.
Reliable verification services can be:
If your educational documents are issued in a language other than English, Finnish or Swedish, official translations of them to one of these languages are required. Officially certified copies of the original documents must also be submitted. An official translation must be one of the following:
Each page of an official translation must bear the translator’s stamp and/or signature. Official translations must be exact translations of the original documents. Ordinary copies of official translations are not accepted, but the copies must be officially certified. Translations done by the applicant him- or herself are not accepted.
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, and submit the statement to Admission Services. If you have not yet graduated, but have completed all your studies, you may be granted a study right conditionally.
If you are granted a study right conditionally you must be able to submit a degree certificate before the deadline for accepting the study place. The degree certificate must be submitted according to the instructions on this page. If you are unable to submit a degree certificate by the deadline of accepting the study place, you will lose the offered study place.
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.
If you are completing your studies in University of Helsinki you do not need to submit paper copies of your transcript of records or degree certificate. You must submit your degree programme’s statement that you have completed all studies included in your degree. The transcript of records must also be attached to the electronic application for as a PDF-file. In the application form, mark your estimated date of graduation. If you are granted a study right conditionally, inform the Admission Services when you have officially graduated. Admission services will check your graduation from the student registry.
Submit your documents only to the address mentioned on this page. Submitting your documents to the wrong office slows their processing considerably.
You can send the documents to Admission Services by post to the P.O. Box address, deliver the documents by using a Courier Service, or deliver them to the mailbox of the Admission Services yourself. Please note that the documents have to be at the Admission Services by the end of the application round in question. You are always responsible for the delivery of your documents and meeting the deadlines in all cases.
Make sure that you have included all the required documents and possible translations to Admission Services.
Mark the Doctoral Programme you are applying to clearly on the envelope.
Please note that Admission Services does not return any documents, so do not submit e.g. your original degree certificate.
1. Delivering documents by using a Courier Service
If you send the documents by using a Courier Service (e.g. UPS, DHL, FedEx), please send the documents to the following address:
Doctoral Programmes / name of the programme
PhD Admission Services
Unioninkatu 40
00170 Helsinki
Finland
Phone number (if required): +358 2941 21601
Always send your documents to this address. If you deliver your documents to a wrong address (e.g. doctoral programme / faculty), the documents will officially be received only when they are forwarded to the Admission Services of University of Helsinki by the incorrect receiver.
2. Delivering documents by post to Admission Services
N.B. There have been some major problems with postal services. If at all possible, please use a courier service.
If you send the documents by post, please send the documents to the following address:
Doctoral Programmes / name of the programme
PhD Admission Services
P.O. Box 24
00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
Always send your documents to this address. If you deliver your documents to a wrong address (e.g. doctoral programme / faculty), the documents will officially be received only when they are forwarded to the Admission Services of University of Helsinki by the incorrect receiver.
3. Delivering the documents yourself to the Admission Services mailbox
If you wish to deliver the documents in person, you need to leave the documents to the mailbox of the Admission Services of University of Helsinki. The mailbox is located outside at Unioninkatu 40 C, on the corner of Unioninkatu and Yrjö-Koskisen katu.
Do not leave the documents anywhere else than the Admission Services mailbox (e.g. give them to the janitor or your supervisor). If you leave documents to the wrong mailbox, the documents will officially be received only when they are forwarded to the Admission Services of University of Helsinki by the incorrect receiver.
Do not deliver the application documents to individual staff members of the Admission Services or other UH staff. The staff members of the Admission Services will not receive the documents in person. The documents can only be left in the Admission services mailbox.
If your institution uses one of the services listed below, you may share your electronically verified educational documents through that service.
If the service requires our contact email address, please use phd-admissions@helsinki.fi as the contact address.
Please refer to your institution’s own instructions for more details on how to the service that your institution uses.
Please note that if your educational documents are required in a sealed envelope according to a country-specific requirement, it is acceptable to submit the documents through an electronic transcript service instead.
List of accepted 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.
We accept electronic educational documents that can be verified using an electronic verification service offered by the degree awarding institution if:
Please note the following restrictions:
Please also note that we cannot guarantee that we will accept verification services in languages other than English, Finnish or Swedish. If the electronic document verified by the service is not available in English, Finnish or Swedish, you must submit an official translation of the original document as well.
Upload these enclosures as PDF files in the application system. Enclosures sent by email are not accepted.
Please make separate files of each document, i.e. do not combine multiple documents into one file. If the document contains multiple pages, please submit the entire document as a single file and make sure that all pages of the document are included.
The University of Helsinki reserves the right to evaluate each electronic document and verification service case by case. If we cannot verify the required information, you must submit the document as an officially certified paper copy following the general instructions.
Some enclosures do not have to be submitted as officially certified copies. These are:
Upload these enclosures as PDF files in the application system. Enclosures sent by email are not accepted.
Please make separate files of each document, do not combine multiple documents into one file. If the document contains multiple pages, please submit the entire document as a single file and make sure that all pages of the document are included.
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.