The Finnish 1000 PhDs pilot

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Finnish government is going to finance 1000 additional new fully funded doctoral positions, which would start in the academic year 2024/2025.The money (85000€/year for each PhD student) will be competitively distributed between Finnish universities, and some of that money will be used to pay for the salary of the PhD students for three years. Perhaps one of the triggers for this initiative is that Finland has been falling behind in the OECD statistics in the number of highly educated workers. The question is whether this one-time expense will really increase the level of education or only boost the numbers.The average duration of a PhD education is around seven years in Finland. In order to pull off a 3-year PhD education at such a large scale, it is expected that the requirements for the PhD will be lowered. As a matter of fact, the requirements have already been lowered, but further “easings” might still come. Together with these, universities are aiming to streamline the kafkaesque absurd and medieval administration process, which can easily take half a year from the time of completing the last manuscript to receiving the actual PhD certificate.Many other outlets have reported about this pilot; here’s one that is available also in English: https://acatiimi.fi/2023/11/28/for-once/Although most people are happy about the additional money, almost everybody is sceptical to some degree. Good intentions are not enough, and there are many serious issues with this pilot:

1000 on Michael’s Domain

The Finnish 1000 PhDs pilot