Courses and transferred credits

Doctoral Courses Within the Degree and Transferred Credits

The Doctoral and Licentiate degrees include 60 credits of doctoral courses. These consist of:

• doctoral courses comprising 44 credits in the major and related subjects
• doctoral courses comprising 16 credits in general methodology, or doctoral courses in the theory of science, or equivalent courses of a methodological character

Credits will be awarded for neither the licentiate seminar nor for practical work experience.

The courses that may be included in the required 60 credits in the major or related subjects are determined by the Degree Supervisor. Courses can be selected from those offered by Hanken or by other universities or by National Doctoral Programmes, such as KATAJA and KAVA in Finland or within the EIASM program abroad.

The courses do not have to be directly focused on the thesis's specific theme. They may well be of a more broad character within the major, or related to the area of research the student is active in. In some majors, all students will complete all or many of the same courses, regardless of the theme for their thesis. In this case, the philosophy behind the programme is to provide a deeper understanding of the discipline. The specialisation will then be carried out through the thesis. It is highly unlikely that a student within any major could find courses related to their thesis theme that would comprise a total of 44 credits.

The courses in general methodology and the theory of science are offered to all students, irrespective of their major. Such courses are offered by Hanken and other universities or by National Doctoral Programmes, such as KATAJA and KAVA. Courses may also be completed abroad.

Once students have completed 60 credits according to the above requirements, they are permitted to take additional courses. These courses do not have to be approved by the degree supervisor nor be registered at Hanken's Office for study affairs as "extra" studies. Students should retain their diplomas or certificates and the extra courses completed can be added to their CVs. Note that if there is a limit on the number of participants in a course, preference will be given to those students who actually need that course for their degree.

Credits for courses completed at other universities or within the National Doctoral Programmes
For courses completed at Finnish universities or within Finnish Doctoral Programmes the responsible organising university will usually include in the course information a recommendation of how many credits the other university's course is worth. The degree supervisor can, however, decide otherwise, for instance if he/she thinks that only a part of the course content is relevant to the student's degree.

Courses arranged abroad may not have information about credits. This is due to the fact that in many countries the the structure of doctoral studies is different from that in Finland. In some countries, doctoral students do not undertake any formal courses. In others, doctoral students might not aquire any credits for courses, even if the courses are a compulsary part of their programme. In such cases students' degree supervisor will decide on the number of credits a course should be worth. The supervisor should be supplied with all relevant information about the course; how much preparation is necessary to study the course, if there is a paper to be written, if there is an examination of some kind, the duration of the course, the literature list etc. Students should not contact the course administrator for information on the number of credits!

If a course given abroad includes information on credits it should be noted that the system with credits is not universal. In this case you should get information about the credit system used in that country.

Non-credit courses and other non-credit activities
In addition to courses that are included in the degree, doctoral students are expected to take part also in other activities in order to deepen their knowledge of research and the discipline, and in order to get feedback on their thesis project. Such activities include conferences, short seminars, tutorials and work shops. The degree supervisor is the person who decides which of these activities can be credit-bearing. An event that only requires a student's presence and the presentation of a research paper will not provide credits, but the experience will useful. Contacts with others in the same field will also be useful and might provide valuable help in writing the thesis.

Professional development courses will not provide credits for the degree. For instance, a course in pedagogics to enhance a student's teaching skills can not be regarded as a part of the doctoral degree. On the other hand, the experience from such a course will most probably be very valuable to you professionally. Such courses should be added to the student's CV.

Courses and degrees completed before admission to doctoral studies, and which have been regarded as meeting eligibility requirements for undertaking doctoral studies at Hanken can not be included in either doctoral or licentiate degrees.

Tranfer of credits completed at other universities

Credits completed at another university can be transferred to Hanken. The transferring of credits is done by application only. An official transcript of records and a description of the studies should be included in the application. Transferred credits are registered according to the date of the study performance.

Courses taken at another university in Finland will be transferred with the number of credits and the original grade granted by the other university. Other courses will be registered as "passed" or in some cases according to the grade stated on the decision of transferring the credits.

The Degree supervisor decide on the number of credits and the grade to be registered for credits transferred within doctoral programmes.

Expiration of completed courses

Doctoral courses expire ten years after their completion, unless the degree has been completed within that time period. Expired courses must be updated before they can be used as pat of a Doctoral Degree. Fill in the application, ask the instructor for the course to update it and hand in the application at the Service Point in Helsinki or at the Office of Study Affairs in Vaasa.