Admissions - Application documents Doctoral Degree Applicants

How to submit the application

Admission step-by-step

1. Read the admission requirements
2. Write a preliminary research plan including the financial plan
3. Find a potential supervisor https://research.ulapland.fi/en/
4. Make your personal study plan
5. Prepare your application documents (eg. degree documents)
6. Fill in the application form electronically www.studyinfo.fi
7. Make sure you will receive an automatic reply after you have submitted the application

Application periods

in year 2024:
6–27 February 2024 by 15:00 (local Finnish time)
1–22 October 2024 by 15:00 (local Finnish time)

Fill in the online application form in the https://www.studyinfo.fi portal during the application period.

Attach required enclosures to the online application:

1. A) If you have completed your degree in Finland

copy of the Master's degree certificate. We will confirm your degree from a national degree database.
official transcript of records of the Master's degree

B) If you have completed your degree abroad

Officially certified or legalised copy of the Master's degree certificate in the original language.
Officially certified or legalised copy of the official transcript of records of the Master's degree in the original language
Official translation of the Master’s degree certificate and of the transcript of records unless issued in English, Finnish or Swedish

2. Research plan with a financial plan

3. Personal study plan

4. Proof of English language proficiency (please check the ways of demonstrating your language proficiency)

A research plan and a study plan are the most important components of the application and should be prepared with care. A good research proposal contains not only an analytical presentation of the research theme but also an account of the methodology to be used and of how and when the research will be completed. Additional information on how to draw up the research plan can be found in the faculty guidelines for the purpose. Please find more information and relevant forms: https://www.ulapland.fi/EN/Research/Doctoral-education/Interested-in-doctoral-studies/Apply-for-doctoral-studies.

Document requirements

As a part of the application process, you must submit certain educational documents to establish your eligibility.

For some countries there are country-specific document requirements that must be followed first and foremost before any other requirements for document attestation. Please check if there are any country-specific requirements for your degree-awarding country and then follow the instructions. If your country is not on the list, proceed with the instructions on this page.

The University of Lapland does not accept regular photocopies of educational documents. All educational documents must either be officially certified (attested) by the awarding institution, or legalised. See detailed instructions on document attestation below in this page. We accept electronic transcripts through certain international transcript services listed below.

All the application documents must be submitted by the application deadline, whether on the application form or by mail per country-specific requirements.
Collect all the required application enclosures well in advance, as late enclosures are not processed.
Upload all the required application documents to the online application form.
Enclosures submitted by email are not accepted.

In addition, officially certified copies issued by a Finnish Notary Public are accepted. Please note that officially certified copies issued by notaries public in other countries are not accepted without legislation. Regular copies of certified copies will not be accepted. 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.

Document requirements uploaded in electronic format

There are certain requirements for the documents uploaded in electronic format:

Please scan the application documents with care, always scan in color and remember to scan all pages.
If your scan is blurred, discoloured or the file is flawed it will not be accepted. The use of PDF -format is encouraged, as this ensures that the files can be opened in all operating systems.The authenticity of all documents will be examined and the submission of forged documents will lead to automatic rejection of the applicant.

If application documents are mailed in by a third party, e.g. your university officials, the admissions office will forward the documents to the programme coordinator for evaluation.

The required enclosures should be sent to:

University of Lapland
Applicant and Student Services
PO Box 122
FI-96101 Rovaniemi
FINLAND

It is always the applicant’s responsibility to make sure that the application documents meet the requirements and reach the University of Lapland by the deadline. University of Lapland does not process any application documents that have arrived after the deadline.

Country-specific requirements

In addition to the standard document requirements, there are specific requirements in place for educational documents from certain countries. Please check if there are any country-specific requirements for your degree-awarding country and then follow the instructions. The country-specific requirements must be followed first and foremost, before any regular requirements for attesting documents.

Required documents and certificates

Degree Certificate

A degree certificate is a document issued by an institution to a student who has successfully completed all studies comprising the degree. The student has graduated. The degree certificate should include the name of the institution awarding the degree, the date of issue, and the name of the person to whom the degree certificate has been issued and which title/degree the person has been awarded.

Temporary (Provisional) Degree Certificates

A temporary (provisional) 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. In other words, a temporary degree certificate is not accepted if it was issued more than five years ago. In such cases, the applicant must present his or her final degree certificate.

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 temporary degree certificate is issued as a replacement for the actual degree certificate e.g. 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. The temporary degree certificate must include:

• the name of the institution awarding the degree
• the date of award/conferral of the degree
• the name of the person to whom the temporary degree certificate has been issued
• which academic title/degree the person has been awarded.

It is important to note that a document stating only that the student has completed all the courses is not sufficient as a temporary degree certificate.

Transcript of Records

A transcript of records is a document issued by the institution that has issued the degree certificate or temporary degree certificate.

The official transcript of records should include the following information:

- full titles of the units that the student has completed for the degree
- completion times of study units (or at the very least the overall study time at the institution)
- grades obtained
- credits awarded
- information on the grading scale used at the institution

The transcript must cover the full duration of the student’s studies. If the degree includes course units that the student has completed at another institution and the transferred credits are not indicated in detail on the transcript of records, a separate transcript of records for the transferred credits should be submitted. University of Lapland only accepts official transcripts of records.

Information missing from your Transcript of records?

Names of course units
If the transcript of records does not include the full names of the study units, an additional document explaining these is required. This can be, for example, a syllabus. The document should be officially certified by the awarding institution.

Completion times of study units
If your transcript of records does not include information on the completion times of the study units, a separate document explaining this is required. You must submit an officially certified document issued by the awarding institution that states either the completion times of the individual study units or your overall time of study at the institution. Please note that information on the usual duration of the programme is not sufficient.

Grades
If the transcript of records does not include the grades obtained, you are required to submit an officially certified document issued by the degree-awarding institution providing these.

Credits
If your transcript of records does not include information on the credits awarded for individual study units, please submit a separate officially certified document issued by the institution indicating this. If your institution uses a system different from the credit system, please submit an officially certified document issued by the awarding institution where the extent/scope of the study units is shown. This can be indicated, for example, as study hours required to complete the individual units.

Grading scale
On the online application, you are asked to describe the grading scale used at the institution at the time of study. The grading scale must include all the grades and marks that appear on the applicant’s transcript of records. The description should include the grades in relation to each other and clearly depict the highest and lowest grade, as well as which grades are passing grades and which are a fail. You are also asked to provide a direct link to an official website where the information on the grading scale can be verified.

If there is no official website where the information on the grading scale can be verified, the information should be included in the transcript of records. If it is not, a separate official document describing the grading scale is required. The document should be issued and officially certified by the awarding institution, or compiled by the applicant and officially certified by the awarding institution.

Language Test Results

All language test results must arrive at University of Lapland by the given deadline. It is always the applicant’s responsibility to make testing arrangements her/himself and to ensure that the results are delivered on time. Be advised that it may take several weeks before the test results are published, and thus we recommend that you book your test well in advance.

Please note that your language test score must be valid for the duration of the application period. This means that if the validity of test results expires before the application deadline, your score will not meet the programme’s requirements. Please check the validity of your test score and make arrangements for a new language test well in advance if necessary.

Please note that if the programme you are applying to has score requirements for different sections of the language test, e.g. total score and writing score, the minimum requirements set by the university must be met in the same test result.

Research plan

Please read the guidelines here https://www.ulapland.fi/EN/Research/Doctoral-education/Interested-in-doctoral-studies/Apply-for-doctoral-studies

Personal study plan

Please read the guidelines here https://www.ulapland.fi/EN/Research/Doctoral-education/Interested-in-doctoral-studies/Apply-for-doctoral-studies

Electronic transcripts

University of Lapland accepts official transcripts submitted electronically through the international transcript services listed below. Please request your electronic transcript to be submitted to admission(at)ulapland.fi or select the University of Lapland from the list of receivers. Please refer to the services’ own instructions for more details on how to use each service.

• CHESICC (https://www.chsi.com.cn/en/)
• Digitary (http://www.digitary.net/)
• Gradintelligence (https://gradintel.com)
• My eQuals (https://www.myequals.edu.au/receiving-documents/)
• National Student Clearinghouse (https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/)
• Parchment Exchange (https://www.parchment.com/)
• Truecopy (http://www.electronictranscripts.com)

If your documents have been received by the University of Lapland in electronic format from one of the accepted transcript services they will be treated as originals and you do not need to provide a paper version of the documents.
If your institution uses a service not listed here, please contact us at admission(at)ulapland.fi and we will check if it is possible for us to accept your documents through this service. Please note that the University of Lapland reserves the right to make the final decision on whether a service is accepted or not.

Officially certified copies

Officially certified (attested) copies

University of Lapland does not accept regular photocopies of educational documents when officially certified copies are required. 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 must be followed first and foremost before any other requirements for document attestation. In addition, officially certified copies issued by a Finnish Notary Public are accepted. Find more information at the website of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

NB! Please note that officially certified copies issued by notaries public in other countries are not accepted without legalisation.

Official certification by the awarding institution

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 submitted to University of Lapland meet the following criteria:
1.   taken directly from your original educational documents
2.   include every page of your educational documents
3.   bear the original stamp of the awarding institution on each page of the document (e.g. a generic stamp stating only “Certified true copy” will not be accepted)
4.   bear the original signature of the certifying officer

The certified copies can be submitted to the application form or sent by postal mail. If sent by mail, the officially certified copy can be mailed to University of Lapland either by the applicant or the awarding institution to the address below.

University of Lapland
Applicant and Student Services
PO Box 122
FI-96101 Rovaniemi
FINLAND

Legalisation of documents

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 relevant country is a signatory to the Hague Convention of 1961. Documents supplied by countries that have ratified the Hague Convention are legalised by the issuance of an Apostille Certificate (stamp or paper certificate). 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.

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 here:

• Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents

It also provides information about the authorities issuing Apostille Certificates in the various countries.

Legalisation

If the country issuing a document is not a signatory of the Hague Convention, a document is legalised by the foreign ministry of the issuing country, after which a competent Finnish Embassy or Finnish Consulate of that country legalises the document, certifying the competence of that foreign ministry official to issue such legalisation.

Official translations

All documents should be submitted in Finnish, Swedish or English. Officially certified copies of the original documents also have to be submitted. Translations of educational documents must be

1) issued by the awarding institution; or
2) officially certified copies of a translation issued by the awarding institution; or
3) translated by an official translator; or
4) officially certified copies of a translation made by an official translator.

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. Translations done by the applicant him- or herself are not acceptable.

Please note that you also have to send a certified copy of the translated document in the original language.