The Graduate School of the University of Lapland contributes to the doctoral education provided by the faculties through providing training that is open to all the doctoral candidates of the university, and by organising events targeted at doctoral candidates and their supervisors. Improving doctoral candidates’ labour-market connections is a new and important form of doctoral training. In order to be able to better respond to the current and future needs, a working group with members from across the faculties and research units of the university has been set up to develop the Graduate School.
Universities of today are required to have strategy-driven research profiles and doctoral education that further enhances the university profile. The University of Lapland’s strategic profile is crystallized in Arctic and northern change, which is also at the core of the joint framework for provincial and regional development. In practice, the strategy of the University of Lapland is enacted through research efforts producing knowledge of northern societies, environment and their interaction in order to continue to maintain, and further strengthen, successful and thriving Arctic and northern communities in the future.
The Graduate School is responsible for providing training targeted at the doctoral candidates of all the faculties of the university and for promoting doctoral candidates’ labour-market contacts. The task of the Graduate School development working group is to update the Doctoral Programme and the training offerings of the Graduate School to better meet the current and future needs. Doctoral training strengthens the strategic research profile of the university and makes research-based knowledge increasingly available in, and applicable to, labour-market contexts.
The Graduate School development working group consists of representatives across the faculties and units of the university. The members of the group are highly experienced in research and training of doctoral students as well as cooperation with labour-market actors. The purpose of the Graduate School development working group is to further develop the doctoral education offered by the university to better meet the needs of the entire university community and the North.
The Graduate School development plan will be discussed in the spring of 2020 through the university’s internal process, after which an implementation plan will be developed.
The members of the working group:
- Professor Suvi Ronkainen, Faculty of Social Sciences, Research methods
- Professor Heli Ruokamo, Faculty of Education
- Associate Professor Rosa Ballardini, Faculty of Law
- Professor Mirja Hiltunen, Faculty of Art and Design
- Associate Professor Janne Autto, Faculty of Social Sciences
- Research Professor Florian Stammler, Arctic Centre
- University Researcher Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen, Faculty of Education
- University Lecturer Tomi Tuominen, Faculty of Law
- University Lecturer Mari Mäkiranta, Faculty of Art and Design
- University Lecturer José-Carlos García-Rosell, Faculty of Social Sciences, Multidimensional Tourism Institute
- University Researcher Tanja Joona, Arctic Centre
- University Lecturer Juha Himanka, Faculty of Social Sciences, Philosophy
- University Lecturer Arto Kauppi, Faculty of Social Sciences, Public law
Background information:
The University of Lapland has four faculties – Faculty of Education, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Art and Design and Faculty of Social Sciences – which together produce just under 30 doctors per year. The University of Lapland produces research-based knowledge that is relevant in the Arctic and northern contexts in order to continue to maintain, and further strengthen, successful and thriving Arctic and northern communities in the future.
The objective of the University of Lapland is to produce high-quality research with societal impact, increasingly financed by competitive – in particular international – research funding. In January 2019, the Finnish Government approved new models for the funding of universities and universities of applied sciences for the period 2021–2024. In its board meeting in February 2019, the University of Lapland made a plan for the implementation of the new funding model and the new requirements set for research and development activities.
The Arctic Centre is an international research institute and science centre operating under the University of Lapland, producing research-based knowledge of the Arctic environment, society, and climate change. The research conducted in the Arctic Centre is multidisciplinary and phenomenon-based, and the research results are made available to the public as well.
The Multidimensional Tourism Institute (MTI) consists of the Tourism Research units of the University of Lapland and The Lapland University of Applied Sciences. The expert community also includes representatives of the Lapland Education Centre REDU and the Kemi-Tornionlaakso Municipal Educational and Training Consortium Lappia from the field of travel and tourism as well as other related fields. A trailblazer in the field of travel and tourism, MTI works to achieve improved prerequisites for the operations of the entire travel and tourism branch.
Further information:
Antti Syväjärvi, Vice-Rector responsible for research, Director of Graduate School, +358 400 606244
Suvi Ronkainen, Professor, +358 400 673462