PhD in Finland: fees, doctoral salary and how to apply

A PhD in Finland has no tuition fees, whatever your nationality, but you have to cover your own living costs. Getting a place doesn’t bring any money with it, so most of your planning goes on funding. That means a salaried job as a doctoral researcher (the term Finnish universities often use for a PhD student), grants or both.

What you do first depends on your field and your funding. At Aalto University, for example, getting the job first is more common in technology. Applying for the place first is more common in art, design and business.

If you’re from outside the EU/EEA, including the UK, you’ll generally need a researcher’s residence permit too. Below, you’ll find what doctoral researchers earn, how the two applications fit together and what each university’s next dates are.

Is a PhD in Finland free?

Yes, for fees. Study in Finland, the national study portal, says no tuition fees are charged at doctoral level, regardless of nationality, so international students pay none either. Jyväskylä also charges nothing to apply.

Free doesn’t mean funded, though. Study in Finland suggests budgeting about €900-€1,200 a month for food, accommodation and travel, depending on where you live. That advice covers students generally. If you need a residence permit, go by Migri’s figures in the permit section below.

Common mistake: assuming an offer means a funded PhD. A study right is your formal place on a doctoral programme. Helsinki says its own ‘does not include funding’, and Jyväskylä says that, as a rule, its study rights don’t either. So treat your place and your money as two separate problems.

How do you fund a PhD in Finland?

You’ll usually fund it with a salaried post, personal grants or a mixture. Aalto says most of its doctoral students combine funding sources, so don’t expect one award to cover every year. Aalto generally offers no doctoral scholarships, and Jyväskylä offers no full ones.

Route	What it means	Where to look
Salaried doctoral researcher post	University employee, paid on the university pay scale	Each university’s open positions page
Personal grant	Money from a foundation or funding agency, awarded to you	Research.fi and the Association of Finnish Foundations
Other employer or own money	Studying alongside a job, or on savings	Discuss the plan with your supervisor before applying

Source: Aalto University, the University of Oulu and Eurydice.

Expect competition for posts and grants. Helsinki says about a quarter of its doctoral researchers are employed by the university. It opens one call (application round) a year for its university-funded posts.

The Finnish Cultural Foundation received 11,425 proposals in its October 2025 call, and 8.2% of research proposals succeeded. You can search for open grants on Research.fi.

EDUFI Fellowships are an out-of-date tip. The Finnish National Agency for Education stopped taking applications in October 2025 and ended the scheme that year.

Are there 1,000 fully funded PhD places in Finland?

Not as one pot you can apply to today. You may still see it advertised that way if you search for a fully funded PhD in Finland.

In 2024 the Finnish government announced €255 million for 2024-2027, to fund 1,000 doctoral researchers on three-year contracts. Groups of universities run the pilots behind it, and the first researchers were due to start in August 2024. Helsinki’s two intakes were due to start then and on 1 January 2025.

We found no national list of places still open, so ask at the university you’re interested in.

How much do PhD students earn in Finland?

On a university contract, you’d start at about €2,470 a month before tax, at the lowest personal rate. Your pay has two parts: a level for the demands of your job, plus a personal component for how well you perform. Both come from the collective agreement for Finnish universities (the deal that sets pay and conditions), so this isn’t a figure each university invents.

Job level	Who it’s for	From 1 June 2026	From 1 June 2027
Level 2	Starting a first contract	€2,331.67	€2,378.30
Level 3	Thesis about 50% done	€2,561.23	€2,612.45
Level 4	Thesis about 75% done	€2,907.24	€2,965.38

Source: collective agreement for universities 2025-2028, Annex 5, teaching and research staff. Monthly job-level component, gross, before the personal component. The levels are the agreement’s recommendation for people whose main work is their thesis, with each step up based on your supervisor’s written assessment.

The personal component adds between 6% and 50%. As a worked example, level 2 plus the 6% minimum comes to €2,471.57 a month, and level 4 plus 6% comes to €3,081.67. Turku’s September 2026 call for its Doctoral Programme in Technology gives a similar picture. It says ‘roughly from € 2,400 to € 3,300’, depending on progress, experience and skills.

Don’t assume you’d start near the top of the personal range. A 2025 post on the Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers’ site calls doctoral researchers’ performance classes ‘systematically weaker’ than other career stages. It uses 2023 figures.

What this means for you: ask which level and personal percentage an offer uses, because that decides your pay. These rates apply to university employment. A grant pays what the funder sets, so check it separately. To compare with a UK stipend, see our guide to PhD salary in the UK.

The job also comes with a set working year: 1,612 hours under the agreement. Your teaching and other duties must leave room to finish your thesis on schedule. Turku’s Technology call, for example, says these duties may take up to 5% of your working time as a rule.

How do you apply for a PhD in Finland?

You’ll normally make two separate applications: one for a study right and one for any salaried job. You need the study right to take the degree. You’ll usually apply for it through the national Studyinfo portal, but check your programme’s instructions. Look for jobs on universities’ own pages and on academic recruitment sites.

If you find a job first: you’ll still need a study right. Aalto warns that you must apply for it separately, and Oulu says you apply at the start of your employment.
If you want the study right first: you’ll need a funding plan, and you may look for a job or grant at the same time. Helsinki and Oulu both ask for a plan.
If a call combines the two: Turku’s Doctoral Programme in Technology let you apply for both in its September 2026 call, but you needed the study right to be selected for the post.

Rounds differ between universities and often between programmes, so check yours early. Here’s what five universities showed when we checked on 1 November 2026:

University	Study right rounds	Next or current round
Helsinki	Two to five a year, by programme	3-16 November 2026 (some programmes)
Aalto	Varies by programme	Science and Electrical Engineering: continuous. Business: December-January. Arts: February-March. Chemical Engineering and Engineering: four rounds in 2026, the last in November
Tampere	Continuous, twice a year or every other year, by programme	Continuous group: until 30 November 2026. Epidemiology and public health: 2 November-2 December 2026, for autumn 2027. Twice-a-year group: its October round has closed, and the next is in April
Jyväskylä	Twice a year	1-30 April 2027, for a 1 August 2027 start
Oulu	Two long periods a year	1 January-30 April

Source: each university’s doctoral admissions pages.

Salaried posts run to their own calendar. Helsinki’s last call for university-funded posts closed on 7 September 2026, and it runs one a year. Aalto and Oulu list posts on their open positions pages, so check those regularly.

What do you need to apply?

You’ll need a suitable master’s degree, proof of language skills and a research plan. At most of the universities we checked, you’ll also need a supervisor who’s already on board. Requirements are set by each university and programme, so treat these as examples and read your programme’s own criteria.

Your degree. You need a master’s or an equivalent degree that makes you eligible for doctoral study in the country that awarded it. Doctoral studies are ‘offered exclusively by universities’, Study in Finland says, so you can’t do one at a university of applied sciences.

Oulu asks for good grades (3/5, or 60% of the maximum) in both coursework and thesis. For a master’s from a university of applied sciences, it asks for very good grades (4/5, or 80%).

Oulu may also ask you to take up to 60 credits of extra study, depending on your degree, major and experience. Timing varies too: Helsinki needs your degree finished by the end of the application period, while Jyväskylä can admit you conditionally.

Your supervisor. This is the step to start first. Jyväskylä wants supervision arranged before you apply, and Oulu needs your principal supervisor’s commitment. Many Helsinki programmes need one or two supervisors at the point of application, so Helsinki tells you to start months ahead.

Our guide to emailing a potential supervisor can help with that first message.

Your language skills. Helsinki accepts proof in Finnish, Swedish or English, regardless of the language you plan to write your thesis in. It also says you can complete the degree in English in all its doctoral programmes.

Oulu accepts English or Finnish. For English, IELTS Academic at 6.5, with at least 5.5 in each section, counts. So does a degree taught in English in a listed country (the UK is one), though not online degrees or offshore campuses.

Your research plan. Helsinki calls this the most important part of your application, and it’s written into the online form, so a free-form proposal won’t be accepted there. Our guide to writing a PhD research proposal covers what to include.

How long does a PhD in Finland take?

Plan on about four years full-time. The national recommendations from Universities Finland (Unifi) set a target of three to four years. Helsinki and Study in Finland say about four, Turku says at least four, and Oulu’s pages give both three to four and four.

These are targets rather than promises, and we found no current official average for how long people really take. Oulu also says you can do the degree part-time.

Most of that time goes on your own research, plus a smaller block of coursework. Unifi’s target is at least 30 credits of doctoral studies alongside the thesis. Helsinki and most of Aalto now ask for 30, Aalto’s business school asks for 60 and Oulu asks for 20-40 depending on the discipline.

You may read elsewhere that the degree is 240 credits, with about 40 of coursework. The pages we checked don’t describe it that way, and Aalto gives no credits for the thesis itself. So go by your own programme’s curriculum.

Your thesis goes to external preliminary examiners, who are often international, before you defend it in public. That comes from the European Commission’s Eurydice guide, last updated in 2023. Finnish conferment ceremonies have traditions of their own: our post on the PhD sword and hat tradition explains them.

You might also come across the licentiate, a shorter degree at the same level of study. Eurydice says it takes about two years full-time.

Do you need a residence permit for a PhD in Finland?

If you’re from outside the EU/EEA, generally yes. British citizens count here too, because GOV.UK’s guide for Britons living in Finland lists doing scientific research as a reason for a residence permit. You’ll apply to the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) for a researcher’s permit, which covers preparing a doctoral thesis.

If you moved to Finland before 1 January 2021 and have lived there legally since, you have rights under the Withdrawal Agreement. Read that GOV.UK guide.

When and for how long: you apply from abroad for your first permit, and it lasts two years at most.
Fee: €530 online or €630 on paper for a first permit.
Key paperwork: a hosting agreement signed with your research organisation and your degree certificate, plus a clarification of income if you aren’t employed there.
Family: family members can get a permit of the same type as yours.

Jyväskylä’s FAQ says you need secure means of support for a permit unless you’re a Nordic or EU citizen. The money test depends on how you’re funded. If you’re employed by the research organisation, your pay must at least match the collective agreement. If you aren’t, you must have at least €1,210 a month net in 2026, or €1,090 or €1,030 depending on where you live.

If you aren’t employed and your research lasts a year or more, Migri asks for €14,520 for at least one year, at 2026 rates. For a two-year permit, it’s €29,040. Your funds, earnings or a research scholarship can all count, so a grant can help you meet this.

You may do other work alongside your research, as long as you work full-time as a researcher and make progress. Migri checks that progress when you extend your permit. Don’t count on a side job: Study in Finland warns that finding work during studies is challenging, especially without Finnish or Swedish.

Can you stay in Finland after a PhD?

You can, if you meet Migri’s conditions. If you have a job and enough income, you can apply for a permit based on research completed in Finland. You don’t need an ordinary work permit too.

Don’t have a job yet, or don’t earn enough from one? If you have or have had a research permit, you can apply for a permit to look for work or start a business.

A doctorate completed in Finland can also count towards a permanent permit, under paths Migri has applied since 8 January 2026. You’d also need Finnish or Swedish at level A2, or 15 credits of language study, and you must meet the requirements for a continuous (A) permit. Migri’s other paths depend on things like years of residence, income and work history.

Is Finland a good place to do a PhD?

Finland suits you if you can win a salaried post or grant, because the pay scale is public and you won’t pay fees. It’s harder if you’re hoping to arrive first and sort out money later. Funding is separate from admission, and grants can be very competitive.

If you’re still comparing countries, our guide to PhDs in Europe sets Finland beside 12 others.

Two worth reading next are PhD study in Sweden, where you’d usually be a salaried employee, and a PhD in Germany. In Germany, you choose between an individual doctorate and a structured programme.

Your next steps

If a PhD in Finland looks right for you, start with people rather than forms. Find two or three researchers whose work fits yours, then read the admission criteria for their doctoral programmes and contact them with a short plan. Ask each one how projects in their group are usually funded, because that answer tells you which route to take.

At the same time, check the open positions at those universities, and note the next study right round. If you’ll need a permit, work out the money test early. When you’re ready to compare projects, you can search current PhD opportunities on DiscoverPhDs.

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