Title of Docent, Faculty of Educational Sciences Fall 2026

The Faculty council may consider proposing the title of docent if it deems that granting the title to the applicant is in the interest of the Faculty or the discipline.

The docent committee can decide not to recommend the approval of the application to the Faculty Council, independent of the stance of the discipline, if it considers the application is not relevant to the functions of the faculty or subject. The final decision on starting the process will be made by the Faculty Council.

Please be prepared for a long application process – it takes usually about one year from submitting the application to granting the title of docent. 

Before applying, applicants must negotiate with the professor representing the field closest to the planned title about meeting the requirements for the title of docent (e.g. the sufficiency of publications) and specifying the field of the docentship. 

According to the chancellor’s instructions, the fields associated with the title of docent must not be too limited and the field should not be specified using phrases such as “with a special focus on”. In most cases, the title should comply with the established boundaries between disciplines. A list of established fields of docentships at the Faculty of Educational Sciences can be found in the faculty's application guidelines.

Written applications should be addressed to the Faculty of Educational Sciences. Only electronic applications are accepted. Application documents must be clearly named (e.g., lastname_firstname_cv.pdf). 

Application must clearly state the field of the docentship (the title), the applicant’s address and other contact details (home address, email address, phone number, Finnish identity number or date of birth), the name of the professor of discipline with whom you have discussed as well as grounds for the application (why the applicant is requesting the specific title of docent at the University of Helsinki). In addition, application must state: Is the thesis monograph or article based; The title of your doctoral thesis and the separate articles included in it; the names of the supervisors of the PhD thesis (supervisors cannot be named as assessors).

Applications must be accompanied by the following documents:

1. A curriculum vitae: The Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity’s template for a researcher’s CV (Full names, Date and place of birth, Current position and date of appointment, Education and degrees awarded, Previous professional appointments, Research awards, research honours and major stipendiary support for research, Editorial board memberships/editor, Elected memberships in scientific societies. Supervision of research work and postgraduate studies, other academic and professional activities. The CV must include information about the applicant’s proficiency in Swedish/Finnish. If this information is not included, a copy of a certificate of language proficiency is required.)
2. A free-form assessment (max. 1–2 pages) of the prospective docent’s scientific field of research and his or her personal contribution to that field and to the Faculty.
3. A list of publications prepared in accordance with the Ministry of Education and Culture’s classification for publications (e.g. A1, A2, A3). In preparing the list of publications, it is important to highlight international publications, articles included in an article-based dissertation and publications based on the material for a monograph dissertation. The publications must be numbered.
4. In the case of applicants who did not complete their doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki, a copy of their degree diploma (completion date, field)
5. In the case of non-Finnish applicants, a copy of the title page of their passport
6. A report on teaching qualifications. (only use this form for the report, other documents are not accepted).
7. Publications (according to the numbering in the list of publications). The submitted publications (5–10 publications) should be relevant to the intended field of the docentship and must demonstrate the following: the high quality and extensive scope of the applicant’s research (corresponding to at least two dissertations, taking both monographs and research articles into account); the extensive scope of publication, specifically with regard to the field of the docentship; the applicant’s ability to contribute to new scholarly knowledge after completing a dissertation; and his or her development as an independent researcher. In research articles written by several authors, the applicant's own contribution must be identified as clearly as possible.

In addition, the professor representing the field closest to the planned title submits his/her endorsement and the proposed assessors via e-form.