Relaxed thesis requirements ‘devalue’ PhD, candidates fear

Reductions to doctoral thesis requirements at Finland’s leading university have sparked concern among some PhD candidates, who fear the move could “devalue” the degree.

Previous criteria at the University of Helsinki held that article-based PhD theses should typically contain three to five publications. Now “two or three” articles, either published or awaiting publication, may comprise “sufficient academic contribution for a doctoral degree”, while a single publication may suffice if the work is considered “particularly outstanding”.

A second decision reduced the study credits required to graduate from 40 to 30.

Theodora Helimäki, a Helsinki doctoral candidate in political science awaiting examination, told Times Higher Education that she had submitted her thesis under the old requirements, with five articles published in international journals. “People aren’t so much angry that they could have gotten off easier,” she said. “It’s more like the image of the doctoral dissertation is diminishing.

“A PhD is not just something you complete. It’s a major step to distinguish yourself in an academic sense,” she said, sharing concerns that the new rules could “devalue the PhD”.

Reduced credit requirements, she added, could prevent candidates from taking courses in non-core subjects such as “university pedagogy, public outreach, open science – which you need in order to be taken seriously for the next levels of an academic career”.

The revised requirements come in the wake of recommendations from a working group of the Council of Rectors of Finnish Universities (Unifi), published to encourage institutions to “improve the attractiveness and quality of research training, improve the employment of PhDs, and enhance graduation times and competitiveness”.

Earlier this year, the Finnish government launched a three-year, €255 million (£215 million) pilot programme aimed at “increas[ing] the number of doctorates in Finland” in order to ensure a sufficient “supply of expertise”. The programme will fund 1,000 PhD candidates across the country’s universities.

Janika Luukinen, Unifi’s research policy adviser, said other leading Finnish institutions had implemented changes based on the working group’s recommendations.

“At Finnish universities, getting a doctoral degree tends to take a bit longer than the average in Europe,” Ms Luukinen said. Candidates who do not complete within three to four years, she said, “may pose universities a challenge in providing resources, like high-quality supervision, for a longer amount of time”. For students, she continued, protracted PhD programmes could “delay them entering the next stage of their career”.

By changing PhD requirements, Ms Luukinen said, Unifi and its member universities hoped to establish “equal treatment and comparability” between institutions. Doctoral degrees, she said, “are still about your personal path, and the most important part of the degree is still the independent production of knowledge”.

Minna Palander-Collin, director of Helsinki’s doctoral school, said the thesis requirements had been revised to “make the path of doctoral research smoother”. Requiring fewer publications for article-based theses, she said, would prevent sometimes lengthy publication processes from “eating up all your time as a doctoral candidate”.

“I think the quality of the work is much more important than the number of articles,” she said, adding that the old publication requirements could incentivise candidates to “slice [their] research into smaller bits” rather than publishing fewer but “more substantial pieces of research”.

Noting that the Finnish government uses completed PhD numbers as one of several metrics when assigning funding to universities, Professor Palander-Collin said universities “have to play the game” by ensuring the timely completion of doctorates. “If we lose money, we can’t operate to such a high level. There are realities to take into consideration,” she said.

“But ultimately, I think the changes that we are making are for the benefit of the doctoral candidate: a good education in a reasonable time frame.”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com