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Hecse – Helsinki Graduate School in Computer Science and Engineering – PHD Student Funding – Positions 2010

Hecse admits new students roughly once a year depending on available funding.

Application:
Applicants can submit both pre-applications and full applications.

• A pre-application is submitted, if the applicant does not yet have a supervisor within Hecse.
• Applicants who have been accepted by a supervisor in the pre-application phase or students that already have a supervisor within Hecse can submit a full application.

Both applications are submitted electronically.

Curriculum vitae:
A curriculum should be at most three pages long and include among others the applicant’s personal information (name, contact information, age), education (institutions, degrees, grade average) and work experience.

Diplomas:
Electronic copies (scanned pdf) of relevant diplomas should be included both in the pre-application and the full application. Relevant diplomas are, e.g., diplomas for MSc and BSc degrees.

Applicants that are accepted for Hecse positions must submit officially confirmed (paper) copies of relevant diplomas when registering for PhD studies at the universities.

Diplomas must be in Finnish, Swedish or English. If not, they must be translated and the translations must be officially confirmed.

Applicants who have already been accepted as post-graduate students by the University of Helsinki or Helsinki University of Technology can use the normal Finnish style of confirming copies. There is no need for official confirmation of the diplomas.
Duration of Hecse funding:
The funded doctoral student positions will start on 1 January, 2010 at the earliest. Funding is provided until the projected completion of the PhD studies, maximally for 48 months

Applicants should state for how long a period they would prefer funding and when the funding period would start. In normal cases, the period would start on 1 January 2010 (the earliest), but in some cases the funding period may start later (e.g., if the applicant already has some other funding/work commitment for the spring of 2010, the period could start on 1 August 2010).

Hecse expects students to finish their PhD degrees in 4 years and will take this into account when providing funding. If the applicant is not a fresh MSc graduate, he or she should describe the current status of his or her PhD studies and research. The applicant must state the estimated date of the PhD defense, and in such cases the date is expected to be roughly four years from the start of the PhD studies (not from the enrollment to Hecse). Admission to Hecse is based both on studies and research so far, as well as on the plan to complete them.

Eligibility:
The applicant is expected to have a Master or Licentiate degree, as well as an interest in scientific research and the work of a researcher. The applicants, if accepted, are expected to engage themselves in full-time research and study for a maximum of four years. They are also expected to participate in the events organized by the graduate school. The progress of the research has to be reported periodically to the school.

Research and study plan:
Full applications must include a detailed research and study plan for the whole period of PhD studies from start to finish. The plan should include at least the following sections (4-5 pages)
1. State of the art of the research sub-field
2. Planned research including methods
3. Expected research results and time schedule including expected dissertation date
4. Concrete goals for the first two years of study
5. Financing plan. The financing plan must indicate how the applicant is going to finance his or her full-time post-graduate studies. The plan should be as precise as possible. If the applicant are applying only for funding from Hecse this should be indicated in the     financing plan.
6. References

Also pre-applications may include a research and study plan.

Salary:
The salary for a doctoral student is based on levels 1 – 4 of the demands level chart for teaching and research personnel of the university salary system. With the salary component based on personal work performance the overall salary range is 1 608 – 3 209 euros per month.

Selection:
Admission to Hecse is based on the quality of the research and study plan, previous studies and research (if applicable), financing plan, recommendation from a supervisor in Hecse, and other possible indicators.

Source: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/hecse/application-faq-2009.html