INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOCTORAL STUDENTS PHD GUIDE National Doctoral

INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOCTORAL STUDENTS (*PHD GUIDE) National Doctoral Education Day, October 9 2019 / Anniina Sjöblom 27/02/2021 1

WHAT PHD GUIDE? • A few years ago, UH launched a new Instructions for Students -service for BA and MA students • In the winter of 2018– 2019 the service was expanded to include doctoral students (Instructions for doctoral candidates, commonly known as ”Ph. D Guide”) • An open online service where anyone can browse UH instructions related to doctoral education • Primary target group current and returning doctoral students – content aimed at new applicants available at the UH external website • A parallel Instructions for Teachers -service to be launched in the fall of 2019 National Doctoral Education Day, October 9 2019 / Anniina Sjöblom 27/02/2021 2

STARTING POINT • Instructions related to doctoral education scattered in various places: • Intranet: university-, faculty- and unit-level sites • External websites: university website, websites of doctoral schools, doctoral programmes and faculties • A confusing entity that required the user to have prior knowledge of who’s in charge of what • Lots of overlapping, outdated or conflicting information • Lots of needless updating work • And above all: lots of frustrated doctoral students lost in the tangled web of instructions! National Doctoral Education Day, October 9 2019 / Anniina Sjöblom 27/02/2021 3

GOALS AND EXECUTION • Coherent instructions gathered under a single address • Clear structure with information on one topic only in one place • A single site per topic with general instructions + targeted instructions when needed • Content automatically modified based on the user’s doctoral programme • User-friendly language, minimizing ”administrative voice” • Executed by a project group with members from different parts of doctoral administration • Central planning goals: • Minimizing the need for unit-specific instructions • Harmonizing practices when needed • Mapping out deficiencies National Doctoral Education Day, October 9 2019 / Anniina Sjöblom 27/02/2021 4

WELL, DID IT WORK OUT? • Heck yes! • The service has been positively welcomed: both students and supervisors happy to find everything in one place • Need for updating work has lessened significantly • Consistent, unified instructions easily accessible for all (also by mobile) • Also a new communications channel (general + programme-specific notifications) • Different info channels now have clear target groups: • Ph. D Guide: doctoral students • External websites: applicants, experts, other visibility • Intranet and Instructions for Teachers: academic staff • Taking international students into account: the service is trilingual National Doctoral Education Day, October 9 2019 / Anniina Sjöblom 27/02/2021 5

WANT TO KNOW MORE? • Visit the service at: https: //guide. student. helsinki. fi • When entering the site, choose a doctoral programme from the degree programme menu. • By changing the programme, you will see how the content on some sites modifies based on the choice. • Want to benchmark? Be in touch with the responsible planner for the Ph. D Guide instructions: anniina. sjoblom@helsinki. fi National Doctoral Education Day, October 9 2019 / Anniina Sjöblom 27/02/2021 6