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219 doctoral graduates answered the graduate survey in 2025. 44% of respondents spoke Finnish or Swedish (national languages of Finland) as their mother tongue. 68% were male and 29% female.

Experiences of studies

95% of the respondents considered that during their doctoral studies they gained the knowledge and skills needed to apply scientific research methods independently and critically and to produce new scientific knowledge within their field of research.

81% thought that they received enough guidance for writing the doctoral thesis.

Funding and study time

The majority of the respondents were employed by Aalto University as doctoral researchers at some point of their doctoral studies. 32% received personal grants for their doctoral studies. 67% thought that the guidance they received for applying for personal grants was sufficient.

For 81% of the respondents the main study mode was full-time studies. Less than one third of all respondents reached the official target time of 4 years for full-time studies. However, most graduated in less than six years.

The most cited reasons for exceeding the official target time were a demanding or time-consuming research topic (41% of all respondents), work tasks elsewhere (not related to the doctoral studies) (37%), COVID-19 related effects on the research (e.g. access to labs, data collection) (29%), a project or research work that did not contribute towards the doctoral studies (29%) and delays in the publication process (25%).

Employment

80% of respondents considered that doctoral studies gave them good qualifications for working life. During their studies 47% of the respondents aimed for an academic career path. The rest planned to work in the industry, public sector or as entrepreneurs.

At the time of the graduation, 67% were employed, most of them in a position which is in line with their education. Almost half worked in the academia and one third in the industry. More than 80% of the respondents worked in research tasks at least partly. Other common assignments were product development, teaching, consulting as well as planning and development.

More information on employment experiences:

Results of the doctoral career monitoring survey (aalto.fi)

Processing of the results

The survey results are processed at general level in the doctoral education working group DEWG and in the Schools' Doctoral programme committees. The results are used to develop the support for doctoral students.

The doctoral graduate survey is organised by the Doctoral education services.