Doctoral Programme in Fine Arts: Examination guidelines

Published 27.2.2023 | Updated 12.6.2024

These examination guidelines have been approved by the Board of the Academy of Fine Arts on 28 May 2024 and entered into force from their date of approval, replacing the previous examination guidelines that entered into force on 1 Sep 2021.

Prerequisites for the examination of a doctoral thesis

The doctoral student must be registered with the University as attending for both the academic term that the thesis is examined, as well as for the academic term that the decision on the approval of the thesis is made.

A pre-examined doctoral thesis can be granted an examination permit only after all doctoral studies to be included in the degree have been passed, completed and recorded into the study register. The head of the doctoral programme approves the studies belonging to the degree. They must follow the requirements of the curriculum that the doctoral student is following.

Doctoral thesis in fine arts

The description and criteria of a doctoral thesis in fine arts can be found in the curricula of the doctoral programme, found in Students’ Uniarts under the Doctoral Education page and in the study guide.

Thesis abstract

The identifier of the written part of the doctoral thesis is a title page that contains bibliographical information and a mention that the work is a doctoral thesis and part of the doctoral degree at the Academy of Fine Arts.

An abstract of the thesis is made in Finnish, Swedish, and English. The abstract must specify the artistic components of the thesis and describe the goals, methods, and results of the thesis. It needs to be available at least 30 days before the public examination event. The length of the abstract should be 2000–3000 characters with spaces.

Examination process of a doctoral thesis

The examination process of a doctoral thesis in fine arts has two stages. It consists of pre-examination conducted for one or more components and a public examination of the thesis. The pre-examination process is described in detail in the pre-examination guidelines.

Examination permit

Before the final stage of the pre-examination, the responsible supervisor verifies the written component of the thesis with a plagiarism detection program. After the pre-examination process is complete, the doctoral student prepares a document for the responsible supervisor, where they report the final corrections made to the thesis based on the pre-examination reports. After this, the division for doctoral education and research grants the thesis an examination permit based on the recommendations of the Pre-examination Board and the head of the doctoral programme. The secretary of the division for doctoral education and research then informs the doctoral student, the head of the doctoral programme, and the appointed custos of the examination permit.

After receiving the examination permit, the doctoral student must ensure that the examiner has enough time to familiarise themselves with the thesis sufficiently early before the public examination. At the latest, the complete thesis must be sent to the examiner thirty (30) days before the public examination, unless the head of the doctoral programme and the examiner agree otherwise. The planning officer of the doctoral programme delivers the thesis and any related documentation to the examiner along with the examination guidelines, pre-examination reports, and possible requests for rectification from the doctoral student.

When the examination permit is granted, the language of the public examination event is also decided. The language of the examination event is the language of the doctoral thesis or Finnish, if both the examiner and doctoral student request it.

Appointing the examiner

The division for doctoral education and research appoints an examiner to a doctoral thesis based on a proposal from the head of the doctoral programme once an examination permit is granted. Before the examiner is appointed, the doctoral student has an opportunity to present their reasoned opinion on the choice for an examiner. The disqualification criteria of doctoral thesis examiners are as described in Sections 27–28 of the Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003).

The examiner must be an expert with public recognition in the field with a doctor’s degree or similar merits. The doctoral student’s supervisor or a member of the Pre-examination Board cannot be appointed as the examiner. The examiner is chosen primarily from outside Uniarts Helsinki. As a rule, the examiner should be appointed no less than two (2) months before the public examination.

In exceptional cases, two examiners can be appointed to examine the thesis. This might come into question for instance if there cannot be found a single suitable person with a broad enough expertise to examine the doctoral thesis. A proposal to have two examiners must always be carefully argued for.

Informing about the public examination

The Academy of Fine Arts’ communications services prepare a public announcement plan with the planning officer and head of the doctoral programme as soon as the public examination date has been decided.

Public examination event

The Academy of Fine Arts organises a public defence event and appoints a custos that can be a professor of the doctoral student’s teaching field, for example the responsible supervisor or the head of the doctoral programme. The custos takes care of guiding the examiner in practical matters. The planning officer and head of the doctoral programme agree on the date of the public examination together with examiner, custos, and doctoral student. The public examination event must be announced ten (10) days before the event at the latest, and at that time, it must also be informed where the doctoral thesis can be publicly seen.

The doctoral thesis to be examined must be publicly available for ten (10) days before the public examination event. Together with the doctoral student, the planning officer of the doctoral programme takes care of sending out the public examination invitation to the examiner, the Pre-examination Board, and various communication channels.

It is recommended that in connection with the public defence event, works of art or documentation of some artistic component of the thesis would be on display.

Public examination event proceedings

The proceedings of the public examination event and its etiquette are described in detail in separate guidelines concerning the proceedings of the public examination event of a Doctoral thesis in Fine Arts.

Assessment and approval of a doctoral thesis

The assessment is primarily based on how the thesis project demonstrates command of demanding artistic research and on the ability to solve research problems in an individual and creative manner. Additionally, the extent to which the doctoral student has familiarised themselves with the subject matter of their research and what kind of capabilities they have to perceive and process questions that are contemporary and important in the field of artistic research is also assessed.

The examiner must issue a written report within fourteen (14) days of the public examination. In addition to what is mentioned above, the examiner considers in their report the argumentation of the doctoral student at the public defence. In their report, the examiner must propose the approval or rejection of the thesis project. In other words, the decision must not be conditional. The instructed length of the report is 5–10 sheets. The examiner sends their report to the planning officer of the doctoral programme, who delivers it to the division for doctoral education and research members and to the doctoral student no later than seven (7) days before the approval of the thesis is handled in a meeting of the division for doctoral education and research. Before the thesis is approved or rejected, the doctoral student has an opportunity to write a request for rectification concerning the examiner’s report (Universities Act 558/2009, Section 44).

The division for doctoral education and research decides whether the doctoral thesis is approved or rejected based on the examiner’s report and possible request for rectification from the doctoral student. Only those members of the division for doctoral education and research who are free of disqualifications, have completed an academic degree of the same level, or have been appointed as professors, can take part in the decision-making (University Regulations of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Section 22). If there are not enough members who are allowed to participate in the decision-making, the dean appoints a necessary number of additional members to the division (University Regulations of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Section 22). In the case of a rejection, the division for doctoral education and research must record the grounds for rejection in their decision.

Request for rectification concerning a doctoral thesis

A doctoral student that is dissatisfied with the grading of their doctoral thesis may request a written rectification from Uniarts Helsinki within 14 days from the date they have been notified of the decision (Education Regulations of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Section 56).