Latest reforms in Finnish doctoral education in light of recent European developments

Abstract

Doctoral education as a policy field is an important link between educational, research and innovation policies. It is gaining importance in European and national policy discussions. Doctoral education policies are increasingly formulated at the supranational level, even though the European Commission does not possess formal competence in terms of authority over the educational policies. Consequently, policy steering is mostly performed at the national level. In this article, we examine Finnish doctoral education from the steering perspective in a European context. We describe the development and steering of Finnish doctoral education, as well as the current doctoral education policies and instruments used to implement it. We analyse the main steering documents of Finnish doctoral education policy and provide insights into the implementation of the European doctoral education agenda through a case study from the University of Jyväskylä. We argue that directing policy in terms of information is the most important instrument for developing doctoral studies. Furthermore, we conclude that the supranational steering directly affects Finnish higher education institutions.