How to apply for IPPE

1. Carefully read through the call for application and instructions on how to apply. 
2. Fill in the application form during the admissions period at Studyinfo.fi. Upload the required enclosures for the application as instructed. Please see further instructions below.
3. Please make sure that you have received an automatic reply after you have submitted your application. Through the link in the email, you can access your application to make changes or upload new documents during the application period. The link only works once, and you will receive a new automatic reply and link after you submit your application again.
4. If you have completed your previous degrees outside Finland, you must submit officially certified copies of your educational documents to the Admissions Office
5. Please check your email regularly as the faculty or the admissions office may contact you regarding your application (please also check your junk mail). The invitations for the second stage of application process, the video interviews, will be send by email.  The results of the admission will be announced by email as well.
6. Accept your study place through a link in an email message (sent from Studyinfo.fi), or if you have Finnish electronic banking credentials, please go to My Studyinfo to accept your study place
7. Enrol as a doctoral student as instructed, latest when you arrive in Finland
8. Familiarise yourself with instructions for a new doctoral student

You can submit only one online application form. A link to Studyinfo.fi and the electronic application form can be found at the end of the page. You will need to upload all application documents below online at Studyinfo.fi.

In addition to uploading the electronic application documents on the application, you must submit the officially certified copies of your educational documents to Tampere University Admissions Office by post, if you have completed your previous degrees outside Finland.

When you are applying for IPPE, you must submit the following documents: 

1. Curriculum Vitae (max. 5 pages)
   • Please use the Europass format in English
   • the list of publications should be organized as follows: international peer-reviewed publications, other publications
   • include a list of completed epidemiology courses (level, number of credits)
      
2. Motivation letter (max. 1 page)
   • The motivation letter describes your personal goals for PhD studies. It should address the following:
     • Why do you want to pursue doctoral studies in the IPPE Programme? 
     •  How will PhD studies complement your previous education and professional experience?  
     • What new skills and opportunities are you looking for in the IPPE Programme? 
     • How do you plan to use the experience gained in IPPE training after completing the PhD degree? What are your future career goals? 
        
3. Research plan (Please see detailed guidelines, max. 6 pages excluding summary and including references)
    
4. Description of funding and support for studies
   • Please describe how you plan to
     1. pay for your living costs in Finland from August 2023 to May 2023 (The Finnish immigration service income requirement is 1 000€/ month for doctoral researchers to admit a residence permit to Finland), and
     2. fund your research project (e.g. data collection, your salary/income during the thesis work).
   • Please include documentation of grant awards for the planned PhD project if appropriate.
      
5. Officially certified or legalised copies of educational documents (see detailed instructions below)
   • degree certificates of your Bachelor's and Master's degree in the original language
   • transcripts of records of your Bachelor's and Master's studies in the original language
   • official translations of the Bachelor's and Master’s degree certificate and of the transcript of records unless issued in English, Finnish or Swedish
      
6. Proof of English language proficiency (Please see language requirements page)
    
7. Copy of your passport's ID page

In addition, on the online application form you will be asked to provide names, titles, affiliations and e-mail addresses (use organizational email addresses) of up to three (3) persons who will provide a letter of recommendation.

Please read the following instructions before uploading the documents:

• Scan the documents. Do not take photos as the quality may not be sufficient for processing the documents.
• Scan all document pages containing any text. Remember to scan both sides of the documents if they contain anything (text, stamps, etc.) at all. Check the scan to see that everything on the original document is legible on the scan.
• The files must be in PDF format.
• All documents that are in the same category (for example the degree certificate or transcript of records) should be scanned into ONE (1) file. Do not make a separate file for each page.
• Name the documents, for example: lastname(s) first name master's degree certificate.pdf

The general language requirements for doctoral programmes can be found on our language requirements web page. 

You must upload a copy of your language test results to your application, but, in addition, Tampere University will verify all language test results online.

We do not accept regular photocopies of educational documents sent by post. All educational documents sent by post must be either officially certified by the awarding institution or legalised copies. 

Applicants whose degrees have been awarded in certain countries need to pay special attention and submit their documents according to the country-specific requirements. The country-specific requirements may concern the copy of the degree certificate, transcript of records or the official translation of these documents. 

Please see detailed instructions below.

An officially certified or legalised copy of one of the following documents is required if you have completed your previous degrees outside Finland:

Degree certificate

A degree certificate is a document issued by an institution to a student who has successfully completed all studies included in the degree. The student has graduated. The degree certificate should include the name of the institution awarding the degree, the date of issue, and the name of the person to whom the degree certificate has been issued and which title/degree the person has been awarded.

Temporary (provisional) degree certificate

A temporary (provisional) degree certificate is a document issued by an institution to a student who has been awarded or conferred an academic degree. The temporary degree certificate is issued as a replacement for the actual degree certificate e.g. in case the actual degree certificate cannot be given to the student immediately after the studies have been completed due to technical or administrative reasons.

The temporary degree certificate must include:

• the name of the institution awarding the degree
• the date of award/conferral of the degree
• the name of the person to whom the temporary degree certificate has been issued
• the academic title/degree that has been awarded.

It is important to note that a document stating only that the student has completed all the course units is not sufficient as a temporary degree certificate.

If you have not yet graduated: If you will not graduate by the application deadline, please refer to the Instructions for applicants in the final year of their Master’s degree at the bottom of this webpage.

Please also note the possible country-specific requirements connected to the country of your Master and Bachelor education which might affect the way your certificate needs to be certified and/or submitted. If you have taken your university or AMK degree(s) in Finland you do not need to submit the copy of the Master’s and Bachelor’s degree certificate by post.

Please note that depending on the language of the document, an official translation may be required - see below.

An officially certified or legalised copy of the transcript of records is required if you have completed your previous degrees outside Finland:

A transcript of records is a document issued by the institution that has issued the degree certificate/temporary degree certificate. Only official transcripts of records are accepted.

The official transcript of records must include the following information:

• full titles of the study units that the student has completed for the degree
• completion times of study units (or at the very least the overall study time at the institution)
• grades obtained
• credits awarded
• information on the grading scale used at the institution
• If you have not yet graduated: The transcript of records must include the name of the degree that will be awarded to you when you graduate (e.g. Bachelor of Science, Master of Science).

The transcript must cover the full length of studies. If the degree includes course units that the student has completed in another institution and the transferred credits are not indicated in detail in the transcript of records, a separate transcript of records regarding the transferred credits must be delivered.

If your transcript does not include all the required information, please submit a separate officially certified document issued by the institution indicating the missing information.

Please also note the possible country-specific requirements connected to the country of your Master and Bachelor education which might affect the way your transcript needs to be certified and/or submitted. If you have taken your university or AMK degree(s) in Finland you do not need to submit the copies of transcripts by post.

Please note that depending on the language of the document, an official translation may be required - see below.

Officially certified copies of academic documents can be issued by the awarding institution. If you request officially certified copies from the awarding institution, make sure that the copies submitted to Tampere University meet the following criteria.

The copies:

• are taken directly from your original educational documents
• include every page of your educational documents
• bear the original stamp of the awarding institution on each page of the document (e.g. a generic stamp stating only “Certified true copy” will not be accepted)
• bear the original signature of the certifying officer on each page of the document.

Please note that regular copies of certified copies will not be accepted.

The officially certified copy can be sent by post to Tampere University either by the applicant or the awarding institution except where the country-specific requirements state otherwise.

If you cannot obtain officially certified copies of your academic documents from the awarding institution, you may submit legalised copies of your academic documents.

Legalisation takes place by two different means depending on whether the relevant country is a signatory to the Hague Convention of 1961. Documents supplied by countries that have ratified the Hague Convention are legalised by the issuance of an Apostille Certificate (stamp or paper certificate). Documents issued by other countries are legalised in two steps: first by the foreign ministry of the issuing country, then by a competent Finnish Embassy or Finnish Consulate of that country.

Apostille

The Apostille Certificate (stamp or paper certificate) is necessary if the document has been issued by the authorities of a country that has ratified the Hague Convention of 1961. Information on the Hague Convention, a list of its member states and information on the authorities issuing Apostille Certificates in the various countries can be found at: Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents.

Legalisation

If the country issuing a document is not a signatory of the Hague Convention, a document is legalised by the foreign ministry of the issuing country, after which a competent Finnish Embassy or Finnish Consulate of that country legalises the document, certifying the competence of that foreign ministry official to issue such legalisation.

We have country-specific requirements for degrees awarded in the following countries: African countries, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Finland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Please see additional information on the country-specific requirements. 

It is possible to be exempted from submitting the officially certified copies by post if your University uses electronically verified documents. In this case carefully examine the exemptions below.  We accept:  

1. Electronically verified PDF. An electronically verified document is a PDF document equipped with a digital signature to confirm its authenticity and integrity. The digital signature replaces handwritten signatures and stamps and therefore these types of educational documents do not need to be posted. Please note that regular PDFs are not sufficient even if they are sent directly from the university. 

2. Verification service for documents issued. Your university’s electronic verification service for both degree certificate and transcript of records or a similar national verification service (e.g. Digitary).

If you apply with electronically verified documents, you must contact our Admissions Services by email in order for your application to be processed. It is your responsibility to make sure that the documents meet the requirements and are submitted in time. Only documents which can be verified online by Tampere University are accepted. Institutional verification services that require Tampere University to download specific software or pay for the verification are not accepted. Please note that Tampere University reserves the right to make the final decision on whether a service is accepted or not.

If your educational documents are issued in a language other than English, Finnish, or Swedish, official translations of them to one of these languages are required. Please note that officially certified copies of the original documents also have to be submitted.

An official translation must be one of the following:

• issued by the awarding institution
• an officially certified copy of a translation issued by the awarding institution
• translated by an official translator
• an officially certified copy of a translation made by an official translator.

Each page of an official translation must bear the translator’s stamp and/or signature. Official translations must be exact translations of the original documents. An applicant's own translations are not accepted.

You must send your educational documents by post to Tampere University Admissions Office, if you have completed your degrees outside Finland.

Postal address: 
Tampere University
Admissions Office
Kalevantie 4
FI-33014 Tampere University
Finland

Telephone number for arriving courier deliveries:
+358 294 524 001
(this number is only for arriving courier deliveries. Contact information for Admissions Services)

Please make sure that the officially certified copies of your educational documents arrive at Tampere University by 4 January 2023 at 15.00 (Finnish time).

You are eligible to apply in the final year of your Master’s degree if the degree will be completed before you start your doctoral studies. 

In this case, you may be admitted to IPPE conditionally. After you have graduated with a Master’s degree, you must deliver officially certified copies of the degree certificate and final transcript of records of your Master’s degree by post to Tampere University by the deadline given to you. If you do not submit an officially certified copy of your degree certificate to Tampere University by the given deadline, your conditional admission will expire.

When applying in the final year of your Master's degree, you must submit an official transcript and its official translation into English, Finnish or Swedish.

Please note that the transcript of records must include the name of the degree you will be awarded when you graduate (Master of, etc.). If your transcript of records does not include the name of the degree, you must submit officially certified educational documents where the name of the degree is stated or an official statement issued by the awarding institution.

A person accepted at a Finnish university or a polytechnic may accept only one study place in a degree programme leading to a higher education degree during one academic term, which means that if you accept a study place for a doctoral programme at Tampere University, you cannot accept another study place during that same academic term.