The studies Philosophy of Science and General Research Skills – or more informally joint studies – are open to all ULapland doctoral researchers and constitute a part of the doctoral degree. Joint studies provide doctoral researchers with a possibility to build their expertise towards being able to independently and critically apply research methods in creating new academic information. These courses also provide opportunities for doctoral researchers to build their expertise in other ways to advance their researcher skills.

Joint studies are divided into four modules:
1. Critical thinking and argumentation
2. Research methods
3. Orientation and researcher’s skills
4. Ethics.

Please note that as a general rule, doctoral researchers are expected to select studies from each of the four content areas. However, to ensure flexibility, there are no set credit requirements for the individual categories. Each skill area may include either individual or multiple study units.

Doctoral degree requirements vary between faculties, so detailed information on the Philosophy of Science and General Research Skills studies included in each doctoral degree can be found in the faculty-specific study guides.

Read the course descriptions and register via the Peppi system

The thematic studies are divided into three modules:

1. Introduction to Arctic research
2. Research seminar
3. Current issues in Arctic Research

The first two modules – Introduction to Arctic Research, and Research seminar – include only one course each, making them the core courses of the programme. Core courses are taken by all doctoral researchers of the programme. The third module – i.e. Current Issues in Arctic Research – consists of two elective courses.

Read the course descriptions and register via the Peppi system

We collect feedback from all our courses to constantly monitor the quality of our course offerings and to make improvements where necessary. Our feedback system fosters an open culture of feedback and development.

1. The responsible teacher collects feedback from doctoral researchers who have completed the course.
2. Based on the feedback, the teacher prepares a reflective summary and submits it to the coordinator of the Doctoral School.
3. The coordinator compiles the feedback from all courses and forwards it to the steering group of doctoral education, which takes the feedback into account in the development of teaching and doctoral programmes.