Academic ranks in Finland

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The following are academic ranks in the Finnish higher education system. There are a specific number of posts, which can be applied to when they are vacated or established.

Contents

Professors

Finland's system is similar to the traditional German system in that there is a limited number of posts for professors (professori), who head research groups, and take part in administration in addition to lecturing and thesis supervision. Fulfillment of a professor's post often requires that the previous professor has retired. Traditionally, there was no assistant / associate / full professor career track, nor an official "tenure track". The title of apulaisprofessori ("assistant professor") was retired in 1998, but reintroduced in 2010.

Qualifications for a professor's position are a doctoral degree and an extensive independent publication and teaching record. It is typical, but not mandaratory, for the newly recruited professors to hold the title of docent.

Honorary

In Finland, Professori can, in addition to denoting an academic rank, also be an honorary title, awarded usually to heads of certain research organisations as well as to particularly distinguished creative professionals by the President upon recommendation of the Title Board of the Prime Minister's Office. [1] [2]

Teachers and researchers

Tenure track positions ranking below the rank of full professor are called associate professor and assistant professor, for which various translations are in use. Non-tenure track positions ranking below the (full) professor are "yliopistonlehtori" (senior lecturer; literally "university lecturer"), or "yliopistotutkija" (senior researcher; literally "university researcher"), which are roughly equivalent to a senior lecturership/readership in the UK or an associate professorship in the US. The honorary title of dosentti , also called dosentuuri (Title of Docent) is similar in required qualifications, but the related form of employment is often task-based (e.g., teaching a specific course, supervising a specific student) rather than full-time employment. When it does include full-term employment, it has fewer or no administrative responsibilities and may be combined with work at a company or another university. The alternative translation for docent is "associate professor" [3] or "adjunct professor". [4]

Mid-level educators and researchers are called by lehtori (lecturer), tutkijatohtori (postdoctoral researcher), and opettava tutkija (teaching researcher). [5] However, due to the poor opportunities to advance career-wise (e.g. to obtain a tenured or tenure-track position as senior lecturer/researcher, or assistant/associate/full professor), researchers might be stuck with positions such as tutkijatohtori for quite some time, even if they have already acquired the honorary Title of Docent.

Junior educators and researchers are called by terms such as assistentti (literally "assistant" and is typically a position designed for PhD students), tohtorikoulutettava (doctoral trainee), jatko-opiskelija (doctoral student), projektitutkija (project researcher), väitöskirjatutkija (PhD researcher), or yliopisto-opettaja (literally "university teacher").

Researchers and professors funded by the Academy of Finland are generally styled accordingly, "akatemiatutkija" and "akatemiaprofessori" (academy researcher and academy professor, respectively).

Academic Positions

Professors and tenure track

Research track

Teaching track

Administrative positions

Obsolete positions

Typical organisational hierarchy

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. "Honorary titles". Prime Minister's Office (Valtioneuvoston Kanslia). Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  2. "Tasavallan presidentin asetus arvonimistä (381/2000)". FinLex.fi. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  3. "Suositukset ja lausunnot". Suomen dosenttiliitto. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
  4. "Finland, Academic Career Structure".
  5. Helsinki University job title glossary