About this programme
The Doctoral Programme in Education, Schooling and Learning aims to educate researchers and specialists with in-depth theoretical and methodological expertise in their fields of research. Graduates of the programme understand the link between their research and current domestic and global trends, such as digitalisation, increasing inequalities, ageing, sedentary lifestyles, migration, diversity, climate change, overconsumption and biodiversity loss, as well as human opportunities to respond to challenges emerging in a changing society. The multidisciplinary doctoral programme includes the following disciplines: general education, philosophy of education, sociology of education, adult education, educational psychology, special education, early childhood education and care, teacher education, general and subject-specific didactics, educational neuroscience, craft science and home economics as well as speech-language pathology and cognitive science. The doctoral theses completed in the programme relate to, for example, the societal themes of education systems, educational institutions, and education, including its formation and development. Doctoral research can focus on the development, learning, wellbeing and teaching of individuals and groups. It can address values and ethics in upbringing, teaching and education. The theoretical and methodological scope of the doctoral theses completed in the programme is broad. Research can be qualitative, quantitative or multimethodological. Doctoral theses in the programme can employ various qualitative research methods, such as ethnographic research, discourse analysis, design research and action research, or engaging interventions, longitudinal studies, registry data analysis, physiological and neuroscientific approaches, social network analysis and advanced approaches to statistical analysis. The research methodology training offered in the programme focuses particularly on emerging methods and methods that advance scholarship, such as experimental, interventional, artistic and design-based approaches. The Doctoral Programme in Education, Schooling, and Learning is located at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, which conducts research of a very high international standard. The multidisciplinary research communities and research groups of the Faculty and its partner faculties (Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Theology) play a key role in the supervision of doctoral theses. Key collaboration networks include the Finnish Multidisciplinary Doctoral Training Network on Educational Sciences (FinEd), international and domestic top-level research units and field-specific associations. Learn more about the doctoral programme on the University of Helsinki website.
Course details verified 29 Oct 2026 — intakes, entry requirements and course facts · official source