Estonian Doctoral School helps enhance doctoral students’ professional and general skills and supports supervisors
The Estonian Doctoral School has received a lot of good feedback after its first year of activity from partner universities, doctoral students and supervisors. Besides various events, the support provided by the doctoral school for including international opponents and organising short-term mobility is particularly appreciated.
There were nearly 2,300 doctoral students at Estonian universities last year. More than 200 young researchers per year have defended their theses in the last few years. Until the beginning of last year, activities supporting doctoral studies were fragmented between several doctoral schools. However, the Estonian Doctoral School, which started a year ago and unites all Estonian universities, has helped to harmonise the opportunities for doctoral students and intensified communication between all partners to jointly ensure the necessary broad and high-quality support.
Instead of the previous 13 doctoral schools, the Estonian Doctoral School has six specialised sections that provide doctoral students and supervisors with research-based self-improvement opportunities, invite international opponents, and distribute mobility grants. Special attention is paid to joint events offered centrally and in cooperation with partners. These events are open to all doctoral students and supervisors to enhance their general knowledge and skills as well as supervising skills. These events support the networking of both doctoral students and supervisors and the development of local and international connections necessary for doctoral students. Another advantage of a doctoral school is the coordinated planning, which ensures that the universities’ needs are considered, reduces the duplication of thematically overlapping events and alleviates the administrative burden.
From writing retreats to mobility
In its first year of operation, the Estonian Doctoral School organised 65 events, ranging from spring schools and seminars to writing retreats. The joint events for doctoral students addressed various topics, including career development, research ethics, data visualisation, communication skills, and maintaining mental health.
The general coordinator of the doctoral school, Monika Tasa, was particularly pleased with the active participation and excellent feedback from doctoral students and supervisors. “For example, more than 200 people participated in the career conference this year and, on average, 80 people have attended the coffee mornings for supervisors. Participants give us valuable feedback on what topics to address in the future. This way, we can gradually improve our action plan based on the wishes of the target group,” said Tasa.
The doctoral school's mobility support is in high demand among doctoral students, as this type of support is generally scarce. In 2024, the Estonian Doctoral School supported the short-term mobility of 156 doctoral students, enabling them to gain the international experience indispensable in doctoral studies.
Strong involvement of experts
Professor Mari Moora, Vice Rector for Research at the University of Tartu, is grateful to all participants who helped kick-start the project and complete the action plan.
“The strength of the doctoral school is the involvement of experts from all universities. The doctoral school is led by vice rectors for research from all partner universities, who ensure meaningful cooperation and close connection of the doctoral school with the strategic development directions of doctoral studies,” Moora explained. She said the experience of the first year of the doctoral school confirms that the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research has done an excellent job in creating this measure: “The ministry invited all universities to participate in the creation of the measure, prioritising the substantive goals. This strong foundation and ongoing close collaboration have been the wind in the sails of the Estonian Doctoral School. We are grateful to higher education experts for their well-considered and meaningful cooperation.”
The project is implemented by the University of Tartu, with the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Estonian University of Life Sciences, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Estonian Business School, the Tallinn University of Technology and Tallinn University as partners. The total project budget is €7 million, covered by the Estonian state and the European Social Fund.
The Estonian Doctoral School was launched in January 2024, and the project end date is 31 August 2029. The project "Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies" is co-funded by the European Union.
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