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Tampere University Student’s Guide

Tampere University

Services and support for doctoral students

The university and other parties offer a wide range of support and services to help you start your studies. On this page, we have compiled a list of services that are particularly important at the beginning of your studies.

Contents

Support during your studies 

Settling, working and finding friends 

Funding for doctoral studies

Get to know the university 

Support for research

IT services 

Student health and well-being 

Student union of Tampere University (TREY) 

Living in Tampere

Support during your studies

Orientation to doctoral studies

The best way to orient towards your work as a doctoral researcher is to participate in the Orientation Day. The Orientation Day provides you with information on the key services and steps you can take to get the best out of your doctorate at Tampere University.

University guidance and counselling services

The University provides students with academic counselling and guidance services that not only help you maintain academic progress and well-being but also encourages you to expand your expertise and take responsibility for your learning!

Funding for doctoral studies

Before starting your studies, discuss funding plans with your supervisor. Planning a budget for your studies is important as all the students must fund their studies and living expenses themselves. 

Doctoral researchers are either employed by their university, receive a grant to do research, or pursue a doctoral degree alongside work outside academia. The funded positions available for doctoral researchers are advertised for example, on the university’s website. When you receive outside funding such as a grant, get to know the resource agreement at the university.

A number of national and international scientific foundations give out grants to support doctoral research. The Research.fi (the link opens to another website) offers information on the foundations and their grant cycles. For more information about grant opportunities, please see the intranet theme Research and project funding

Writing grant proposals is an integral part of a researcher's skillset. The Doctoral School offers a course on writing grant proposals. Keep an eye out also for open calls for grant proposals and relevant training opportunities advertised by Research and Innovation services and your doctoral programme.

Settling, working and finding friends

Study & Stay Programme

Study & Stay is Tampere University’s programme of activities and services for all our international degree students. The aim is to support our international students to study, live, and work or start a business in the Tampere area. During your studies you will be able to attend special Study & Stay sessions with experts from career services, the City of Tampere, study guidance, and other relevant services.

Student Life in Tampere

How to find a home in Tampere? How to survive winter in Finland? What kind of hobbies are there available in Tampere? Visit the Student Ambassador Blog and find out!

Researcher development and research careers

We provide support to develop the continuously varied range of research competence. Generic and discipline specific researcher skills provide an excellent starting point for specialist, research, and teaching positions in different surroundings.

International House Tampere

International House Tampere is a single service point for supporting internationals with living, working, studying, and connecting with local employers.

Financial matters

Before starting your studies, discuss funding plans with your supervisor. Planning a budget for your studies is important as all the students must fund their studies and living expenses themselves.

Get to know the university

Tampere University is one of the most multidisciplinary universities in Finland. We bring together research and education in technology, health and society. Our community consists of about 22,500 students and around 4,200 staff members from more than 80 countries.

Campus information

Explore the campuses of the Tampere University.

360° presentation

Check out the 360° presentation of the campuses.

Services offered by the University Library

Get to know the library's guide for new students.

Know what's going on in the university community

Follow our social media channels and get to know us even before you arrive. We would love to hear from you - share your stories and tag us with @tampereuni (Instagram) or @Tampere University (Facebook and LinkedIn).

Support for research

Library’s services for doctoral researchers

The Tampere University Library provides a broad range of support for research and researchers. Look into the services offered by the Library as early on as possible, as these services will help you, for example, find relevant publications and databases and prepare your data management plan. In addition, the Library offers trainings that cover topical themes from which all researchers will greatly benefit. Up-to-date information on the courses is available on the Library’s website.

Open science and sustainable research

See guidelines for Open Access publishing and managing research data in accordance with FAIR principles. You can also find the open science guidelines of the university community.

Innovation activities for doctoral researchers

As a doctoral researcher, you stand at the interface between education, research and innovations. Our university has a vision to train all doctoral researchers as world-class experts, develop their global understanding, gain international success, and pursue lifelong learning. As stated in our research strategy, university community brings scientific knowledge and novel inventions effectively into practice through close collaboration, networking and a well-functioning innovation ecosystem. We are committed to openness, the sharing of information, sustainable development, fairness, and equality. Questions about intellectual property rights, the university’s invention policy and transfer of rights agreements are closely connected to innovation activities. All doctoral researchers are advised to consider the protection and commercial potential of their research results.

International opportunities for researchers

All doctoral researchers are recommended to study and conduct research abroad during their doctoral studies. International experiences will strengthen your competencies and help you expand your network of contacts and gain new perspectives on your research. By attending, for example, language courses, lectures delivered by visiting scholars, and the international summer schools and intensive courses offered by Tampere University, you will be able to develop your international competencies on your home campus. If you are interested in completing courses or conducting research abroad while working towards your doctoral degree, please discuss potential options with your supervisor.

IT services

Learn about our IT services and get your TUNI user account from the IT Helpdesk.

Read our IT Services FAQ

Student health and well-being

SportUni moves you!

SportUni provides high quality and versatile sport services for students and personnel of Tampere Universities. You can use three campuses’ services for just one affordable fee!

Doctoral student's well-being

Writing a doctoral dissertation is a process that takes several years, during which it is important to pay special attention to your well-being. Read more about services that support the well-being of doctoral students.

Student union of Tampere University

Student Union of Tampere University, TREY, represents all the 18,000 university students in Tampere. TREY protects the interests of students, facilitates the work of student associations, provides services for its members as well as creates a sense of community.

Find out more about TREY

Living in Tampere

Welcome to Tampere, one of the most attractive and lively cities in Finland. The city of students! Check out some interesting services for internationals in Tampere and find new exciting opportunities.

International Tampere

Get know the city of Tampere 

Tampere's offerings for students 

Check out most popular services, hobbies, culture and more

Published: 24.11.2025
Updated: 12.3.2026