ABOUT FDPE

Overview

There are 10 departments of economics in Finnish universities. Most of them are far too small to maintain independently an integrated doctoral programme. In 1990 a joint doctoral programme was launched.

The Finnish Doctoral Programme in Economics (FDPE) is designed to provide graduate students, irrespective of their home institution, with a thorough and systematic training in the skills required of the contemporary academic and professional economists. The individual departments are, however, basic units of education, recruiting the doctoral students and being responsible for granting degrees and grades according to their own requirements.

Courses and seminars arranged by FDPE complement the courses organized by the participating institutions. FDPE acts also as a channel for cooperation in research and thesis supervision.

Apart from the member institutions, FDPE is financed by grants from the Academy of Finland. FDPE has received additional finance from different sources and has received grants from Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, the Bank of Finland, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Research Foundation of the Cooperative Banking Organization in Finland. In addition, many courses have been co-organized and co-financed with several institutions.

In 1998 FDPE became a 'unit of high-standard education' for 1999-2000. This status was awarded by the Finnish Ministry of Education to 20 university units in Finland. In the recent (March 2003) evaluation of the quality of social science education in the University of Helsinki, the international panel concluded that FDPE "provides Finnish universities with PhD education at a high international level."

FDPE also has 16 fellowships available for promising and successful doctoral students in the Finnish universities. The fellowships are financed by the Ministry of Education and the Academy of Finland.

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