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Guidelines for Doctoral Dissertation Supervision

Aalto Doctoral program in Business, Economics, and Finance provides each of its doctoral students a dissertation advisory committee that comprises a supervising professor (chair) and two additional dedicated advisors (members). The supervising professor and advisors are appointed by Aalto BIZ Doctoral Program Committee. The supervising professor is responsible for chairing the committee and identifying and enrolling advisors for the committee together with the student. The committee is collectively tasked with guiding the research project of the doctoral student and mentoring their development as a scholar and a higher education professional throughout the program. The core responsibilities of the committee include: 

Onboarding

• Helping the doctoral student integrate into the department and Aalto BIZ community.
• Explaining the tasks, rights, and responsibilities of doctoral researchers and students at Aalto BIZ.
• Introducing the doctoral student to the Aalto Code of Conduct and to Aalto guidelines for research integrity and responsible conduct in research.
• Appointing a designated “onboarding buddy” for the student together with the Head of Doctoral Studies.
• Creating a schedule for regular supervision meetings together with the student.

Providing continuous guidance throughout the dissertation journey

• Guiding the doctoral student in creating their personal study plan (includes credit plan, research plan, supervision plan, funding plan, and career plan).
• Systematically monitoring student progress through monthly supervision meetings and yearly progress reviews.
• Providing the student with critical but constructive and encouraging feedback on their work and progress.
• Helping students develop their skills in theorizing, argumentation, empirical analysis and academic writing by co-authoring and/or commenting on their working papers and article manuscripts.
• Ensuring that the manuscript that the students submit for pre-examination meets the requirements of a doctoral dissertation at Aalto University.
• Identifying and recruiting two pre-examiners for the student’s dissertation manuscript and helping students to prepare for the defense.

Helping doctoral students get funding for their studies

• Guiding the doctoral researcher in writing successful funding applications.
• Writing recommendations and references for funding applications.
• Helping the students finance their studies through research projects and departmental research positions.

Helping doctoral students develop their scholarly and peer-support networks

• Guiding doctoral students in identifying and integrating into relevant national and international scholarly communities and networks.
• Creating opportunities for students to develop their peer-support networks at the departmental and school level.

Providing career planning and job placement support

• Providing doctoral students with the advice, mentoring, and support they need to prepare themselves for the academic job market, actively engaging with students to understand their career aspirations and collaboratively explore post-doctorate job market opportunities.
• Guiding doctoral students in preparing CVs, application letters, research statements and teaching portfolios.
• Helping job-seeking doctoral students to prepare for their campus visits, job interviews and job talks.
• Providing opportunities, when possible, for gaining valuable job market experience, including teaching and supervising MSc theses.

Mentoring and modeling healthy work-life integration

• Actively promoting student wellbeing, engagement, and high-quality student experience in the Aalto BIZ doctoral program.
• Regularly checking in with the doctoral student about their work-life balance, reminding them to take breaks and to actively engage in activities that promote well-being.
• Guiding the doctoral student in managing their time and setting boundaries between work and personal time.
• Encouraging the doctoral students to set clear priorities, learning to say no when necessary, and to allocate time and energy to both professional and personal aspects of their lives.
• Contributing to the collective creation of a meaningful and stimulating work environment together with the Head of Doctoral Studies.