Opiskelijat kävelemässä vehreässä ympäristössä rakennuksen edustalla

Doctoral studies: Requirements for educational documents

The instructions are valid during the 2026 admission rounds to doctoral programmes at JYU.

General requirements

To verify your eligibility, you must attach the degree certificate and the transcript of records for the degree that you use as a basis for eligibility (master’s) to your application. Other types of educational documents are a temporary (provisional) degree certificate and other official documents concerning applicant’s studies or degree that are issued by an educational institution and translations of educational documents.

Copies of educational documents that you submit as attachments to your application must be officially attested according to JYU requirements.

Official certification of educational documents

Degree certificate. If you are applying with an uncompleted degree, you do not need to attach a degree certificate to your application, but you must submit the certificate before you can be admitted to the doctoral programme.

Transcript of records. If the degree that verifies eligibility has not yet been awarded, your transcript of records must state the name of the degree you will be awarded upon graduation (e.g. Master of Science).

If your name has changed after your educational documents were issued, you must submit proof of the change of name (e.g., a marriage or civil partnership certificate, a life certificate, an extract from the Finnish Population Information System). The document must state your previous and current name, or otherwise, show a clear link between the two. If you are a Finnish citizen and your educational documents state your Finnish personal identity code, no proof of the change of name is required.

If your Finnish personal identity code has changed after your educational documents were issued, you must submit a certificate proving the change.

Degree Certificate

A degree certificate is a document issued by an institution to a student who has graduated and has been conferred the degree. The degree certificate should include:

the name of the institution awarding the degree,
the date of issue, and/or date of conferral of the degree,
the name of the person to whom the degree certificate has been issued, and
the academic title/degree (e.g. Master of Science) the person has been awarded.

The degree certificate must explicitly state that the degree has been either granted, awarded or conferred. If you have not yet received a permanent certificate, please see Temporary degree certificate.

If you wish to demonstrate your eligibility with more than one degree, you must submit degree certificates regarding all degrees.

Please do not send the original degree certificate to us. The University of Jyväskylä does not return application documents.

Temporary (Provisional) Degree Certificate

A temporary (provisional) degree certificate is a document issued by an educational institution to a student who has graduated and has been conferred the degree. The temporary degree certificate is issued as a replacement for the actual degree certificate e.g. in case the actual degree certificate cannot be given to the student immediately after the studies have been completed due to technical or administrative reasons. The temporary degree certificate must include:

the name of the institution awarding the degree
the date of award/conferral of the degree
the name of the person to whom the temporary degree certificate has been issued
the academic title/degree (e.g. Master of Science) the person has been awarded

If your provisional certificate does not confirm that your degree has been awarded, you will need to obtain a statement from the degree-awarding institution confirming that your degree has been or will be awarded to you without any conditions.

Transcript of Records

A transcript of records (mark sheet) is an official document that records your academic performance and is issued by the relevant higher education institution. A screenshot of a study system or database, or a link directing to such a system is not sufficient.

The document must include the following information:

name of the student
full titles of the units that the student has completed for the degree
completion times of study units (or at the very least the overall study time at the institution)
grades obtained
credits awarded
teaching language of the degree
information on the grading scale used at the institution at the time of study

The transcript must cover the full length of the studies. If the degree includes course units that the student has completed at another institution and the transferred credits are not indicated in detail on the transcript of records, a separate transcript of records regarding the transferred credits should be submitted.

If you wish to demonstrate your eligibility with more than one degree, you must submit transcripts of records regarding all degrees.

A diploma supplement can be accepted in place of a transcript of records if you have graduated and submitted your degree certificate.

If your official transcript of records does not include all the required information, please see the instructions below.

Information on academic transcripts

Official translations

If your educational documents are issued in a language other than English, Finnish, or Swedish, an official translation to one of these languages is required. Please notice that you are required to submit a certified copy of the original language version as well. However, if the degree-awarding institution customarily issues official educational documents in several languages, the English language version will suffice by itself. A separate translation is not required.

To be accepted, the translation must be exact and done either by the awarding institution or an official translator. It cannot be done by you, the applicant.

A diploma supplement issued in either English, Finnish, or Swedish can be accepted as an official translation of your degree certificate/transcript of records if all the necessary information is included. A diploma supplement is only accepted if you have graduated and submitted your degree certificate.