In 2025, FinEd continued its work of supporting PhD researchers in our member universities, and facilitating co-operation between member universities as regards doctoral education. In this newsletter, we take a look at FinEd’s activities in 2025, and also extend our warmest thank-yous to everyone who participated in our events in and wish everyone a Happy New Year 2026. The events of the new year are decided in FinEd’s steering board in the early part of 2026, and information will be posted on our website soon after that.
Responsibility for steering FinEd
University of Eastern Finland (UEF) has been steering FinEd activities during the two-year period of 2024–2025. The network’s activities were chaired by Prof. Markku Niemivirta until September 2024, with Prof. Jaana Viljaranta acting as chair from October 2024 until the end of 2025. Anna Rawlings continued as coordinator of FinEd’s activities. From the beginning of 2026 until the end of 2027, University of Jyväskylä takes on the responsibility of coordinating FinEd and its activities. The new chairperson of FinEd’s steering group will from January 2026 onwards be Prof. Niina Rutanen, with research coordinator Milla Saajanaho acting as FinEd’s coordinator. We thank the previous chairperson and coordinator as well as the whole steering board of FinEd for their work!
FinEd Online Research Talks
The FinEd Online Research Talk events (FORT) launched in 2022 were continued in 2025. The FORT events comprise keynote talks from professors and other researchers from member universities on their ongoing research. The series has provided us with a new way of reaching out to doctoral researchers as well as the academic community more broadly. The FORT events also raise awareness of FinEd and showcase the broad range of research done within our network.
Our spring 2025 season FORT speakers were Prof. Sonja Kosunen (UEF) with Class in the class: middle-class habitus and the silence of social class in schools and Assoc. Prof. Fredrik Rusk (ÅAU) on (Digital) Ethnographies in a postdigital age: Examples from four studies. The autumn season speakers were Prof. Katariina Holma (OU) on the topic Science, theories, and values – tracing complexities and Prof. Päivi Siivonen (UTU) with Educating enterprising and employable higher education graduates: highfliers or exhausted achievers? Our warmest thanks to the speakers!
Academic writing workshop for doctoral researchers, 11–12 August
Our annual scientific writing workshop was again arranged at the beautiful, inspiring Hanaholmen Conference Center at the border of Helsinki and Espoo, with 25 PhD-researcher participants, five senior mentors, and the coordinator. Workshop activities included two keynote speeches, with University Lecturer Ira Virtanen (UEF) speaking on the topic Causes, Sauces, and Positive Forces: Navigating the Imposter Phenomenon in Doctoral Research and post-doctoral researcher Minna Ikävalko PhD (UEF) on Game of Thr… Thesis, as well as group work with mentors on participants’ abstracts and article manuscripts, and time set aside for networking, sharing experiences with peers, and making new friends. We received some very positive feedback for the workshop, as well as some suggestions for making it even better. As before, we are grateful for the feedback, and will take all suggestions into account when planning and organising future workshops.
“It was one of the best workshops I have ever been during the doctoral studies. I had such luxurious two days that I could focus on my own writing and meet with wonderful peers and mentors. I felt like I was in a creative and productive bubble. It was just what I needed. Thank you very much!” – From participant feedback
FinEd preseminar at the FERA conference at University of Lapland, 5 November
The theme of our 2025 preseminar was Using Generative AI in Educational Research – Do’s, Don’ts, and How to Do It. In the morning, Prof. Petri Nokelainen (TAU) gave the keynote speech AI Literacy in Doctoral Research: Challenges and Opportunities, followed in the afternoon by University Researcher Ville Heilala’s (JYU) workshop entitled Artificial Intelligence for Research in the Human Sciences. The keynote was arranged in hybrid format, and the workshop only for those attending in person in Rovaniemi. Some 20 participants attended both events in person, with another 20 watching the keynote online.
“Tohtorikoulutus tulevaisuudessa” (“Doctoral education in the future”) lunch meeting
We continued the tradition started in 2023 of organising a lunch meeting for heads of doctoral programmes, vice-deans for research, and professors with extensive experience is supervising doctoral theses, in conjunction with the FERA conference on 6 November at Restaurant Felli’s cabinet at the University of Lapland campus. Participants included at least one representative from each of our eight member universities. The venue was lovely, the food was tasty, and the conversation flowed freely on the current state of doctoral education and the education of doctoral supervisors. The meeting’s aim is to support and facilitate collaboration between FinEd member universities at a time when Finnish doctoral education is undergoing some fundamental changes. The lunch meeting has become an established part of our annual programme.
Other activities
As in previous years, FinEd funded early career keynote speakers to two domestic conferences. Post-doctoral researcher Anna Kristiina Kokko PhD (UEF) spoke at the OPPIVA conference in Oulu on 11 June on the topic Governing Learning: Policies Shaping Children’s Everyday Life in School. PhD Researcher Maiju Saijets (LAU) gave a keynote speech entitled Kulttuurin ja kielen merkitys alkuperäiskansojen medialukutaidossa – esimerkkinä pohjoissaamenkieliset ikääntyneet (”The significance of culture and language for indigenous people’s media literacy, using elderly Northern Sami speakers as an example”) at the FERA conference on 7 November.
