Supervision plan and Thessa

At the beginning of a supervision relationship, supervisors and doctoral researchers prepare a supervision plan that specifies the duties, responsibilities and rights of the supervisors and the doctoral researcher, as well as the division of duties between the supervisors. The supervision plan should also include a preliminary plan for practical matters, such as how often the doctoral researcher meets with the supervisors and how they should prepare for the meetings. Further information on the responsibilities of the doctoral researcher and the supervisor.

The purpose of the supervision plan is to help the supervisor and the doctoral researcher discuss and agree on the principles and practices of the supervision. This means everyone involved will have a clear idea of their tasks, roles and each other’s expectations. The supervision plans are made through Thessa, the tool used at the University of Helsinki for the planning and monitoring of doctoral studies. Both the doctoral researcher and all supervisors must sign in to Thessa before signing the plan. During their first meeting, the supervisors and the doctoral researcher prepare the plan together using the Thessa profile of the primary supervisor.

When necessary, the supervision plan can be updated over the course of the doctoral studies.

In addition to the supervision plan, the doctoral student draws up a personal study plan in Sisu during the first year. The study plan must follow the degree structure of the student’s doctoral programme, and the exact content of the plan is agreed on with the supervisors. Especially the main supervisor is excepted to offer the doctoral student support in planning their studies. Go over the study plan with your doctoral student in the same meeting where you draw up the supervision plan.

In addition to making a Sisu study plan, it's recommendable to plant the entire research project in the My Thesis Project -section of Thessa. In the My Thesis Project -section, the doctora student can include information for example on the preliminary timetable of the doctoral research, planned conferences and publications, as well as any grants, scholarships or salaried periods received to fund the research project. Information on completed studies transfers automatically from Sisu to Thessa, so that the progress of studies can also be followed through a student's Thessa profile.

Study plans made at the start of studies are preliminary, and they can always be updated as studies progress and plans develop.

At the beginning of the doctoral studies, every doctoral researcher's supervisors are added to Thessa system (thessa.helsinki.fi) which is used for the planning and monitoring of doctoral studies. Doctoral researcher invites thesis committee members to Thessa themselves. Further information on Thessa below.

THESSA details and instructions

Thesis committees and annual reporting

THESSA helps a doctoral researcher to keep track of meetings and reports by sending email notifications (from thessa-admin@helsinki.fi). 

1. The personnel of the doctoral programme invites supersivors and doctoral researchers invite thesis committee members to sign in to THESSA. Please note that these invitations may end up in the junk mail folder to begin with.
2. Thesis committees are complete once all members have joined THESSA
3. An initial report and thereafter annual reports should be generated and submitted in Thessa.
4. Thesis committee members and supervisors can view and comment on the report before the initial/annual thesis advisory committee meeting
5. The report is approved during the meeting and the doctoral researcher submits the conclusions and recommendations as agreed
6. Doctoral researchers receive email notifications annually reminding them to arrange the next thesis committee meeting and submit an annual report 

Thesis committee meetings 

The thesis committee meets at least once a year, and the aims of the meetings are 

• to provide feedback on the progress of the research work and doctoral studies
• to support graduation in the target duration and to monitor that other duties are not preventing the scheduled progress of the dissertation
• to issue recommendations on the continuation or interruption of the dissertation as well as for changes to be made in supervision
• to support the doctoral researcher in career planning
• to support the progress of high-quality doctoral studies by offering expertise in the topic of the doctoral dissertation 

If you have technical questions on how to use Thessa, you can always contact our Thessa admins: thessa-admin@helsinki.fi