EDUFI Fellowship promoted the mobility of foreign doctoral researchers to Finland
The EDUFI Fellowship is primarily intended for doctoral students invited to Finland to either carry out a doctoral research project or complete a double degree at a Finnish university. The fellowship is mainly intended for the early stages of postgraduate studies, after which it is hoped that the fellow will continue their studies or research in Finland. This goal has been very successful, as 81.6% of the fellows have continued their research and studies in Finland. Almost one in ten fellows continued their studies as planned at a foreign university. Another important thing to note is that not a single fellow dropped out.
The total number of fellowships reported during the two-year period was 143. Based on the impact assessment, only 12,7% of the EDUFI Fellowship fellows had not yet received further funding after their fellowship. Many of the fellows who had received further funding had received funding from multiple sources. It is worth noting that in terms of further funding, universities' own project or research funding had become more common than funding provided by foundations.
The EDUFI Fellowship helps attract international talent to Finland
The objective of the EDUFI Fellowship is to promote the implementation of the Talent Boost programme by attracting international talent to Finland. Based on the impact assessment, the EDUFI Fellowship achieves this objective well and constitutes an important financial instrument for supporting the international activities of universities.
The impact assessment was carried out by the Finnish National Agency for Education as part of its normal grant reporting. The total number of processed EDUFI Fellowship grant reports was 143. The assessment also covered the final reports of the Finnish universities hosting the fellows during the two-year period from February 2023 to March 2025. The aim was to examine the appropriateness of the programme both in terms of the doctoral research projects of the fellows and in terms of creating new or strengthening existing international cooperation.
Important support for the internationalisation of universities
The respondents to the survey carried out as part of the impact assessment assessed that the key objectives of the programme had been achieved very well. The EDUFI Fellowship received an average rating of 4.6 on a scale of 1–5, with 1 being very poor and 5 being very good. Considering the fact that the main objective of the programme is to support the internationalisation of university institutions, the results of the impact assessment can be considered excellent. The EDUFI Fellowship is an important instrument and funding source for supporting the international activities of universities.
Examples of the free-form feedback provided by dissertation supervisors:
“It is important to continue to offer EDUFI funding because it is targeted at foreign researchers in the early stages of their doctoral research, who in many disciplines find it very difficult to obtain funding elsewhere.”
“EDUFI has played a critical role in bringing top level students to Finland, where they can then find other funding agencies and complete their PhD studies. Many remain in Finland after the Ph.D. This would be impossible otherwise. I believe that EDUFI’s contribution to science in Finland is extremely important and positive.”
“The obtained results were the subject of interest for both sending and host institutes and promoted the collaboration between the research groups.”
“We would like to emphasize the positive impact of hosting international PhD students through the EDUFI scholarship program. Such initiatives promote cultural exchange, foster global research collaborations, and contribute to the overall enrichment of our academic community.”