New DPSP tool for doctoral studies published
What do you need to know about the new digital DPSP tool?
The new DPSP tool supports doctoral students in managing their doctoral studies and doctoral thesis project. The DPSP tool also helps doctoral students to communicate about their research and plans to their supervising professor and thesis advisor(s).
The new tool helps to keep DPSP content up to date with easy editing possibilities. Moreover, the method of approval for supervising professors has been streamlined and made easier in Student Success Hub.
According to the degree regulations on doctoral education, each doctoral student should have a DPSP. The guideline is to discuss it with the supervising professor twice a year.
Transition from old to new
Doctoral students who have started their studies since March 2026 are requested to make their first doctoral personal study plans with the new DPSP tool by the end of the term (31 July 2026).
All doctoral students should start using the new DPSP tool as of autumn term 2026, but as long as a previous version approved in the system stays valid content-wise, an old DPSP is enough to have. If you have started your doctoral studies earlier than March 2026 and have uploaded your DPSP into MyStudies according to the old instructions as a pdf compilation, please note the following:
- A DPSP approved by your supervising professor that is found in the Advisory Notes section of MyStudies with an approval note by your supervising professor (or the doctoral education services) will remain there and stay valid, if there are no changes to it.
- If you do not have a DPSP approved in the system and located in the Advisory Notes section, you should make a doctoral personal study plan with the new tool.
Possible temporary shortcomings in supervision information
The new DPSP tool automatically retrieves supervision team information (supervising professor, thesis advisors) from the system. Especially for older students, there may some shortcomings in the information, because there have been changes to how Aalto external thesis advisors and co-supervisors are recorded into the system. The doctoral education services are currently working on the data migration. However, if you need to update your supervision plan as part of your DPSP and you note some information is missing, please contact your doctoral programme’s Doctoral education services for a quick fix to the information.
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