Experiences on PhD studies at the University of Eastern Finland

Tell us about yourself and the reason you joined the Finnish academia?

I have chosen Finland, particularly the University of Eastern Finland, to pursue my PhD for at least two main reasons.

The first one is the study programme. I went through the website, and I found the curriculum to be excellent. I decided that this programme was what I preferred to do. For example, I have two options whether to work with a monograph or an article-based PhD dissertation. I preferred to work with the second option. With four articles published during my PhD, it would be easy for me to continue my career in Indonesia. I also learned that my expected supervisor, Professor Irmeli Mustalahti, had a wide scientific publication in various journals based on her research in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. I was motivated to learn from her.  For me, it was not easy to get published in top journals, indexed as JUFO 1 and 2.

Second, I was 28 years old when I started my PhD, I had never actually seen snow until then. It has been my dream to see snow ever since I watched the American Christmas movie “Home Alone” as a kid. It was a good idea to come to Finland to see the snow. When I came to Joensuu, it was not easy to adapt to winter for the first time. Little by little, I was able to adapt to the changing weather and deal with extreme temperatures like -20 C in Joensuu. Now, I enjoy living in Joensuu, playing in the snow with my kids in the winter, doing adventure skiing on the frozen lake, and having a sauna after a busy day. This is Finland, the happiest country in the world where we cannot live without having a sauna.     

What have been the challenges and opportunities affecting your life and work life in Finland?

I have many experiences, but I would like to share the best one. It was my first in-person teaching experience. In my case, I prefer to do research by conducting fieldwork study and then writing a scientific article on it. I always avoided teaching because it was not easy to spend two and a half hours in front of people. However, my supervisor asked me to do teaching to improve my skills. Finally, my first lecture came, about environmental conflict. I spent two weeks preparing the lecture. I talked about the oil palm conflict in Indonesia, and I managed to handle the two-and-a-half-hour lecture, thanks to students’ active participation. When I left the class, two students were waiting for me in the corridor. Both students stopped me and said: “Thank you for your lecture; it was a fascinating topic, and we enjoyed your lecture”. I had no words to express how happy I was then. Because of that experience, I am happy to teach, share my research, and learn from others.       

The most challenging situation for me was during my first year of study when I lived here in Finland without my family. My wife lived in Indonesia to care for a toddler and a baby who was just born. We could not come here together because I needed more than my funding from an Indonesian institution to cover our living. We had so many misunderstandings during that year because of the time zone differences. For example, she called me in the morning (Indonesian time), I was still sleeping here. If I called her in the evening, she had already was already sleeping. Indonesia is five hours ahead of Finland.  

However, in my third year of study, I got an opportunity for a shared PhD researcher position, where 50 per cent of my salary comes from UEF and the other 50 per cent from an Indonesian institute. Finally, my family came to Finland in the third year of my PhD. We are happy here, where many opportunities support my life and my family's life. For example, my wife attended an adaptation programme provided by the municipality employment services, where she learned Finnish and working skills to engage with society. In addition, our kids went to day-care where they learned social skills to communicate and play with their buddies. So, we were happy living in Finland.   

What has helped you, or would have helped you, and what kind of support would you have needed for your academic career (or another career) in Finland?

I have had a lot of help already. For example, I got funding for one year of fieldwork study in Indonesia from the Saastamoinen Foundation in the second year of my PhD. My department always supports me in participating in conferences, language editing for article manuscripts, and open access fees for accepted articles. My department has just agreed to a full-time extended salary for three months to finalise my dissertation's introduction. That support is more than enough for me. But I still aim to continue my research after my PhD. I cannot stop doing research, particularly on promoting forest/ peatland decentralisation and everyday adaptation and mitigation to climate change in Indonesia. I plan to continue collaborating with my supervisor and UEF, which may require funding support from not only institutions in Finland but also from the Indonesian government.   

What kinds of structural changes should take place to support your academic career in Finland?

For me, I need to learn Finnish, the language. I speak English with my supervisor and colleagues in my research group. But now, my daughter and son sometimes speak Finnish at home, and do not understand what they are  saying at all. Like saying “apua, iska, maito, vettä” are some words that I am familiar with. They also sing in Finnish and they learned the language faster during these two years than me and my wife. In Taiwan and Japan, taking Mandarin and Japanese courses is compulsory if you get a PhD position. But here in Finland, we do not have such rules. Perhaps, it is good to think that those who get PhD positions from Finnish institutions need to take Finnish language courses. So, it will help them continue their career in Finland and have better communication with Finns and their family who is starting to speak Finnish, like in my case.

Looking at the future, what kind of a career are you trying to build for yourself in Finland?

In my case, I will go back to Indonesia after my PhD because I am a permanent employee at a private university in Central Java, Indonesia, with about 26,000 students. I will continue working on research there. Of course, I am planning to strengthen our collaboration with Finnish institutes, particularly UEF. For example, the first is student mobility for Master's and PhD students. It would be great if Indonesian students could take some courses here, at UEF, while Finnish students do the same at our university. They can learn from each other and have a new perspective on the learning environment.

The second is a joint research collaboration between researchers from both countries. For example, I am a member of the scoping review project on collaborative methods in natural resource governance at UEF. I invited two scholars from my university in Indonesia and there are also scolars from Canada and the US. And lastly, we are now, in our research group at UEF, working on a new special issue for an international journal where scholars from Finland and Indonesia can work together.

The article was originally published by  the Finnish University Partnership for International Development, UniPID. UniPID is a network of nine Finnish universities that seeks to advance universities' global responsibility and to strengthen their response to global challenges. UniPID offers a variety of support services for interdisciplinary studies and research on international sustainable development. UniPID also facilitates universities’ societal impact and partnerships related to global challenges and development issues.