Universities | This is how Lauri Törhönen justifies the demand to cancel the rejection of his dissertation

Film director Lauri Törhönen in his rectification request, demands the cancellation of the rejection decision for his dissertation.

“The Faculty of Arts of the University of Lapland must undo its illegal decision to reject my dissertation and restore the professional honor of those who participated in the process,” he writes in his correction request.

STT received Törhönen's correction request from the University of Lapland.

Rude the dissertation was rejected at the University of Lapland in December. The dissertation dealt with the work processes of a Finnish film director. At that time, the Faculty Council ruled that the work did not meet the criteria set for a doctoral thesis.

“It lacked a theoretical reference framework, justifications for methodological choices and more precise definitions of concepts. The use of research and methodological literature was very lacking, the processing and coverage of the material is not sufficient, said the chairman of the faculty council”, the dean Fairy tale Miettinen at that time for STT.

According to Miettinen, Törhönen had also not been able to defend his work at the dissertation conference.

Rejection of a dissertation by the faculty council is exceptional.

I'm a jerk says in his correction request that he tried to develop a personal way of writing his dissertation.

“'The donkey leads the way', they say, and 'I' as a word does not fit into the academic vocabulary, but when I positioned my thesis between the thesis of the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Applied Sciences and composed the text from the perspective of my own leading artistic profession, I could not avoid it.”

Törhönen writes that he prepared and edited his dissertation according to the instructions he received. According to him, the claims about the lack of source references are incorrect.

“With the uncompromisingness of a researcher, I have defended the format I developed of a text that progresses like the dramaturgy of a film, with 'descriptive titles', 'episodes', 'scenes' and even 'interludes'. The references are designed so that they do not interfere with the 'cinematic reading experience', but are still easy to find,” he writes.

“If the dissertation of the Faculty of Arts is not allowed to cite superstition or Donald Duck as a reference, perhaps it should have been understood to write a reading guide.”

According to Törhönen, there is a scientific part in his dissertation.

“Since it was not possible to participate in the training seminars for the dissertation, my experience as dean and head of the graduate school, as well as two Ministers of Education by Stefan Wallin the research I wrote on request for the Ministry of Education was attached to my dissertation, the scientific part of my dissertation.”

In his request for correction Törhönen lists the steps before a dissertation is rejected. Among other things, he points out that the thesis was submitted for review with the approval of the supervisor and the faculty council, the pre-examiners supported the work, the faculty granted him permission to argue and the Objector supported the acceptance of the thesis.

Because of this, Törhönen considers the rejection of his work questionable and sees his legal protection violated.

In addition, Törhönen writes that immediately after the claim, his work was inappropriately belittled and ridiculed in the media.

“The university – I think – must support its students. In my case, all parties have been subjected to aggressive media pressure. In my opinion, the faculty council has acted in a contradictory and illegal manner in the situation by revoking its own decisions and exceeded its authority by rejecting my work.”

Satu Miettinen, the dean of the University of Lapland and chair of the faculty council, told STT on Tuesday that the faculty council will consider Törhönen's correction request possibly already at its next meeting on January 18.