/Institutions/University-of-Dubai/json/2024-2025/Policy-and-Procedure-Manual-local.json

/Institutions/University-of-Dubai/json/2024-2025/Policy-and-Procedure-Manual.json

Policy and Procedure Manual 2024-25 > The Educational Program > Dissertation Supervision and Examination Policy

Dissertation Supervision and Examination Policy

Policy 

1. Responsibilities

1.1 College Graduate Committee

The College Graduate Committee is requested to:

1. Ensure that the PhD student has satisfactorily completed the requirements for the development of the dissertation. 

2. Review and approve the documents related to the final PhD dissertation process. 

3. Approve the members of the examination committee of the PhD dissertation, based on the recommendations of the main supervisor and PhD Program Director.

 

1.2 Roles and Responsibilities of the PhD student

1. The PhD student is required to meet with the primary supervisor for 9 hours per academic term.

2. Meetings are scheduled well in advance by the supervisor at the beginning of each term.

3. The failure of the PhD student to attend the weekly meetings or not showing reasonable progress will result in an unsatisfactory progress  from the supervisor.

4. The failure of the PhD student to attend will not affect the remuneration of the supervisors.

5. When a main supervisor is assigned to PhDstudents, the PhDstudent is required to present his/her proposal defense within a period of eight academic terms. If a PhD student does not present his/her proposal within the deadline, they will receive the first warning. Then, if approved by the Dean and the Program Director, students may be given a one-term extension. Failing to finalize the proposal within the second extended period will lead to a second warning and a final one-term extension. Should a student repeatedly fail to submit the proposal in the third extended period, he/she will have a dismissal status from the program.

6. The PhD student is responsible for the preparation and submission of his/her proposal and dissertation for examination.

7. The PhD student must ensure that the research described in his/her PhD dissertation was completed during the period of enrolment for the degree at the University, and that it is accountable to his/her own research.

8. The PhD student must adhere to the UD Code of Conduct and Research Policies.

9. The PhD student shall consult with his/her advisor before selecting the PhD dissertation subject and title.

10. The PhD student must maintain his/her registration until the final submission of the dissertation. When the PhD student completes all the above steps and the PhD dissertation is ready to be submitted to the Program Director’s office, he/she needs to follow these steps:

• Submit a soft copy of the dissertation in PDF format to the PhD Program Director office.

• The PhD Program Director office will arrange for the editing, printing and binding of the submitted copies.

• The student will be responsible for the costs of editing, printing and binding.

1.3 The Supervisors

1. The main supervisor shall be a faculty member of UD.

2. The PhD program strongly encourages co-supervision of the dissertation which would include an internal supervisor or external from an international institution.

3. The supervisor shall provide the PhD student with formal advice on the progress of his/her dissertation throughout the development period. 

4. The supervisor shall ensure that the dissertation subject is related to the program and of interest to the region.

5. The supervisor shall provide a detailed report for the progress of his/her PhD student each academic term to the Program Director. 

6. The supervisor shall provide recommendations to the PhD Program Director and Graduate Committee on the nomination of final dissertation examiners. For the proposal defense, the PhD Program Director will assign internal examiners. 

1.4 Appointment of Advisors and Examining Committee 

1. After the successful completion of the CPE, the PhD student will be assigned a primary supervisor to formally guide him/her towards dissertation completion. The supervisor is selected based on the PhD student’s research topic and requires the approval of the PhD Program Director. A second supervisor may be assigned, with the approval procedures, if needed.

2. To ensure quality and adequacy of supervision, the first supervisor must be a full-time faculty at DBS, normally at the rank of full or associate professor. Research-active assistant professors may be assigned to supervise.

3. Normally, the first supervisor shall not supervise more than four PhD students at the same time.

4. The final PhD Dissertation shall be examined by 3 examiners, including two internal and one external examiner.  

5. The PhD Proposal Dissertation shall be examined by two internal examiners. (The supervisor is responsible for the dissertation content).

6. The second supervisor (if appointed) must hold a PhD. However, he/she must be familiar with the topic of research and must play an active role in the research process alongside the first supervisor. Additionally, he/she must be willing and committed to support the PhD student’s progress until the completion of his/her PhD program.

7. Normally, the second supervisor shall not co-supervise more than four PhD students at the same time.

8. The nominated examiners must: 

   1. Be experts in the discipline, academically reputable in the field of the PhD dissertation, with a significant body of published work, or other publicly recognized output as appropriate for their discipline.

   2. Hold a qualification at least equivalent to the level of the award being examined. 

   3. Have previous experience in graduate PhD dissertation supervision and/or PhD dissertation examination; and

   4. Be willing to serve as the examiner on the final Examination Panel if a final examination has been requested.

   5. Once the examiners have been assigned, it can only be changed with the consent of the PhD Program Director.

   6. Preferred from the Top 300 QS ranked universities with a preference for associate or full professor.  

9. The identity of the approved examiners shall not be revealed to the student at any stage of the examination process, including the nomination process.

10. Examiners’ identities shall be revealed after the conclusion of the dissertation examination.

2. PhD Dissertation Structure

A completed PhD dissertation is a scholarly research document that epitomizes the fulfillment of the scholarly aspiration of the student. Some of the salient features of a successful dissertation is that it is clearly written, unambiguous and has a logical structure that should assist the reader’s understanding of the research topic being presented. The typical structure of the PhD dissertation is presented in the PhD Dissertation Handbook. PhD students are required to follow the policies and guidelines provided in the PhD Dissertation Handbook.

Overall, the structure of the dissertation should be logical, clear, and well-organized, with each section building upon the previous one to form a coherent and persuasive argument.

3. Plagiarism and Academic Integrity
Every research work at UD is checked for plagiarism. It is expected that the PhD dissertation supervisor uses software, such as Turnitin, to verify plagiarism in the student’s work. The following guidelines should be observed:

1. The PhD dissertation, before the proposal defense, and before the final dissertation defense shall be inspected by Turnitin for similarity.

2. PhD students are advised to check their own dissertation and proposal with software such as Turnitin prior to submission to ensure that materials do not include those already existing in the public domain.

3. The supervisor must ensure that the final version dissertation is not plagiarized and suitable for examination.

 

4. Examining Committee

1. The nominated examiners must: 

• Be experts in the discipline, academically reputable in the field of the dissertation (except the examiner external to the program), with a significant body of published work, or other publicly recognized output as appropriate for their discipline; 

• Hold a qualification at least equivalent to the level of the award being examined;  

• Have previous experience in PhD dissertation supervision and/or dissertation examination; and 

• Be willing to serve as the examiner on the final Examination Panel if a final Examination has been requested.

 

5. Change of PhD Dissertation Supervisor

1. A change of the primary or co-supervisor can only be made with the mutual consent of the supervisor and the PhD student. The reason for such a change can be when:

   • The PhD student changes the topic/area of his/her research,

   • The supervisor is no longer employed at UD or  

   • For any other circumstances deemed necessary by the PhD Program Director.

2. Additionally, in circumstances in which a supervisory relationship cannot continue, the PhD student may request either an alternate supervisor or an administrative supervisor.  

3. Every effort should be made by the PhD Program Director, Supervisor, and College Graduate Committee so that the PhD student will not face any conflicts  if a change in supervisor becomes necessary.

4. Requests to change a supervisor should be submitted to the College Graduate Committee, who will make a recommendation to the PhD Program Director.

5. The PhD Program Director shall discuss the matter with the Dean to obtain his/her approval. 

6. The College approval shall be sent by the Office of the Dean to the College Graduation Committee.

7. A first supervisor who leaves UD before the completion of the dissertation can keep supervising his/her student as a first supervisor only if the student has successfully completed five terms of supervision. Otherwise, the primary supervisor must be replaced by a full-time UD College faculty member.

6. Examination and Defense

6.1 Examination Criteria

A. The examiners shall examine the PhD proposal/dissertation based on the following general criteria:

• Does the PhD student demonstrate a significant and original contribution to knowledge (relative to the level of the degree being sought)?

• Does the PhD student engage with the literature and the work of others?  

• Does the PhD student show an advanced knowledge of research principles and methods related to the applicable discipline?  

• Is there a coherence in the research, its arguments, and conclusions?

• Is the PhD dissertation clearly, accurately, and logically written?

B. The DBS may add other criteria as it sees fit.

6.2 Examination Outcomes

1. The examination reports shall be sent by the examiners to the director of the PhD Program two weeks before the date of proposal defense and final dissertation defense.

2. The PhD Program Director will send the report of the examiners to the PhD supervisor immediately after the proposal defense and final dissertation defense. 

3. The examiner’s reports must contain a recommendation regarding the PhD dissertation and a strong justification for his/her recommendation. 

4. The examiners must provide guidance to the student regarding any changes required. 

5. In case of final dissertation defense the Director of PhD program shall review the examiners’ reports and the final Examination reports. 

6. In case the PhD student passes the proposal defense, a result of passing “P” will be reflected on the transcript after the PhD Program Director keyed in the result in the system.

7. In case the PhD student didn’t pass the proposal defense, a result of not pass “NP” will be reflected on the transcript after the PhD Program Director keyed in the result in the system.

 

6.3 PhD Dissertation Assessment Examination and Degree Award 

1. Once the PhD dissertation work is deemed ready by both supervisors, the first supervisor will file a written report indicating that the dissertation is ready for evaluation by external examiners.  In case of a disagreement between the supervisors, the opinion of the primary supervisor shall prevail.

2. The first supervisor must submit an electronic copy to the PhD Program Director to pass along to the examiners. The dissertation document prepared by the student needs to conform to the “formatting requirements” as outlined in this PhD Dissertation Handbook.

3. The PhD Program Director along with the supervisor will suggest the names of three examiners who are familiar with the field of work. At least two of the three examiners must be from UD, and the third one could be from other organizations (preferably from within the UAE, so that he/she can be physically present during the defense examination). The external examiner is expected to provide practical insights about the work. The supervisor will attend the proposal dissertation defense and final dissertation defense with no voting powers. 

4. The examiners will be given a maximum of eight (8) weeks to review the dissertation and send a written report to the PhD Program Director. The examiners’ comments will be shared with the PhD student after the defense presentation. The student must make the requested changes after the PhD dissertation defense in a  maximum of eight (8) weeks.

5. The PhD Director will schedule the examination date and will take care of related logistics.

6. After the PhD dissertation defense (final), the PhD Program Director with the examiners will fill the formDissertation Examination Decision. The final decision of the examining members shall be handed to the Director of PhD program. The outcome of the PhD dissertation defense (final) must be reached by majority, and the decision may be one of the followings: 

   1. Accepted as submitted: This may include corrections that do not require the supervisor’s approval.

   2. Accepted with minor modifications: This may include corrections that can be made immediately and to the satisfaction of the PhD dissertation supervisor.

   3. Accepted with major modifications: The examiners’ reports shall include detailed descriptions of the modifications along with a date for their completion of no more than 2 months. 

      • The Examining Committee shall examine the modified PhD dissertation and, by majority vote, determine if the modifications specified in their reports have been completed to the Examining Committee’s satisfaction.

      • If they have, the PhD dissertation may be accepted, and the supervisor shall confirm the Examiners approval to the Graduate Committee. If the Examiners are not satisfied that the specified modifications have been made, then they must reconvene to decide if the PhD dissertation is rejected, or an additional period of modifications is to be granted.

   4. Rejected: This notation is used when the work shows serious deficiency, or its validity is in question. Such a PhD dissertation may be re-submitted only once, in revised form. Such a resubmission can only be made six (6) months from the date of the original defense.

7. If a student fails in the final defense twice, they may opt for the exit option. This option is available to students who fail in the program after passing the comprehensive exam but fail the dissertation defense. In this case, the student will be awarded a Master's degree in Research.

The date of the PhD dissertation completion (graduation date) will be the end of the term when the PhD Program Director and Graduate committee approve the results of the PhD Defense (final) or the final corrections.

6.4 Modification and Final Submission 

1. PhD students shall be responsible to make the modifications required by the Examiners and submit within the time specified above.  

2. The PhD dissertation supervisor has the authority to grant approval when the required minor modifications have been made by the PhD student.  

3. The PhD dissertation supervisor oversees required major modifications and ensures that they are submitted to the examiners for approval.  

4. PhD students must submit an electronic and hard copy of the final version of his/her PhD dissertation to the PhD Program Director office and Graduate Committee.

6.5 Appeal of the Decision 

1. In case the examination process results in a "non-award" outcome, the student has the right to appeal to the Registration Office, within 5 working days.

2. The Registration Office shall submit the appeal to the PhD Director, who in turn shall submit the appeal to the Graduate Committee for investigation.

3. The Graduate Committee shall submit its report to the PhD Director within 15 working days.

4. The PhD Director shall submit the Graduate Committee response to the appeal to the Registration Office, within thirty working days from the date the appeal was received. 

5. The Registration Office shall send the university response to the student within two working days.

6. The university response at this stage is final.

 

6.6 Copyright and Reproduction

1. When submitting the final and complete version of the dissertation, the student acknowledges and agrees to grant University of Dubai a non-exclusive license. This license stipulates that the student owns the copyright to the PhD dissertation. 

2. By agreeing to this license, University of Dubai and its Library shall preserve and make the PhD dissertation widely available, usually via the Internet and other searchable databases. 

3. Upon final submission of the dissertation, the student shall be deemed to have granted the University a non-exclusive, royalty free license to reproduce, archive, preserve, conserve, communicate to the public by telecommunication or on the internet, loan, and distribute the dissertation worldwide for non-commercial purposes, in any format.