Academic Regulations of the PhD Program

Policy

1. Admissions

The goal of the admissions process is to admit students to the PhD program who demonstrate a potential for success in the program. The admission process is divided into four phases: Eligibility, Application, Assessment, and Advising and Registration.

1.1 Eligibility:

To be eligible for admission into the PhD program, the student must satisfy the following conditions:

The applicant must hold a Master's degree (or equivalent from a CAA recognized university).
The applicant must have a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.0 out of 4.0 in the Master's degree.
It is desirable for the applicant to have at least three years of teaching and/or working experience.
The applicant must satisfy the English language requirement, holding a minimum score on one of the following tests: TOEFL PBT 550, TOEFL IBT 79, IELTS 6.0, Cambridge 52, IESOL/SESOL B2, PTE Academic 50-57, or a standardized equivalent test.
An applicant who pursued his/her Master's degree in English language shall be exempted from submitting a new English language exam score if the Master’s program required a minimum score of 550 on the TOEFL, or its standardized equivalent.
The program shall not offer any conditional admission due to either low CGPA or English scores.
An applicant enrolled in a doctoral program at other UAE-recognized universities who wishes to transfer to the UD-PhD program should fulfill the above admission requirements. Up to 25% of equivalent credit hours may be transferred into UD’s program. An applicant dismissed from his/her program at the original institution for any reason, will not be accepted into UD. See UD S 6.3 on Transfer Policy for additional details.

1.2 Application:

The DBS Graduate Programs Office accepts applications for admission starting from January until the mid of September each year. The program runs one cohort per year, and successful applicants start their studies at the beginning of the academic year (i.e. September/October). A complete application file should contain the items listed in Appendix I.

1.3 Assessment:

The following admission procedures and regulations are followed:

The PhD Program Director invites the student for an admission interview. This interview is intended to determine the suitability of the student to join the UD’s PhD Program.
The applicant will be advised on the outcome of his/her application within two weeks of the interview. If accepted, the letter of acceptance will be issued by the admissions department upon the recommendation of the PhD Program Director.
The letter of acceptance is valid for only the first term of the upcoming academic year. A student may request in writing to postpone his/her admission for the following academic year only. In such a case, the application fee must be paid again.
Once the decision for admission has been made, the PhD Program office transfers the original file of the student to the registration department at UD, for further processing.
The student should make sure that all documents required for finalizing his/her admission are submitted to the admission department before registration begins. The only exception would be the letter of degree equivalency (applicable only for non-UAE degree holders) which usually takes some time to be processed. In such a case, the student may commence his/her studies in the program after signing a declaration to discontinue his/her studies and withdraw from the program if the degree equivalence was rejected by the Ministry of Education (MOE). The student will not receive any refund for such a case. Such cases must be closely monitored by the Assistant Manager of Graduate Programs and the Registration Department.
In case the student equivalence application is in progress, he/she has a maximum extension period of two terms. After that, the student will be asked to put his/her study on hold until providing the equivalency.

1.4 Advising and Registration:

The following procedure is followed:

A new student must consult with his/her assigned academic advisor in order to develop his/her study plan and to receive assistance with course selection, registration procedures or other academic affairs. The PhD Program Director will normally serve as the academic advisor for the first year.
The PhD Program Office will provide the student with the program regulations including the UD Student Handbook and UD PhD Dissertation Handbook and UD Graduate Catalog.
No student is considered registered until fees are paid. Once fees are paid, the booked courses are confirmed and the student's schedule will be updated on the student’s portal (CAMS).

2. Class Scheduling

The PhD courses are spread over four terms in the academic year. Each term consists of nine weeks (+ one week for exams). The mode of delivery for each PhD seminar course is usually five contact hours in each week for a total of 45 hours per course. Classes are normally offered during two non-consecutive days of the week (e.g. Mondays and Wednesdays) or during weekends (e.g., Saturdays and Sundays) to maximize students’ convenience. The lecture timings are normally from 4:30pm to 9:30pm or from 10:00am to 4:00pm on weekend classes (one-hour prayer and lunch break). All courses are offered in two consecutive sessions of two and a half hours and each. A 30 minute-break is given after the first session.

3. Class Size

The optimal class size in the PhD program should not exceed 20 students per class to enable quality interaction. (See EP 3.14, Scheduling of Course, Registration Guidelines & Class Size Policy for more details). The minimum number of students per class is ten (10). Specialized classes with fewer number of students may be allowed but will need the approval of the VPAA.

4. Course Load

Since the PhD program runs in a cohort format, all PhD students must register for two courses in a term. This pattern continues for seven terms until all course assessments are completed. Course prerequisites are observed. A student is typically required to complete all fourteen courses in the first seven terms. The student must also register in every term until the successful dissertation defense. Failure to register may lead to a discontinuation status or even cancellation of registration in the program. However, a student may request a registration-hold on his/her registration (see section 14 below).

5. Class Attendance

Attendance and participation in all classes and computer lab sessions is mandatory. This is essential to the process of education at UD since the students' involvement with their instructors and fellow peers are vital components of their academic preparation. Absences hinder academic progress, and affects the student’s learning ability and grades. UD regulations for attendance and absenteeism warnings imposed on all courses are stipulated in this section as follows:

All courses are offered in two consecutive sessions of two hours and thirty minutes each. A 30-minute break is given after the first session.
A faculty member must take attendance in each session.
If a student misses 25% of sessions in a course for non-acceptable reasons (see section 5.1 for acceptable excuses) he/ she will receive a grade of “AW” for the course, which counts as a failed course. The student must then repeat the course in the following term. However, the student shall have the right to attend the remaining classes of the course. Repeating a course entails a financial charge.
A student must work independently to catch up on missed lectures’ material.

5.1 Valid Excuses

All excuses must be substantiated by evidence. UD-valid excuses include:

Representing the UAE government on an official mission (e.g. competition/conference/exhibition), emergency in the Armed Forces or Police that necessitates the absence.
National Service,
Leave to fulfill UD assignments,
Death of a close family member
Certified hospital admission,
Accidents

6. Grading

The total grades received for a course reflects the student’s work during the term and performance in the classwork, assignments and exams.
The University’s exam policy permits assignments/exams to take many different forms as long as it accurately measures the learning outcomes expected from the student.
Each PhD course (other than the dissertation) is assessed by a combination of classwork /assignments, a short term paper/peer-reviewed article annotations/summary proposal and/or an exam. Classwork /assignments can constitute up to 40% of the course grade, a short term paper/ peer-reviewed article annotations/summary proposal constitutes 20-40% of the course grade, and an exam normally constitutes up to 30% of the course grade.
Short-term papers/peer-reviewed article annotations/summary proposals prepared in specialization courses are designed to blend research methods learned in the core courses with specialized knowledge gained in the area of specialization. This integration skill is developed and assessed primarily during the end of the first year of studies. However, the results of the qualifying comprehensive examination as well as the dissertation are the ultimate assessment method for this integration skill.

The PhD student must maintain a minimum CGPA of 3.00 out of 4.00. The distribution of grades for PhD courses is shown in Table 2.

Table 2: PhD Grading System

Total Grade	Letter Grade	Grade Points	Other Grades	Acronym
90 to 100	A	4	Incomplete	I
87-89	A-	3.7	Transfer; credits counted	TC
84-86	B+	3.3	Exemption, credits counted	EX
80-83	B	3	Withdrawal	W
77-79	B-	2.7	Audit	AU
74-76	C+	2.3	In Progress	IP
70-73	C	2	Pass, credits not counted IN CGPA	P
0-69	F	0	Not Pass, credits not counted in CGPA	NP
Administrative Withdrawal	AW	0.0	Dissertation courses (A-I), (Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory) –Grade not in CGPA	S or U
Registration Hold	RH (not on the TC)		PhD Comprehensive Exam, Pass or Fail - Grade not in CGPA	P or F
Discontinued Registration	DR (not on the TC)		PhD Proposal Defense Presentation, Pass of Fail - Grade not in CGPA	P or F
Canceled Registration	CR (not on the TC)		Dissertation course (J), In Progress, Pass, Revisions Requested or Fail. Grade not in CGPA	IP, P, RR or F

An incomplete (I) grade is awarded to a student when he/she fails to deliver a course assessment component due to a valid and certified excuse approved by the PhD Program Director. The excuse must be submitted to the PhD Program Director within five working days from the missed deadline. The Incomplete grade must be rectified within two weeks from the initial grade reporting date, otherwise it will become an “F” for the course. Supervisors are requested to report incomplete cases to the PhD Program Director.
A student who fails a course must repeat the course in the following term. This opportunity is given only once per course. Failure to submit satisfactory work within the said deadline will result in the dismissal from the program.
A student shall obtain a “Satisfactory” grade in a dissertation course based on the primary supervisor progress report filed at the end of each term.
If a student obtains an “Unsatisfactory” grade in a dissertation course, he/she must repeat the course and repay its fees.
If a student receives an “Unsatisfactory” grade in a dissertation course twice consecutively, he/she will be dismissed from the program.
In case the Ph.D. student passes the proposal defense, a result of passing “P” will be reflected on the transcript after the PhD Program Director entered the result in the system.
In case the Ph.D. student didn’t pass the proposal defense, a result of not pass “NP” will be reflected on the transcript after the PhD Program Director entered the result in the system.

7. Other Program Requirements

PhD students must also complete the following program requirements:

PhD students must attend the DBS research seminar series to hone their experience, research ideas & methodologies, and to provide critical review of seminar presentations. This also enables students to identify potential dissertation advisors.
If a PhD student aspires to have a future career in academia, he/she will be given the opportunity to co-teach one section of an undergraduate course at DBS in his/her area of specialization with a DBS mentor. The student may also be asked to help in other related academic activities. This is usually done after the student earns the ABD status.
It is recommended that at least one accepted paper in a recognized conference proceedings and peer reviewed journal indexed in scopus, ABS, ABDC subject to the following conditions:

The Paper in a peer reviewed journal should be indexed in scopus with rank of Q1 or Q2, and indexed in ABS, or ABDC.
The conference must be organized by a reputable university or a professional organization.
The conference organizers must have a process to review and referee the submitted papers. If so, this has to be clearly stated in the acceptance letter provided by the conference organizers.
It is also desirable that the conference proceedings are indexed in one of the international professional databases (e.g. Scopus, etc.).

8. Academic Standing

A student with a CGPA of at least 3.0 will be considered to be of “Good” academic standing.
If a student fails to obtain, by the end of any term, a CGPA of at least 3.0 out of 4.0, he/she will receive an academic warning that will show on the student’s transcript and in the student’s portal.
The academic probation will be removed when the student’s CGPA reaches at least 3.0.
A student with a CGPA below 3.0 for two consecutive terms will be dismissed from the program.
A dismissal ruling may be postponed by the UD President upon the recommendations of the PhD Program Director.

9. The PhD Comprehensive Preliminary Examination (CPE)

The purpose of the CPE is to determine whether the student has acquired sufficient mastery of knowledge in research methods and in his/ her area of study to warrant admission to the PhD candidacy.
Within three months after the successful completion of all the PhD coursework (42 credit hours) the student must take and pass a CPE as per the date scheduled by the PhD Program Director. To take the examination, the student must complete the first page of the Advancement to Candidacy Form and submit it to the Graduate Program Office within one week of the exam date announcement. A student cannot postpone this exam unless there is a valid excuse accepted by the PhD Program Director.
The PhD Program Director shall appoint a Comprehensive Examination Committee (CEC) based on the recommendations of the Graduate Committee. The CEC will be individually constituted for each PhD student or a group of students in the same area of specialization and will have three members, of which at least two faculty members must be from the area of the student’s specialization.
Any contingencies in the examination process (e.g. additional topics that may be examined) must be made known to the student at least two weeks in advance.
At the conclusion of the examination, members of the examination committee sign the advancement to candidacy form, indicating whether the student has passed or failed the exam. The grade of "conditional pass" is not permitted. The entire process must be concluded in four weeks at the most.
A student who fails the examination (scored less than 80%) may be asked to take additional work or study to supplement deficiencies that were revealed in the examination. He/she must also retake the exam and pass it within two months from the date of announcing the results of the previous exam. students who fail the second time will be dismissed from the program; no third chance is allowed.
A student may appeal a failing decision by submitting a written statement to the PhD Program Director within two weeks of receiving notification of the decision. Any such appeal is reviewed by the Graduate Program Committee. The PhD Program Director forwards the committee’s recommendation to the College Dean for further review and decision.
If the student fails the examination in the first attempt, the Advancement to Candidacy Form is retained in the Graduate Program Office (and should be retrieved by the student when the examination is repeated).
The Graduate Program Committee must approve the results of the CPE and make a recommendation to the College Dean for admitting the successful students to the PhD Candidacy or “ABD” status.
When the student passes the exam, the Dean sends the signed Advancement to Candidacy Form which is then sent to the Registrar Office, with a copy to the VPAA.
Once a student achieves the ABD status, a dissertation advisor shall normally be appointed within a term.

10. Training for Teaching in Higher Education

Upon passing the CPE, each student will be assigned to teach a section of an undergraduate course with a mentor, usually the course coordinator. Feedback from the course coordinator as well as student evaluation will be used to assess the student’s training for teaching in higher education.

11. Dissertation Procedures

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 good 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. To this end, the PhD dissertation should conform to a set of structure and formatting guidelines refer to the PHD Dissertation Handbook for complete details.

12. Duration of Study

The minimum time needed for full-time students to complete all the requirements of the PhD degree will normally be four years and the maximum is seven years. Students are permitted to continue to register for the Dissertation course (3CH) after the lapse of 4 years from the beginning of studies (excluding the terms of approved registration hold), by paying a nominal fee of AED 6,000 for each 3CH/per term. This change will be effective as of January 2023.

Upon the completion of seven (7) years from initial registration, an extension of one year may be granted by the University President. Applications for extension are assessed by the PhD Program Director, if approved by the University President the extension will be for a maximum of one year. The registration will automatically expire and the student will be dismissed from the program, if they fail to complete the requirements upon completion of one year. The transcript will reflect the dismissal decision.

13. Withdrawal (without failure) From Courses

A student is permitted to withdraw from one or more courses during the term after submitting the appropriate Course Withdrawal request through the student portal page.
Withdrawal from courses must occur no later than the seventh week of studies in a term.
The student must notify his/her academic advisor before applying for a withdrawal from the course. The advisor should specify the reason(s) for the student’s withdrawal and approve the automated form.
A grade of “W” will be recorded on the student’s transcript for the withdrawn course(s).
A student is not entitled to receive a refund for any such withdrawals beyond the first week of classes.
The Dean shall consider cases of extenuating nature, in which case, the student shall withdraw from the whole term not from a single course.

14. Registration Hold & Discontinued Status

A student is permitted to put a hold on his/her registration upon submitting a request through the student portal page to the Registrar approved by the PhD Program Director.
The request will be accepted on the condition that the student has been a regular student at UD for at least one term.
The deadline for requesting a hold on registration is normally four weeks prior to the start of the term but may be accepted up to one month from the beginning of the term if there are urgent circumstances.
During the entire period of study, the “Registration Hold” status must not exceed four consecutive or non-consecutive terms. This includes the terms from which the student has withdrawn without failure.
The accepted hold periods will not be counted as part of the duration of study.
A student who does not register for a particular term and fails to make a request for Registration Hold is considered “Discontinued” in the Registrars records. (Discontinued on the TC)
A discontinued student is liable to financial penalties if he/she applies for re-admission (or re-registration).
If the student’s “Discontinued” status exceeds two consecutive terms, then the student’s registration status will be considered “Canceled.” (here where the student applies for re-admission)
The discontinued and canceled periods will be counted as part of the student’s duration of study.
Students with a “Canceled” status must apply for re-admission if the interruption of study period does not exceed three years. In such a case, UD will only consider courses that were taken less than three years from the study interruption date. students with older courses will have to score a minimum of 80% on challenge exams.
The list of all students who have requested “Registration Hold” will be forwarded to the PhD Program Director by the Registration Department every term.

15. Withdrawal From a Term

A student may request to withdraw from the term at any time after the start of classes.
If the request is approved by the PhD Program Director, the student must withdraw from all registered courses. A “W” grade will be reported for these courses.
The term will be considered as “Registration Hold”.
The refund policy as stated in S 6.10 student Finance Policy shall apply.
The regulations mentioned in the “Registration Hold” section shall apply for the following study periods.

16. Withdrawal from the Program

A student may request to withdraw from the Program/University and to cancel his/her enrollment at any time during the year.
The student must first withdraw from all the registered and incomplete courses during that term. A “W” grade will be reported for these courses.
The student must complete the “Withdrawal Clearance” Form (automated form via the student portal page) and obtain signatures (approvals) from the concerned Program Director and Dean.
Withdrawn students will also be required to complete the “Discontinuing students’ Exit Survey” which forms a basis for continuous improvement at UD.
The refund policy stated in S6.10 Student Finance Policy shall apply.
A withdrawn student may be re-admitted to UD within three years from leaving the program.

17. Dismissal from the Program

A student may be dismissed from the program in the following cases:

Exceeded two academic warnings and probations.
Exceeded the maximum allowable duration of study listed in this policy.
Failed in the same course twice.
Failed in the CPE twice, or exceeded the set deadline for exam repetition.
Failed in the dissertation Proposal Defense twice, or exceeded the set deadline for the submission of required changes.
Failed to present the proposal defense after two extensions and gain three warnings
Received two consecutive “Unsatisfactory” grades in a dissertation course.
Failed in the final Dissertation Defense (viva) twice or exceeded the set deadline for the submission of required changes.

Exceptions to this policy may only be granted by the President upon the recommendation of the VPAA, and College Dean.

18. Re-Admission

A student who has withdrawn or canceled his/her registration at UD, may be considered for readmission upon submitting a formal request to the Registration Department.
A student dismissed from UD on academic or disciplinary grounds will not be readmitted into the university, even as a new student.
Applications for re-admission may be considered if the period of study interruption does not exceed three years from the end of the last registered term. In such a case, the same ID number will be used, and the courses taken at UD will be considered.
Applications for re-admission after longer study interruption periods (i.e. greater than three years) will be treated as a new student (with new ID’s) provided that the student was not dismissed from the program.
Re-admitted students with courses taken more than three years are subject to a challenge exam, where they must score a minimum grade of 80%, otherwise they must repeat the course. Grades will be reported as “Exempted” in the transcript.
Up to 25% of the required courses may be transferred from outside UD if the courses were equivalent in content and the grades were at least 80%.
The deadline to receive applications for re-admission is one month prior to the beginning of the intended term.

19. Dean’s Honor List

There is no Dean’s Honor list award for PhD students.

20. Academic Distinction

UD does not follow a system for academic distinction for its PhD graduates.

21. Degree Completion Requirements / Graduation

In order to graduate, a PhD student must complete 60 CH with a minimum CGPA of 3.0 out of 4.0 in addition to the required conditions stated in section seven of this policy.

The University of Dubai confers PhD degrees during its annual commencement (graduation) ceremony for students who have completed their graduation requirements (including the final Dissertation Defense - viva) ) before the graduation ceremony date.

The date of the dissertation completion (graduation date) will be the end of the term when the Graduate Program Committee approves the results of the final Dissertation Defense (viva) after the final corrections.

Academic Catalog

Academic Regulations of the PhD Program