Sir Syed CASE Institute Of Technology

Detailed Road Map for PhD

1. Coursework

Pass at least 18 credit hours of PhD level courses on the recommendation of supervisor with B- or higher grade.

Must pass ‘Research Methodology’ course (either at MS or PhD level).

2. Comprehensive

Examination Pass PhD Comprehensive exam, covering PhD level courses, relevant to area of research. Failure to pass the comprehensive examination in a maximum of two attempts shall result in cancellation of admission.

3. PhD Thesis-I (Approval of Synopsis Research Proposal)

The Scholar should prepare Synopsis/Research Proposal and get it vetted by the Supervisor.

1. The PhD Scholar must publicly defend synopsis before the PhD Research Monitoring Committee.
2. The required coursework, comprehensive exam, and defense of synopsis/research proposals should be completed within three years.
3. PhD Thesis – II (Research Work)

The Scholar should carry out research work. After completion of research work and its acceptance by the Supervisor, the scholar can proceed to write PhD Thesis.

5. PhD Thesis – III (Research Publication)

The Scholar should publish research articles satisfying the following:

1. Publish at least one research article in W category journal or two research articles in X category journals.
2. The scholar must be the first author of these publications.
3. Research article(s) must be relevant to the PhD research work of the scholar.
4. The article(s) must be published after approval of the research synopsis.
5. The article(s) must be published in a relevant research journal.
6. PhD Thesis – IV (Writing PhD Thesis)

The scholar should submit PhD Thesis to the Supervisor, after carrying out a similarity test, in accordance with the HEC’s Anti-Plagiarism Policy.

1. Similarity test can be conducted after removing References/bibliographies and tables of contents from the submitted documents.
2. If the report has a similarity index of ≤19%, then the benefit of doubt may be given to the author. However, if any single source has a similarity index ≥5% without citations then it needs to be revised.
3. If the similarities of a report are from the author’s own (previous) work, then they may be ignored only if the material has been cited by the author.

Once the Supervisor is satisfied with the Thesis, he can give go-ahead signal for Evaluation of Thesis by other Experts.

7. PhD Thesis – V (External Evaluation of PhD Thesis)

Evaluation of the PhD Thesis is done by:

At least two external experts who shall be:

1. PhD faculty member from the world top 500 universities ranked by the Times Higher Education or QS World Ranking in the year corresponding to dissertation evaluation year OR
2. Pakistan-based Distinguished National Professors, Meritorious Professors from any national university; or professors from top universities ranked by HEC; or professors from any Pakistani University having a minimum H-Index 30 for Sciences, 15 for Social Sciences or 8 for Art & Humanities as determined by Web of Science.

OR

1. At least one external expert qualifying any one of the conditions mentioned at ‘a’ above if the PhD candidate publishes dissertation research in a peer-reviewed journal that is classified by the HEC in category W.
2. PhD Thesis – VI (Public Defense of PhD Thesis)

Once external evaluation is completed, the PhD scholar is required to obtain satisfactory evaluation from Supervisory Committee (includes local experts). If satisfied, then open public defense of PhD thesis takes place.

9. Submission of the Final Version of PhD Thesis

After incorporating changes in the thesis, copies of final thesis should be submitted to the supervisor. The Supervisor issues a certificate of final acceptance of thesis.