GUIDELINES ON THE CONDUCT OF PROPOSAL DEFENCE

1. Administrative
1.1 Article 13.1 of the Graduate Studies Regulations on Proposal Defence is extracted below:
The pre-requisites for a thesis to be submitted for examination are:
1.

The student has undergone a proposal defense evaluated by Faculty within the
first: six (6) months for Master program and twelve (12) months for PhD
program.
a. In cases of repeat, the student should do the defence within an
additional of three (3) months of the allowable timeframe stated
above.

1.2 Faculty is responsible in scheduling the students to go for Proposal Defence in compliance
with the Graduate Studies Regulations Article 13.1
1.3 The proposal Defence is open to all graduate students and faculty members.
1.4 A Panel of Proposal Defence appointed by the Faculty evaluates the proposal Defence.
1.5 This Panel consists a Chairman and two other faculty members who are expert in the field
of the research.
1.6 The Form UGS/R/01 is to be used in reporting the Defence and the Chairman of the Panel
is responsible in ensuring its completion and submission to the Facultys Deputy Dean
Office immediately after the Defence.

2. Evaluation Criteria
2.1 Students should be able to answer the why, what, how, where and when with regards to
their research.
2.2 Supervisors are expected to assist students in the preparation of the research framework
including the time plan.
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2.3 Students are expected to prepare a research proposal document to act as an agreement
with the supervisor.
2.4 The content of the proposal may include the following:

Title
Research Background
The research problem
The research questions
The research objectives
Significance of the study
Literature review
Research method
Ethical consideration
Time plan (Provide proposed timeline for completion of the research)
References

3. Research Proposal Oral Defence

3.1 The supervisor is expected to be present at the Defence but must act only as an observer.
3.2 The oral presentation by the student should not exceed 30 minutes and will be followed by
a question and answer session. The presentation should be delivered in which can be
easily understood by audience who are not expert in the field. As this is an open Defence
then questions are allowed from the audience. Open discussions are encouraged and
student must take note of all comments.
3.3 It is up to the supervisor and student whether to follow all the suggestions put forward
during the Defence.
3.4 The supervisors are expected to continuously monitor the student and may use the
eProgress as means to not recommending the student to proceed should the student is
found not to progress forward as suggested in his/her Proposal Defence Report.
3.5 Guidelines in preparation of the presentation slides:

Limit the slides to around 20 to 30

Font must be easy to read
Do not put excessive text in the slides
Use figures and tables if needed
Do not read the slides
Expand and elaborate more on the slides
Language: English

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