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Higher Degrees Guidelines-Proposals

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33 views2 pages

Higher Degrees Guidelines-Proposals

Uploaded by

Byanguye Ivan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING RESEARCH AND HIGHER DEGREES COMMITTEE

GUIDELINES FOR POSTGRDUATE DEGREE RESEARCH PROPOSALS FEBRUARY


2020

 Proposal page limits - up to 15 pages for the Masters student and up to 25 pages for PhD
students excluding Appendices.

 Students should also follow the Title Page guidelines for research proposals. This includes
the name of Makerere University and the logo (and should not include CEDAT or
Department affiliation), a brief and concise title/topic of the research (not to exceed 23
words), the author's name (and their relevant qualifications to-date); the text about the
research being submitted to DRGT in fulfillment of degree requirements; and finally, month
or full date of the proposal. Information on the student's registration number, signature, and
date; main supervisor's name, signature and date; and co-supervisor's name, signature and
date; etc. should not be included in the title page as per the attached guidelines. This goes to
the Declaration Page.

In general, the overall guidance is for students to adhere to the Makerere University research
proposals guidelines as attached. In addition, the Committee guides on the following:

1) All proposals should have a preliminary section ahead of the Introduction Chapter. The page
numbering format for this section should use roman numerals while the main body of the report
uses Arabic numbers for page numbers. Page numbers should be placed at the bottom of the
page.

2) Proposals should not include header and/or footer designs or texts or borders, e.g., the
proposal title should not be included as a header throughout the proposal document neither
should the student's name or other graphic be included as a footer throughout the proposal
document

3) The list of Acronyms/abbreviations/symbols, etc., should be presented in alphabetical order

4) The main objective should not be the same as the proposal title as they serve different
purposes. The specific objectives should have clear outputs, and all the main/specific objectives
should be SMART.

5) The Introduction Chapter should conclude with a guide to the reader of what is to be covered
in the proposal on a chapter by chapter basis

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6) A brief text should always be provided for the Conceptual Framework section, preferably
right after the section heading and before the Conceptual Framework graphic.

7) The section on Literature Review should conclude with either a Summary of Literature / Gap
Identification section where the gap to be addressed is clearly highlighted

8) At a minimum, three appendices are expected and in the following order: Work Plan, Budget,
Data Collection/Analysis Tools

9) Avoid plagiarism! Tools such as Mendeley, Zotero, Endnote can be used to support the
citation process across the student's research period. In addition, tools such as Plagiarism
Detector (available via DICTS) and Turnitin can be used by students to cross-check their work
and as well to generally improve on the quality of their proposals, progress reports and theses.

10) Avoid misuse of paragraphs, e.g., the use of 1-sentence paragraphs. Be consistent with the
choice of formatting throughout the reporting and in line with the proposal guidelines.

11) Proper captioning should be applied including captions for Tables being placed above the
associated tables, while captions for Figures being placed below the associated figures

12) All equations should be numbered, preferably in a manner that associates them with the
relevant chapter

13) Where numbering bullets must be used, students should choose a different format from what
is used in the section headings. If Arabic numerals are used in the section heading (as typically
done), then e.g. Roman numerals or the alphabet can be used for the numbering bullets

Last but not least, the main and co-supervisors recommended by a Department must have a
relevant PhD at a minimum. Any other colleagues who are considered in position to make a
significant contribution to the research should be included in Acknowledgements. Also,
Departments can recommend as supervisors individuals from other institutions - so long as there
is an active MoU between Makerere and the other institution at time of recommendation for
graduate supervision. Departments should include evidence of the MoU.

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