PhD Full Registration Confirmation
This is subject to, and should be read in conjunction with, the VUW PhD Policy mandated by FGR.ECS Proposal Requirements
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The full proposal should provide evidence of the viability of the proposed research topic and the capacity of the student to carry out the proposed research.
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The full proposal is required to be under 40 pages (A4, font ~ 12pt) or <10,000 words. If there is more work to report than can be fit within these limits, details should be put into an un-examined appendix.
[Note: the University has no official page/word limit for the full proposal; this mandate is from the ECS School Research Committee (SRC).] -
The proj_proposal.tex template from the Project Templates webpage is recommended for the full proposal writing.
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The full proposal is expected to follow Section 10.4 in VUW PhD Policy, but include:
- Special recourses/facility/materials needed for the thesis (if any).
- A clear motivation(s) for the proposed research.
- The clear goals/objectives/research questions/hypotheses of the proposed research, including the overall goal and the specific objectives.
- A literature survey of related research. This should make clear the difference between the proposed work and existing work.
- A description of what the student has done so far related to the research goals in the provisional registration periods; giving details of published/accepted papers, if any.
- An outline of the project, including a detailed plan for the goals/objectives to be carried out in the following years (particularly the next six months) a time line for the thesis (including writing), a possible thesis outline, and the proposed major contributions.
ECS Procedure
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VUW PhD provisional registration lasts for 12 months from the commencement of the PhD (initial date of registration). Any further extension beyond 12 months requires approval from the Associate Dean (Postgraduate Research).
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To move from provisional to full registration, the student is required to submit a full doctoral research proposal and present a doctoral proposal seminar to the school. The full proposal must be submitted within 9 months (FTE), which gives sufficient time for examination and, if necessary, time to address any minor shortcomings within the University's 12 month (FTE) requirement.
- The student should submit a full research proposal (through the online submission system - make sure click "Done" to complete submission) three weeks before the seminar is scheduled. When the student submits full proposal, Postgraduate Administrator will get automatically notified.
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The supervisors must nominate 2 examiners with justifications to the Postgraduate Coordinator and Postgraduate Administrator prior to the student submitting the proposal document.
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The 2 examiners typically consistent of: one in the corresponding research group and one knowledgeable but a bit further removed from the student's group.
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The proposal will be assessed by a graduate sub-committee (representing SRC), typically consisting of the Postgraduate Coordinator, the student's supervisors, and the 2 examiners.
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Directly after reading the proposal and attending the PhD Proposal Seminar, the graduate sub-committee will hold a meeting and make a recommendation and complete the Provisional to Full PhD Registration - School Research Committee form. The recommendation can be:
- Full registration to be approved;
- Full registration approved subject to conditions set;
- The research proposal should be revised and resubmitted within a certain period (e.g. three months) for re-assessment;
- Convert enrolment to a Master’s by thesis degree;
- Candidate’s registration to be terminated.