Guidelines of dissertation/thesis submission

• Prior to submission of the dissertation/thesis for examination, the candidate at least three months prior to submission of the dissertation/thesis for examination shall, through the supervisor, Department, and Faculty, give notice in writing to the Director, DGSRI, expressing the intention to submit the dissertation/thesis. 
• This notice shall be submitted using the form BU/DGSRI/.F5.
• There will be at least two internally appointed examiners who are not supervisors of the respective candidates and shall be senior members of the academic staff. There will be at least one external examiner

   Appointment of Internal and External Examiners

When a candidate gives notice of submission, the respective Faculty Higher Degrees committee shall recommend at least three examiners (at least one external examiner and two internal examiners) to the DGSRI. The DGSRI will approve and appoint the proposed examiners. 

For Masters the external examiner is not involved in the viva voce, but the internal examiner (02), assisted by the Dean, plus the Chairperson of the Higher Degrees Committee, will constitute the viva voce panel. 

For PhDs, the panel will comprise one opponent, the Dean, plus the Chairperson of Higher Degrees will constitute the viva voce panel. This will be an invitation for the public to the presentation for PhDs. 

There will be an invitation for limited individuals from the public for Master's presentation. 

All examiners of Ph.D. candidates or Doctoral students shall be independent academicians who did not play a role as Supervisors or Committee members. 

It is the responsibility of the Board of Graduate Studies, Research, and Innovations to appoint examiners and to ensure the safe dispatch of copies of the thesis or dissertation to them. 

The Board of Graduate Studies, Research, and Innovations shall appoint for each Thesis or Dissertation at least three examiners one of whom shall be an examiner external to the University.

Where necessary, units may recommend the use of external examiners from non-academic institutions provided the individual has prerequisite credentials and expertise in the field.

Reports of Internal and External Examiners.

Examiners are expected to submit their reports in a period of three months. 
Failure to submit, the examiners are reminded to do so within two weeks. A complete failure by examiners is unusual but if this occurs, the DGSRI shall request the responsible Departments to nominate a replacement examiner.

The reports of examiners are sent to the Director of the Directorate of Graduate Studies who sends them to the Dean/Director for consideration by the Faculty Higher Degrees and Research committees. 

The Faculty Higher Degrees and Research committees shall handle the reports as follows:

Where all three reports are favorable or two reports are favorable, one of which must be from the external examiner and only minor corrections are required, the Faculty goes ahead to conduct the viva voce examination without delay. 

After a successful viva voce examination, a candidate shall be advised by the Dean/Director (Chairman) to carry out the minor corrections to the satisfaction of the examiner appointed by the viva voce. 

Finally, the Faculty submits its recommendations to the Board of Graduate Studies and Research for the award of the degree. This must be accompanied by signed minutes of the Viva Voce panel.

The Supervisor/Internal Examiner appointed to ensure that corrections are affected should submit his/her report to the Directorate of  Graduate Studies through the Dean/Director.

 Examination procedures

Both Masters and Doctoral thesis and dissertations shall be assessed by at least one (1) examiner.

External Examiners shall compile a report on their assessment of the thesis or dissertation and send the report to the Director, DGSRI.

Every faculty/institute shall be responsible for the transmission of theses/dissertations to the internal and external examiners.

The examiners shall evaluate and grade the thesis/dissertation in accordance with the criteria prescribed in the Busitema University theses/dissertation grading form BU/DGSRI/PG.F6).

If the External examiner detects plagiarism, the examination process shall be terminated and the thesis or dissertation shall be returned to Busitema University.

The External Examiner shall be required to report the suspected plagiarized material in writing to the DGSRI, giving reference to the original material which was plagiarized.

The plagiarism case shall then be investigated by DVC Academic Affairs, Research, and Innovations and if the candidate is found guilty of the offense, he/she shall be discontinued.

On receipt of the examiner's report, the Department will evaluate the overall performance of the candidate by comparing the marks awarded by the internal and external examiner and thereby enter an overall mark on the Departmental Overall Evaluation Report on Masters/Ph.D. Dissertation/Thesis (BU/DGSRIG.F7). The report shall then be transmitted to the Faculty Higher Degrees Committee.

Where the examiners differ significantly (one passes and one fails the candidate or a difference of two grades) in their overall recommendation, the Faculty Higher Degrees Committee shall examine the case and recommend one of the following actions: 

• The recommendation of the External Examiner be adopted
• An additional independent examiner (without knowledge of the previous examiners’ assessments) be appointed;
• An Assessment by an additional independent examiner together with the other examiners’ assessments shall form the basis of determining whether the candidate passes or fails the thesis/dissertation.
• If the External Examiner reports minor corrections, a viva voce shall be arranged for the candidate by the department. The thesis/dissertation shall be corrected within one month.
• If the External Examiner recommends major revisions, a viva voce shall not be organized for the candidate. The candidate shall be advised to revise and re-submit for either external or internal reexamination within 9 months.
• Major revisions shall consist of new experimentation, a new study, additional research to be carried out, and poor quality of thesis or dissertation presentation that warrants extensive re-writing.
• Copies of the External Examination Report shall be circulated to the Department, Faculty/Institute, viva voce panelists, and the Supervisor(s).
• The University shall pay honoraria to the Internal and External Examiners at the rate prescribed by the Council and upon receiving detailed reports and summary reports of the thesis/dissertation under examination. The claims shall be made by filling in forms BU/DGSRI/G.F11 (for Internal Examiner) and BU/DGSRI/G.F12 (for External Examiner).
• Subsequent publications from a thesis/dissertation submitted for a Master’s degree must contain a statement that the work is based on a thesis/ dissertation submitted to the University.