20      THESIS EVALUATION PROCESS

20.1
All the Head of Departments shall submit a pool of relevant External Examiners (Foreign and National) approved by the DAC of each department. Examiners shall be selected from technologically advanced countries as prescribed by HEC in the related area of research. All PhD faculty members of UOB shall submit the names of examiners to their Chairpersons which shall subsequently be placed in DAC and AS&RB for approval.
20.2
Thesis for evaluation to the internal and external examiners shall be sent through their institutional emails only along with the thesis evaluation Performa.
20.3

PhD scholar shall deliver progress presentation per semester after the course work on following conditions:
a.
Dean Faculty shall approve/notify the date, time, and venue for seminar delivery.
b.
DAC in the absence of Dean, can conduct progress seminars.
c.
If the scholar failed to deliver progress seminar, he/she shall be placed on probation according to semester rules.
20.4
On completion of the research work, the candidate shall submit his/her thesis to the Graduate Studies Office through the concerned Chairman / Chairperson / Director and Dean Faculty. An application on prescribed form must be submitted for possible thesis evaluation. He/she must pay the prescribed fees and attach a copy of the payment receipt with the application form.
20.5
The Graduate Studies Office, after the scrutiny of the application and that of the payment of all prescribed fees and dues, shall issue a clearance certificate in this regard.
20.6
The candidate shall submit to the Research Supervisor four copies of the thesis having abstract of (400-500 words) and six copies of the thesis in hard bound form, completed in all aspects, and confirming the required specification of the prescribed format. The thesis shall be typed on A-4 size (210 mm x 297 mm or 8.27 inches x 11.69 inches) white paper with font size 12 (Times New Roman, Normal Setting) and 1.5 spacing. There should be a margin of 1.5 inches on the binding edge while remaining sides’ margin should be of 1.0 inch.
20.7

Title of the thesis should be on the top cover and the year with PhD with name of the scholar on the spine of the thesis.
20.8

The Research Supervisor, after certifying that the work has been completed under his/her supervision, shall forward the copies of the thesis to the Graduate Studies Office along with the panel of examiners. The Graduate Studies Office, after completing the necessary formalities, and approval of Vice Chancellor shall pass the same to the external examiners for evaluation. The Graduate Studies Office shall retain one copy of the thesis.
20.9
The Research Supervisor after obtaining the written consent of the concerned external examiner(s), shall submit a panel of examiners depending upon the category of publication as prescribed in the section for External Evaluation of PhD Dissertation. The Vice Chancellor will nominate the examiners.
20.10
The Graduate Studies office shall forward a copy of the thesis to each examiner for evaluation. The Graduate Studies office shall serve reminders to examiners every month for a maximum of four months. If no response is received from the examiner, then the thesis shall be sent to another examiner from the existing panel. When reports from all the examiners are received, these shall be placed before the AS&RB by Graduate Studies office.
20.11 
When the thesis examiners recommend the award of the degree to the candidate, the AS&RB shall direct the Graduate Studies office to arrange the Viva Voce examinations of the candidate that shall be conducted by the Review Committee. The Review Committee will give collective report on the thesis and Viva Voce for the award of PhD degree.
20.12 
In case the thesis is sent to two external examiners, if one of the External examiners proposes revision of whole or a part of the thesis i.e., major changes, then the same External Examiner shall evaluate the revised thesis when it is re-submitted. The revised thesis has to be submitted within the period of six months from the date of relevant notification. Only one chance for re-submission of thesis shall be allowed. The procedure pertaining to the submission and evaluation of the thesis given in above article shall also apply to the revised thesis.
20.13
In the case where the examiners recommend the award of the degree but indicate some errors in the thesis or advise some changes, the candidate shall make the necessary corrections/changes within one month. The viva voce examination will be held after the receipt of a certificate from the Research Supervisor duly endorsed by the Chairperson and relevant Faculty Dean that all the necessary corrections/changes have been made in the thesis.
20.14

If one of the two external examiners recommend the thesis for the award of PhD degree and the other gives an adverse report, a third examiner shall be appointed and the opinion of the third Examiner shall be final. However, if the Examiner who has given the adverse report is a foreign Examiner, the third Examiner shall also be a foreigner. Same procedure will be adopted in case of adverse report from Pakistani Examiners.
20.15

In case both the external examiners from abroad do not recommend the award of the degree, the AS&RB shall communicate rejection of the thesis and the registration of the candidate shall stand cancelled.
20.16

The open defense Viva Voce examination shall be arranged within three months after the rectification of minor or major corrections. The Graduate Studies office will notify the date of open defense and viva voce examinations of PhD candidates. The Viva Voce examination shall not be conducted unless the PhD scholar submit a published copy of the research article in the journal prescribed by the HEC.
20.17

The Supervisor in the original sealed covers shall forward reports of Viva Voce examiners to the Graduate Studies office for placement in the AS&RB.
20.18

If the reports are satisfactory, the candidates pass the aforesaid viva voce examinations and approved by the AS&RB then their result shall be declared with effect from the date of approval from the AS&RB.
20.19

Decisions for the award of PhD degrees shall be communicated to the Controller of Examinations in order to issue the provisional certificates to the scholars. Scholars will be responsible to provide a final soft and hard copy of their thesis, in addition to the already submitted copies of the thesis, for the record of HEC’s library.
20.20
The candidates will be eligible for benefits of the said degree with effect from the date of the approval from the AS&RB.
20.21

Academic Council and the Syndicate will approve award of degree in routine as per university rules. When the Syndicate has finally confirmed the award of the degree, the copy of the thesis retained by the Controller of Examinations shall be deposited in the University Library and a copy (both soft and hard form) of the thesis shall be sent to HEC.