Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering (Environmental and Biosystems Engineering)

Regular Ph.D programmes in the School are by thesis only.  Candidates will be required to undertake research guided by at least two supervisors competent in the subject area and field of research in which the candidate proposes to work.  The main supervisor must come from the Department where the student is registered. After the research, the candidate shall be required to submit a thesis for examination.  The programme shall take a minimum period of three (3) years and a maximum of six (6) years.

Examination  shall comprise two parts: (i) Independent written assessment of the thesis by Internal and external examiners (ii) oral examination of the thesis by a board of examiners as prescribed by the University of Nairobi statutes. 

Degree award

Successful candidates shall be awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the respective area of specialization. Where a candidate’s thesis is assessed and found to require major revision, it shall be re-submitted once only for re-examination in a revised form within twelve months. Beyond this period, the candidate shall be discontinued.

Research Proposal Format (PhD and MSc)

The proposal should be between 15 and 30 pages in length (News Time Roman-Font 12, double spaced OR Arial Font-12, 1.5 spacing). The left and right margins should be 25 mm (1 inch) and the top and bottom margin 30 mm (1.25 inches) and 20 mm (0.75  inches) respectively.

All proposals shall consist of the following sections: 

Front page, Table of Contents, Introduction (Study Background, Problem statement, Objective), Literature review, Materials and methods / Methodology, References, Work plan / Schedule of activities, Budget, Appendices.

The following shall be the format of the research proposal:

A.     Front/Title Page

The front page will consist of the following:

• University Logo followed by University of Nairobi and School of Engineering
• Project Title:  This shall be short, precise and descriptive of the study.
• Candidate:  Full name and admission number followed by space for signature and date.
• Supervisor(s):  Names of all supervisors, followed by signature and date.

• Chairman of Department:  Signature and date.
• Chairman SPSC:  Signature and date.
• Dean SoE:  Signature and date.
• Statement:  “A proposal submitted in fulfillment for the Degree of (insert name of degree)in the (insert Department where candidate is registered) in the University of Nairobi”.
• Date:  Date of submission of proposal (month and year).

B.     Table of Contents 

The second page should contain a table of contents with page numbers.

C.     Proposal Body

The body of the proposal should consist of the following subsections.

1. Introduction

Background

This section shall provide a brief overview of the proposed area of study.  It should be short (maximum four (4) pages); telling the reader what the study will be about and why it is important and timely. 

      Problem Statement / Statement of Research Problem

This section should provide brief information identifying the gaps in knowledge or problems to be addressed in the study.

      Objectives

      These should clearly state how the problem will be addressed. Research questions or

      hypothesis should be included and tally with the objectives.

2. Literature Review

This section shall present information on the evolution and present state of theory, practice and research of the topic proposed for investigation.  A candidate is expected to demonstrate review of most recent and relevant publications which must be properly cited in the references. This section may be organized with subheadings to represent different areas of emphasis. 

3. Materials and Methods / Methodology

• Focused on addressing the objectives of the study.
• Detailed enough that the study is repeatable and reproducible.
• Where standard methods are used, adequate reference should be provided  

4. Work plan / Schedule of Activities

The work plan should indicate the duration of planned activities in a logical sequence.

5. Budget

• Shall be based on all envisaged activities of the study.
• Shall comprise costs relevant to the above activities, including all the materials and contingencies.

6. References

There are two widely used methods of citing references in documents such as a thesis or project report.   In the first method, the reference is cited as a number in the text, thus:  “These results are similar to those that have been found by other researchers [1, 2]”.   In this method, it is not necessary for the authors’ names to appear in the text, though they frequently appear.  In the references section, the cited references are then listed, in proper numerical sequence, as follows. The IEEE format also falls under this category.

1. WISMER, R. D. and H. J. LUTH.   Off-road traction prediction for wheeled

    vehicles. Journal of Terramechanics, 10(2):49-61.  1973.

2. KEPNER, R. A., R. BAINER and E. L. BARGER.  Principles of Farm Machinery,

    AVI Publishing Co., Inc. 1972.

In the second method, the authors’ names and the year of publication of cited literature are used in the text, in citing the literature, thus:  “These results are similar to those that were found by WISMER and LUTH (1973) and by KEPNER et al. (1972)”.  In the references section, the cited references are then listed, without numbering but in proper alphabetical order, as shown below:

KEPNER, R. A., R. BAINER and E. L. BARGER, (1972).  Principles of Farm Machinery, AVI Publishing Co., Inc.

WISMER, R. D. and H. J. LUTH, (1973).  Off-road traction prediction for wheeled vehicles.  Journal of Terramechanics, 10(2):49-61.

Note:All web-based cited references should be of reputable institutions to facilitate independent verification.

7. Appendices

The appendices should be clearly labelled and placed after the reference section.  The labelling system should be e.g. Appendix A (A1, A2 …), Appendix B (B1, B2), etc.  They should be listed in the table of contents.

For further information, please contact:

The Dean,

Schoolof Engineering

Universityof Nairobi

P.O. Box 30197-0100

Nairobi, Kenya

Telfax: +254-020-318262 ext 28400/1

Email:  deaneng@uonbi.ac.ke