Board of Advanced Studies and Research (BOASAR)
The BOASAR has been instituted as one of the authorities of the University for Proper Management of postgraduate studies/training. Its functions include:
- To advise the authorities on all matters connected with the promotion of advanced studies and research in the University.
- To consider and report to the authorities on the institution of research degrees in the university.
- To propose regulations regarding the award of research degrees.
- To appoint supervisors for research students and to determine the subject of their thesis.
- To receive research projects from university teachers.
- To sanction research grants against specific research projects.
- To coordinate and approve research program and budget.
- To monitor faculty research.
- To utilize research results.
Masters and Ph.D. degree program in selected departments are being run under the umbrella of BOASAR. Funds are provided for both faculty research and student research. Postgraduate Advisors have been appointed for each specialization to provide guidance and assistance to researchers. BOASAR also maintains regular contact with local industry and the government to help solve their technological problems.
Best Applied Research Project Award
To support and encourage faculty research in the university, an award has been instituted for the best applied research project. Principal Investigators of approved projects may apply for the award, which includes a cash award as well as a certificate and shield. Full details, including eligibility, application procedure, award criteria and details of award are available at the BOASAR office for reference.
Master Degree Program in Engineering
GENERAL
The Master’s degree program at U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy USPCAS-E UET Peshawar extends over a period of at least four semesters. A total of 32 credit hours (including 26 credit hours of courses and 6 credit hours of research) are required to complete the Master’s Degree Program. The 26 credit hours of course work shall include a minimum of 18 credit hours from the area of specialization and 2 credit hours of the course “Research Methodology”. This course will be registered as credit course.
RULES
Admission
- Master’s degree program shall commence in Spring and Fall semesters i.e, twice annually.
- Candidates seeking admission must have a Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant Engineering discipline from HEC recognized institution accredited by Pakistan Engineering Council in case of engineering discipline.
- Candidates seeking admission must score 50% minimum marks in GRE General type test, organized by Education Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA).
- Applications on the prescribed form shall be made to the Director Admissions, by the date advertised in newspapers, after which no application shall be entertained.
- Candidates shall have to pass departmental subject and ETEA test with at least 50% marks. Final merit shall be made based on the combined results of ETEA marks and the departmental test in the following manner:
- GRE General Type Test conducted by ETEA = 50% Weightage
- Departmental Subject Test = 50 % Weightage
- The ETEA GRE test shall be valid for two academic years while subject test shall be conducted each time admission is offered.
- On the recommendations of the Admission Committee, the vice-chancellor shall approve the names of candidates selected for admission.
- No student shall be admitted after two weeks of the start of classes.
- The Director Administration shall forward the particulars of each student admitted for the first time, within 15 days of the completion of admission to the Controller of Examinations. The Controller shall assign a registration number to each student, if not already registered with UET.
- If any of the particulars given by the candidate in his/her application are found incorrect or facts are suppressed, he/she shall be denied admission. If any incorrect or false statement or suppression of facts is detected after a candidate has been granted admission, his/her admission shall be cancelled and he/she shall be expelled from the University at any time during the course of his/her studies.
- A candidate who is already a bonafide, full time student in some other institution, is ineligible to apply for admission in this University. If a case is detected where a student enrolled in this University is also a student of some other institution, his/her admission in the University shall be cancelled.
- At the time of admission, selected candidates shall submit an undertaking to abide by the Rules and Regulations prevailing in the University. This shall be according to the prescribed proforma on non-judicial Stamp Paper worth Rs.50/-, and duly attested by an Oath Commissioner.
- In the event of a tie of aggregate marks (ETEA + Departmental Subject Test) between two or more candidates seeking admission in the Master’s Program, the subject test marks will be considered. In case these are equal then older candidate shall be considered.
Eligibility Criteria
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR MS PROGRAMS
Candidates must have 16 years’ education in the areas mentioned under each qualification
MS in Electrical Energy System Engineering
B.Sc. Electrical Engineering
MS Thermal System Engineering
B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering
B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering
M.Sc./BS in Mining Engineering
M.Sc./BS in Industrial Engineering.
MS Renewable Energy Engineering
B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering
B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering
B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering
B.Sc. in Mechatronics Engineering
B.Sc. in Material Engineering
B.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering
Or any other relevant B.SC. Engineering degree
Academic Advisor
Any faculty member with at least Master’s degree in the relevant field of Engineering shall be appointed as the Academic Advisor.
Postgraduate Advisors
Each specialization of the Department concerned will have a Postgraduate Advisor having Ph.D. who will work under the direct supervision of Academic Program Developer. The advisor will monitor the implementation of the postgraduate program in his/her department, and maintain liaison with the BOASAR Secretariat. His duties will include:-
- Providing guidance to students on rules and regulations of the Master’s Degree Program.
- Providing guidance to students on selection of research projects.
- Organizing field trips of students.
- Promoting links with industry and other outside organizations.
- Promoting faculty research.
- Organizing extension lectures, seminars, workshops and training courses.
- Supervising reference library in respective department.
Coordinating with the Academic Advisor of Master’s students on various issues, such as registration, selection of courses and general program of study.
Registration
- At the beginning of each semester, students shall register for courses in consultation with the departmental Academic Advisors.
- List of courses offered in a Department shall be finalized by Postgraduate Advisor of the relevant field of specialization, in consultation with Academic Advisors, and this shall be displayed on the postgraduate notice board, one week before registration, to facilitate students in choosing courses.
- Minimum number of students to register for a course shall be five for all the departments, otherwise, the course shall be dropped for that semester. In case a course is dropped by the Department, the fees shall be refunded to the students or adjusted in the coming semesters. However, the departments can offer course(s) to a class having less than five students in exceptional cases with the approval of Dean. A department can also offer course(s) to students relevant to MS Thesis in the area of research.
- To ensure quality of teaching the maximum number of students in each section of Postgraduate course should not be more than 20. If the number of registered students in any subject exceeds 20, then they shall be accommodated in more than one section.
- A student who wants to freeze a semester shall have to register in a “Zero Semester” subject to the following conditions:
- He/she will pay registration fee for the “Zero Semester”
- He/she will apply within 15 days of start of the classes
- He/she will be allowed to clear his/her subjects prior to “Zero Semester”
- He/she can resume his/her studies in a given semester subject to the approval of the Chairman.
Work Study Load
A student shall not be allowed to take more than three courses per semester. However, this condition shall not be applicable in a semester offering an additional 2-credit hour course on Research Methodology and research thesis / mini project.
Addition of Courses/Withdrawal from Courses
- A student may be allowed to add/drop courses within two weeks of the beginning of classes.
- A student may be allowed to withdraw from courses within six weeks of commencement of classes by applying on the prescribed proforma. A grade of ‘W’ will be reported in that case.
- In case a student fails to apply for withdrawal from a course and remains absent, F Grade will be awarded.
Class Work and Attendance
A student shall attend the classes regularly, submit assignments in time, and appear for tests and examinations when announced by the teacher. Candidates with less than 75% attendance in a course shall not be allowed to appear in the final examination of the course.
Examination
Course Work
For all taught courses of MS program, a final-term examination having 50% weightage must be carried out. The remaining 50% marks can be distributed over quizzes, home assignments, mid-term examination, mini projects etc, or any other appropriate way, as it suits the requirement of the course. However, such distribution should be clearly spelt out in writing before the commencement of the course and be submitted to the Postgraduate Advisor of the respective departments.
Research work
- The MS research proposal (submitted by a student at the end of second semester of his/her Postgraduate Studies) shall be initially vetted by Project Research Evaluation Committee (PREC), formally constituted for each specialization in each discipline before recommending it to the BOASAR for final approval. The Academic Program Developer of the department concerned will recommend the names of three faculty members (including Postgraduate Advisor) holding Ph.D. degrees for constitution of PREC for approval of the Vice Chancellor through Secretary (BOASAR). The Chairman of the concerned department will act as a convener of the PREC. The PREC will be reconstituted after a period of one year. The Academic Development Program of the concerned department may recommend a Ph.D faculty member, expert in the relevant area, to act as member (co-opted) for the PREC.
- All MS students shall give at least one seminar to PREC on their research project at the end of research work before applying for defence examination of their thesis.
- Before a student is allowed to defend his/her thesis, it will be vetted by the university against plagiarism. For the award of MS degree, at least one paper should be published from the MS research thesis in a refereed national/ international conference or journal.
- The maximum number of postgraduate students under a Research Supervisor shall be eight (08) which will include maximum three (03) Ph.D. students.
Examination of Research Work
The examination of the research work of the candidate shall be conducted by an Examination Committee comprising (1) Internal Examiner, (2) Student’s Research Supervisor and (3) External Examiner from outside the University. The Examination Committee will be appointed by the vice chancellor on the recommendation of the Dean. The Supervisor shall act as the Chairman of the Examination Committee. The examination shall include:
- Evaluation of thesis
- Viva-voce examination
If the thesis is judged as adequate, the candidate shall appear in the viva-voce examination to be conducted by the Examination Committee on a specific date. The thesis supervisor must inform the Academic Program Developer about the thesis defense examination Result on the official form T-3. If the thesis is found inadequate, it may be referred back for revision and resubmission within a specified period as detailed by the Examination Committee. Only one chance of resubmission shall be allowed to a candidate and if the revised thesis is not approved under the aforesaid procedure, the thesis shall be rejected. In a case of revised thesis resubmitted for evaluation, the student has to pay thesis evaluation charges again. If in the opinion of the majority of the examiners, the candidate fails in the vivo voce, he/she may be permitted to reappear in the viva-voce re-examination within a period of three months. In such a case the candidate shall be given only one chance to re-appear in the oral examination.
Quality of Work (Grades)
- a) To be eligible for graduation, a student must have a CGPA of at least 2.67 (B-) in course work and satisfactory grade (S) in research. Grade Points are assigned as shown below:
Grade Points - A student who has been awarded “F” grade in a course may be allowed one chance to improve the grade by repeating the course within the prescribed time limit (see.1.13-e). This facility may be availed for a maximum of two courses during the entire Master’s program. Only the higher grade will be used in computing the GPA.
- Grade “I” (incomplete) is awarded to a student only if he/she has missed the Final Examination, Project Report, etc. due to genuine reasons, but has completed all the other work of the course successfully. Grade “I” should be converted to an appropriate letter grade within two consecutive semesters, otherwise it would be converted into Grade “F” permanently.
- The requirement of a “N” grade would be laid down by the teacher of a course at the beginning of the semester.
- The Grade Point Average (GPA) will be calculated as follows:
Quality Points of each course = Grade Points of grade awarded x Course credit hours.
GPA = Sum of Quality Points of all courses / Total credit hours - Improvement of grade “C” and below:
Students taking grade “C” or a lower grade than “C” will get only one chance to improve the grade by repeating the course. Tuition fees will be charged for repeating the course. The student will get no additional credit for repeating the course. After repeating the course and fulfilling all its requirements including exams, the instructor concerned will award the student a fresh grade.
Medium of Instruction
The medium of instruction in all Postgraduate Courses shall be English.
Duration of Courses
- There will be two semesters in an academic year. Each semester will be of eighteen weeks duration, including classes and conduct of examinations.
- The Fall semester, will start in the first week of September and the Spring semester will begin in the first week of February.
Degree Requirements
- Total of 32 credit hours (including 6 credit hours of research) are required to complete the Master’s Degree Program. The 26 credit hours of course work shall include a minimum of 6 courses from the core area of specialization and 2 credit hours of the course “Research Methodology”. This course will be registered as credit course.
- A student can take up to two courses being offered by Teaching Departments other than his own if so advised by the Academic Advisor. The student shall be entitled for the credit of such courses.
- On the completion of course and research work, the student shall apply for defense of thesis on a prescribed proforma available from Departmental Postgraduate Advisor and University website: http://uetpeshawar.edu.pk/USPCAS-E. The final script of the thesis must be certified against plagiarism by the Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) of the University before the thesis defense.
- After successful defense of research work, the student shall submit three hard-bound copies of the final script of thesis to the Director Postgraduate Studies within fifteen days of defense. The copies shall be kept in the Departmental Seminar Library, Central Library of the University and the Directorate of Postgraduate studies.
- The student must complete all the requirements of the M.Sc Degree within seventy-two months (12 semesters) of the first registration for the program. Moreover, the candidate must complete all the course requirements within forty-eight months (8 semesters) of the first registration for the program.
- The degree of M.Sc shall be awarded to a student who has satisfactorily completed the courses of study and research and has passed the required examinations.
- The student shall apply for the award of MS degree on a prescribed proforma available from Departmental Postgraduate Advisor and University website http://uetpeshawar.edu.pk/USPCAS-E. The proforma shall be used to verify all the requirements of the degree, i.e. passing of core courses, total courses and thesis defense examination.
- The admission of the student will be cancelled if he/she remains absent continuously for two semesters. The student will be issued attended semesters transcript.
Residency Requirements
- The student shall earn all the credits of course work and complete the research at the University.
- In special circumstances, the BOASAR may permit the research to be carried out in another organization/ institution. In such an event the student will be assigned a co-supervisor, with qualification at least Master’s in Engineering, working in that institution, who will be paid honorarium equal to half of honorarium paid to main supervisor. However, the student shall maintain a supervisor from parent department.
Transfer of Credits
- Transfer of a maximum of 6 credits earned during a Master’s program in another specialization of the University may be allowed for taught courses only.
- A maximum of 6 credits transfer, earned by a student in another recognized university, may be allowed, provided that:
- The student has passed these courses with at least “B” grade.
- The subject specialist certifies the courses to be equivalent to the approved courses of the University and shall be endorsed by the chairman of the concerned department.
- Credit is allowed for taught courses only, and not for research.
- Such credit hours shall not be counted for calculating GPA. However they will be incorporated in the transcript.
Scholastic Record
The scholastic record of graduate students shall be maintained by the Controller of Examinations. Departments offering Postgraduate courses shall send award list of grades to the Controller of Examinations, within one week of final examination. The students shall be notified about their final grades by the Postgraduate Advisor of the department.
Discipline
Students enrolled in the Postgraduate Program shall observe the rules and regulations of the University. Any infringement shall be dealt with under the University Discipline Rules.
Special Provisions
- In all cases where regulations are silent, the decisions of the vice-chancellor shall be final.
- All other regulations and instructions relating to Master’s Engineering courses issued here-to-fore stand repealed.
- The competent authority reserve the rights to make any change in the rules, regulations and courses of study that may be considered necessary at any time without prior notice.
- Interpretation of these rules and regulations by the authorized officers of the USPCAS-E UET Peshawar shall be final.