In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 28 of the Capital University of Science and Technology Act, 2015 (Act No. XVI of 2015), the Board of Governors of the University is pleased to make the following regulations for graduate programs at the Capital University of Science and Technology, namely:—
1. Short Title and Commencement:
- These regulations may be called the Capital University of Science and Technology Graduate Programs (MS/MPhil) Regulations.
- These regulations shall come into force at once.
2. Definitions – In these regulations, unless there is anything repugnant in, the subject or context –
- “Academic Council” means Academic Council of the University.
- “Board of advanced studies and research (BASR)” means board of advanced studies and research (BASR) of the University.
- “Controller of Examinations” means controller of examinations of the University.
- “Credit hour” means one hour of classroom teaching or three hours of lab teaching in one week.
- “Cumulative grade point average (CGPA)” means earned grade points multiplied by credit hours of that course, the sum of the product is then divided by the total number of credit hours attempted in the program.
- “Dean” means the Dean of the faculty in which the scholar is pursuing his/her studies.
- “Defense committee” means a committee constituted by the Dean for the oral defense of a thesis.
- “Department” means the department of the University in which a scholar is enrolled.
- “Thesis” means a piece of writing by a scholar involving original study of a subject through academic research.
- “External” means an expert from outside the department or the University.
- “Fall semester” means last semester of a calendar year.
- “Faculty” means a teaching entity of the University.
- “Grade point average (GPA)” means earned grade points multiplied by credit hours of that course, the sum of the product is then divided by the total number of credit hours attempted by the scholar in a semester.
- “Higher Education Commission (HEC)” means the higher education commission of Pakistan.
- “Registrar” means registrar of the University.
- “Registration department” means registration department of the University.
- “Regular semester” means a Spring or a Fall semester.
- “Scholar” means a student who has been awarded admission in a MS/MPhil program of the University and his/her registration is intact.
- “Semester” means a period of 16 weeks of academic activities.
- “Similarity index” means a report generated by a plagiarism checking software for a particular piece of writing.
- “Spring semester” means first semester of a calendar year.
- “Summer semester” means a semester falling between spring and fall semesters having 8 weeks duration.
- “Supervisor” means a professor/researcher having a minimum MS qualification appointed by the Dean to advise the scholar.
- “University” means the Capital University of Science and Technology.
3. Admission Requirements
- The eligibility criteria for admission in the MS/MPhil Program shall be as follows:
- 16 Years of schooling or 4 years of education (minimum 120 credit hours) after HSSC/F.A./F.Sc/Grade 12 or Equivalent.
- Qualify University admission test or HEC approved test with 50% marks.
- Intra-discipline admission is allowed with 6–9 Cr. Hrs. deficiency courses of graduate level and GRE Subject/Equivalent Test (Min. 50%) in the field selected for MS/MPhil
- In addition to the requirements mentioned under (1) above, an applicant who has obtained the qualifying degree from abroad shall provide an equivalence certificate from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan.
- An applicant who has already completed a part of credit hours of MS/MPhil Program in another HEC recognized University may be eligible for admission: Provided that only a maximum of four courses (12 Credit Hours), which are relevant to the applicants’ proposed degree program and having grades B or higher, may be considered for credit transfer: Provided further that the University shall have the exclusive right to accept or reject the request for credit transfer.
4. Degree Requirements
- In order to be eligible for the degree of MS/MPhil one of the following options must be successfully completed by the MS/MPhil scholar with minimum CGPA of 3.00/4.00:
- 24 Cr. Hrs. coursework (8 courses) and Six (06) Cr. Hrs. Thesis;
- 30 Cr. Hrs. coursework (10 courses).
- Minimum duration to complete the MS/M.Phil shall be 1.5 years or 3 Regular Semesters; whereas, the maximum allowed duration shall be 4 years or 8 Regular Semesters.
5. Registration
- The maximum allowable courses for registration shall be equivalent to twelve (12) Cr. Hrs. in a Spring/Fall semester and six (06) Cr. Hrs. in a Summer semester.
- A scholar who is not registered in a regular semester shall have an inactive registration status unless he/she is on a semester break.
- A scholar who has completed 30 Cr. Hrs. registration but couldn’t complete the program shall have to register at least 01 Cr. Hr. in subsequent Spring/Fall Semester to continue to maintain his/her registration status active.
- An unauthorized absence from the University for two consecutive semesters shall lead to cancellation of the admission.
- In case of cancellation of admission under 5(4), a re-admission request may be considered provided that the scholar has a chance to complete the program within maximum allowable duration as mentioned under regulation 4(2) above.
- A scholar may add or drop a course within a specified period as announced by the Registration Department and a course so dropped or added shall be deemed to have been omitted or registered, as the case may be, from the start of registration.
- A scholar may withdraw a course within the specified period as announced by the Registration Department. A withdrawn course shall be reported on the transcript of the scholar with a ‘W’ grade.
- A withdrawn course shall not be counted towards the calculation of grade point average (GPA), but it shall be treated as a registered course for the evaluation of tuition fee.
- An elective course passed by a scholar may be substituted, with the approval of the concerned department, with another elective course on the request of the scholar and such substitution shall be treated as a repeat course.
6. Assessment of Tuition Fee
- Fee shall be charged per credit hour as determined by the University from time to time.
- Tuition fee for the registered credit(s) shall be paid within due date to validate the registration. Non-payment of fee within the due date shall result into default status.
- A student who defaults in payment of fee shall not appear in the attendance roll.
- In a regular semester, if the fee is not paid within the prescribed time, the registration of the course(s) may be cancelled.
- For all practical purposes, the cancelled course(s) shall be deemed as never registered.
- In a Summer semester, if a course is registered, it shall be treated as confirmed and fee shall be charged.
7. Course Examinations
- A scholar shall be eligible for final examination if he/she meets the requirements specified from time to time by the office of Controller of Examinations.
- Midterm and final term examinations shall be administered by the office of Controller of Examinations.
- Midterm and final term examinations of a course shall be as per the date sheet announced by the Controller of Examinations and if a scholar misses an examination, usually there shall be no re-examination.
- The University, in general, follows the relative grading scheme which has the following definition:
Letter Grades Grade Points Academic Standing A 4.00 Excellent A- 3.67 Very Good B+ 3.33 Good B 3.00 Acceptable B- 2.67 Average C+ 2.33 Below Average C 2.00 Poor C- 1.67 Exceptionally Poor F 0.00 Fail I – Incomplete N – Continued W – Withdrawn P – Pass S – Satisfactory US – Unsatisfactory NC – Non Credit () – Grade Replaced - A scholar not satisfied with the awarded grade may file a petition to the office of Controller of Examinations for review of the final grade within fifteen days after the declaration of the result. The review of the grade shall be limited to omissions and calculation errors only.
- In order to improve CGPA, a graduate student is allowed to improve a maximum of 3 courses within normal degree duration. The original as well as the revised grades of all repeated courses shall be shown on the transcript; however, better grades shall be considered towards CGPA calculation.
- A scholar receiving F grade must repeat that course or its equivalent and both the grades shall appear on the transcript.
- A scholar at any time may request for substitution of an elective course with another elective course for the purpose of improving the CGPA required for the award of degree. Substitution of a course shall be allowed, with the approval of HoD/Dean, and it shall be counted towards a repeat course
- A course once substituted or bracketed shall not be reverted, i.e. brackets once opted cannot be removed.
8. Retake of Final Examination
- Retake examination can be considered under two extenuating circumstances: a) serious illness of the scholar or b) death of an immediate family member.
- The scholar must intimate the CoE Office prior to the examination and a detailed application with evidence indicating exceptional circumstances faced by the scholar must be submitted as soon as possible but not later than 7 days from the date of examination.
- In case of self illness, a certifiable evidence from a reputed Hospital shall be required.
- In case of death of an immediate family member (Parent/Real Brother or Sister/Son or Daughter/Husband or Wife) a death certificate from an appropriate office should be submitted.
- A three members Dean Committee constituted for the purpose shall interview the applicants, if deemed appropriate, and it shall verify the submitted evidence to assess the genuineness of the requests. It shall finalize its findings within two weeks from the date of declaration of result.
- If the retake application is because of the death of an immediate family member, only one day exam(s) could be considered for reexamination.
- If retake is approved by the Deans Committee, I-Grade shall be granted to the approved cases, which must be converted into an earned grade within four weeks from the date of declaration of the result; otherwise I-Grade shall be converted into F-Grade.
- Retake examination shall be awarded final letter grade on absolute scale.
- If a scholar failed to attend all the examinations of the registered courses, he/she shall not be considered for retake; rather the Deans Committee shall evaluate such a case for semester freeze/drop and in this respect, its finding shall be final.
9. Probation & Expulsion
- A MS/MPhil scholar who fails to maintain a minimum CGPA of 3.00/4.00, shall be placed on warning status at the time of declaration of result.
- A scholar with two consecutive warnings shall be placed on probation for the next semester and at the end of that semester, if he/she fails once again to attain the required minimum CGPA that is 3.00/4.00, such a student shall cease to continue.
10. Thesis Submission and Defense
- A thesis shall be submitted as per the approved format and submission shall be allowed only if the scholar’s registration in the program is intact.
- A thesis shall be cleared for defense if its similarity index is less than 19% in total and less than 5% from a single source, but similarity from the scholar’s own published work carried out during the MS/MPhil studies shall be excluded.
- Thesis defense shall be arranged by the University within eight (08) weeks after the receipt of the thesis.
- Thesis shall be examined in an open defense by a thesis defense committee comprising of:
- Dean of the Faculty or a Senior Professor – Convener
- External Examiner – Member
- Internal Examiner – Member
- Supervisor – Member
- After the defense, the convener of the defense committee shall invite the recommendations of examiners as to:
- thesis may be accepted as is;
- thesis may be accepted after minor revisions;
- thesis may be accepted after major revisions, or
- thesis may be rejected.
- Thesis shall be graded by the members of the defense committee as per the following weightage:
- external examiner – 40%
- internal examiner – 30%
- supervisor – 30%
- Subject to the distribution defined in section 10(6), a letter grade shall be awarded as per the definition given in Section 7(4).
- In case of Fail (F) grade, the scholar can re-submit his/her thesis after a period of 90 days with a fresh registration of credit hours associated with the thesis.
- Thesis with minor revisions shall be submitted within 04 weeks from the date of examination, with a certificate from the supervisor that ‘the revisions have been incorporated satisfactorily’ failing which, it shall be treated as re-submission.
- Thesis re-submission shall require a fresh registration of credit hours associated with the thesis.
- A thesis with major revisions shall be submitted within 12 weeks from the date of examination and shall be accepted with certificates from both external and internal examiners that ‘the revisions have been incorporated satisfactorily’ failing which, it shall be treated as re-submission.
- Thesis may be submitted anytime during a semester and the date of completion shall be the date of submission provided that the thesis is accepted either with no or minor revisions.
- A scholar’s MS/MPhil program completion shall be subject to the approval from the BASR and the semester of completion shall be the semester in which the thesis is submitted.
- List of scholars who have completed the MS/MPhil shall be issued under the seal of the Controller of the Examinations.