An overview of the structure of a typical full-time doctoral timetable is as follows:

Year 1

• Attend appropriate taught modules both within NUBS Malaysia and the GraduateSchool
• Define the nature of the research problem, identify appropriate analytic frameworks, and expect to have completed a first draft of Literature Review chapters
• Year 1 annual review (June)

Year 2

• Expect to complete empirical work. If data collection is likely to be a lengthy process, e.g. due to issues related to gaining access to companies or because the study is longitudinal in nature, then the empirical work may start quite early in the student’s second year, or even at the end of the first year
• Year 2 annual review (June)

Year 3

• Commence formal writing-up
• Expect to complete empirical work and produce draft write-up of results
• Submit completed thesis
• Year 3 annual review (June)

Writing up

Although a fourth year writing-up period is available, the expectation is that you will submit your thesis within three years. It is important that your research is written up on a continual basis during the three years of registration. Continual writing-up means that you should expect to prepare chapters to be read and commented on by your supervisors on a regular basis. This should help to ensure that when the formal writing-up period begins, you have a first draft of a thesis ready for modification.

Annual review

For your Year 1 annual review, you will submit a draft Literature Review chapter (8,000 words) and make a short presentation about your research to a review panel of assessors, which will include a clear summary of what you have achieved over the previous year, and a timeline for the completion of your PhD.

You will also undergo a similar annual review at the end of Year 2 and Year 3. As part of the Year 2 annual review, you will submit a revised literature chapter and a sample chapter, which is likely to be a methods or empirical chapter. You will also be required to present your work to a review panel of assessors.

Within your Year 3 annual review, you will submit a commentary that details how you have addressed the feedback received from the Year 2 annual review, and one or more empirical research chapters. You will also be required to present your work to a review panel of assessors.

Supervision

You will be assigned two academic supervisors who will provide guidance on the formal specification of your topic, the structure and organisation of your thesis and the general direction of the research. Regular supervision will help to ensure that your research progresses in the appropriate way. As a full-time doctoral student, you will meet with your supervisors on at least 10 occasions during the year. If you are a part-time student, at least six meetings take place during the year.

Proposal

The proposal is an integral part of the application for a position on the PhD programme at NUBS Malaysia. It will allow potential supervisors to look at the applicant’s research and help them decide whether the proposal is feasible for completion and whether they (the potential supervisors) can offer supervision or not. The proposal will also be considered by the School’s Research Committee to determine if there is adequate support for such a topic to be carried out at NUBS Malaysia. The proposal is expected to be 1,000 to 2,000 words long.

If the applicant wishes to contact a member of academic staff from NUBS Malaysia to discuss potential supervision arrangements, it is advised that the applicant should either have a proposal ready, or is in the process of preparing a proposal to facilitate the discussion.