The Pattern of The Masters Degree Programmes

The Master’s programme in any School shall consist of:

• either coursework and examination, involving full time attendance at the University.

or

• coursework, examination and thesis also involving full-time attendance at the University, and where the entire second year of the programme is devoted to the thesis.

or

• under exceptional circumstances thesis only which may be taken either on full-time or part-time basis. Provided that no candidate shall qualify for the award of a master’s degree by thesis only, unless he has been in attendance at the University in the School in which he/she is registered for such period as the regulations of the School concerned may require.

The Duration of Master’s Degree programmes

The Master’s programmes in all schools shall extend over a period of at least eighteen months from the date of registration.

No candidate for the Master’s degree shall be registered as a fulltime student for more than three years or a part-time student for more than four years without completing the programme of study, or submitting a thesis as may be the case without the permission of Senate.

Extension of Duration of Study for the Master’s Degree

Extension of a study period beyond the normal time limit may be granted on the basis of a recommendation from the Department through the relevant School specifying reasons for the extension and a schedule for the activities to be carried out.

Under special circumstances, a period of study may be extended for no longer than 6 moths and 12 months for full-time and part-time candidates respectively.

Withdrawal and Re-admission

For the entire study period, students may apply for permission to be away from the University for up to one academic year. Permission may be granted by Senate on the basis of recommendations from the Department and the relevant School specifying reasons for the permission.

A student who has officially withdrawn from a programme while in good academic standing but is unable to resume studies within one academic year may be re-admitted on the basis of recommendations from the Department through the relevant School.

Change of Registration Status within the same Programme

On the recommendation of the School Board concerned, the Senate may permit a candidate to change his registration status from part-time to full-time or vice versa only once, in which case, regulation 5 shall apply to such candidate as if he has initially been admitted to the status he now seeks.

Provided that no candidate admitted as a full-time or part-time student for course-work and examination, or course-work, examination and thesis, shall be permitted to change registration status, unless the candidate has successfully completed the first year and passed the examination at the end thereof.

Provided also that in the case of candidates registered for thesis only, no change of status may be approved unless the candidate concerned has completed such full-time attendance at the University (not being less than six months) as the regulations of the School concerned may require.

Examination of Candidates

A taught unit in all Schools is defined as the equivalent of 35 one-hour lectures.

Two hours of tutorial or three hours of practical work are equivalent to a one hour lecture for the purpose of the definition of a unit in these regulations.

Candidates taking coursework and examination or coursework, examination and thesis shall be examined in all the units for which they have registered at the end of the semester in which they are taught.

Full-time students shall take a minimum of 8 units within the first academic year.

Assessment of each unit shall be done at the end of each semester by a written examination, which shall constitute 70% of the total marks in each unit and a coursework assessment test constituting 30% of the overall assessment. Other types of examination as specified in the School regulations may also be used in the assessment of a unit.

The pass mark in all Schools for each unit shall be 50%.

Each unit is marked out of 100%. These marks are translated into literal grades as follows: 70% and above – A; 60% - 69% = B; 50% - 59% = C; 49% and below = E (Fail).

Candidates taking the first year examinations shall be required to pass in all the courses for which they are registered before they can proceed to the second academic year.

The entire Master’s degree programme shall be equivalent to a minimum of 16 taught units.

Examination results for taught units shall be processed through the School Board of Examiners concerned and presented directly to the University Board of Examiners.

Supplementary examination, if any shall be governed by School. regulations approved by Senate.

Examination results for theses will be processed and presented to Senate by the Graduate School.

Conduct of Studies and Supervision

A candidate registered in accordance with these regulations shall be required to pursue the programme of study under instruction or supervision of academic staff appointed in that capacity by the Senate on the recommendation of the School Board concerned.

Recommendations on the appointment of supervisors shall be processed in the first instance through the relevant Department and School. The recommendations shall then be forwarded to the Graduate School for scrutiny and onward transmission to the Senate.

Before recommending the appointment of any supervisor, the Department concerned shall satisfy itself that the proposed supervisor, is competent in the subject area and field of research in which the candidate proposes to work.

At least two supervisors shall be appointed for each candidate. However, Senate may appoint additional and/or replacement of supervisors) if necessary.

Normally, one of the supervisors shall be appointed from among the academic staff of the Department concerned.

- On the recommendations of the relevant Department through the relevant School, Senate shall appoint one of the supervisors as the candidate’s main supervisor.

Where a Supervisor is appointed from outside the University, such a supervisor must show evidence of competence in the candidate’s area of study through publications or other work produced since obtaining the higher degree.

Candidates shall be required to consult their supervisor(s) at least once a month and to submit written reports at the end of every semester on the prescribed form KU/GS/ADM/1 on the progress of their studies through the supervisor(s) to the relevant Departmental PSC for onward transmission to the School Postgraduate Studies Committee and to the Graduate School.

It shall be the duty of the supervisors to direct and supervise the work of the student in so far as it relates to the programme of study. In particular, supervisors shall be required to:

• maintain regular and effective contact with assigned candidates
• submit individually or jointly, academic progress report through the relevant DPSC and SPCS to Graduate School on the progress of each candidate at the end of each semester.
• Certify at the end of every semester that the candidate has received supervision.
• Inform the Graduate School through the relevant DPSC and School PSC at once, if it is considered that a given candidate is unlikely to reach the standard required for the award of a Master’s degree.

Where the academic progress of a given candidate is unsatisfactory, such a candidate shall be given a written warning by the Dean of the School concerned to the effect that unless there are signs of improvement within three months, deregistration shall be effected. A recommendation for deregistration shall be made to the Senate through the School only after the above shall have been complied with.

Subject to approval of the relevant Deans and the Chairmen of the Departments, a candidate may take a course in another Department or even in another School as part of the requirement for his Master’s degree programme.

Result Slip

At the end of each semester, students shall be given result slips showing literal grades and cumulative Average Score (CAS) with the following letters:

• Pass – P, Academic Warning – AW, Incomplete – I, Withdrawal – W, Re-sit – R, Discontinuation – Disc, Audited – (AUD
• Academic Warning
• Academic warning shall be given to a student who fails one unit in any given semester.

Incomplete

Incomplete grades shall be assigned to a unit, which a student is unable to complete due to reasons acceptable to the Senate.

Further registration or class attendance shall not be a requirement to complete the unit.

Withdrawal from a Unit

A student can withdraw from a unit without any penalty within the first four weeks in the semester.

Failure to withdraw officially shall lead to a grade “E” at the end of the semester.

Grade “E” shall be awarded Zero (0) score and shall be included in calculating the Cumulative Average Score.

In special circumstances, a student may be allowed to withdraw from a course after the fourth week provided the reasons for such withdrawal are acceptable to the relevant Department and School.

Discontinuation

A candidate who fails in at least two units in any academic year shall be discontinued.

Auditing

A student may audit units with the permission of the lecturer in charge, the relevant Department and the Registrar (Academic)

Audit units shall be shown in the result slips as “AUD”.

Transcripts

A transcript will be issued free of charge by the Registrar (Academic) at the end of the degree programme only on a written request by the candidate.

Additional transcripts shall be issued at a fee.

A transcript may be issued to a student before completion of the programme on request at a fee.

Inter-University Transfer
Candidates applying for inter-university transfer within the same programme shall show that:

• They meet the entry requirements as stipulated in the relevant Kenyatta University Common Regulations for the Master’s degree programmes in all Schools.
• They have attended a residential Master’s degree programme at another institution recognized by the Senate as of comparable academic status, in which case a recommendation letter from the Registrar (Academic) of the institution attended will be necessary.
• They can obtain from three persons acceptable to the University, recommendations that they are qualified to pursue a relevant higher degree programme.
• After complying with conditions, (i) to (iii) above, the candidates shall be required to take a Special Entrance Examination and/or attend an interview in the relevant Department/School.
• The pass mark in the entrance examination shall be 50%.

Master’s Degree Classification.
- Master’s Degree shall not be classified
- Area of specialization shall be indicated in the degree certificate in parenthesis.

Regulations on Writing a Thesis
Regulations on writing a thesis are applicable to higher degree programmes of Kenyatta University which have a requirement for the submission of a thesis in partial fulfilment for the award of the degree. The regulations are supplementary to School regulations.

A thesis must be type-written or printed on a high quality A4 (210 x 297 mm) size paper. The type must be double spaced and on one side of the paper only. There shall be a 50 mm margin on the left hand side and 25 mm on the right hand side of the paper. Typing shall begin 40 mm from the top of the paper and may not go beyond 25 mm from the bottom of the page. Pages shall be numbered consecutively and the number shall appear in the centre of the upper margin of the page. Preliminary pages such as table of contents, list of tables and figures that proceed the first page of text shall be numbered using small Roman numbers. Where possible, pages bearing graphs, diagrams etc shall also be numbered. However, where such numbering spoils or detracts the presentation, the number may be omitted. Subsequent pages shall be numbered as if the un-numbered page carried a number.

The first page shall bear the title of the thesis in capital letters with the full name of the candidate below. The legend ‘A’ thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of (insert the name of the degree and the area of specialization) Kenyatta University shall appear in the middle of the page. The date of submission shall appear below in the form of month and year.

The second page must contain:

• A signed declaration by the candidate with the following statement; “This thesis is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other University”.
• A signed declaration by the University Supervisor and all other supervisors with the following statement when the thesis is submitted for examination: “We as University supervisors confirm that the work reported in this thesis was carried out by the candidate”.

The third page of the thesis (and pages following if necessary) shall contain:

• A table of contents with page numbers.
• An abstract of the thesis not exceeding two pages double spaced and not exceeding 500 words should follow beginning on a new page.
• Tables, text figures, diagrams and plates shall be numbered in separate sequence and should be cited by a number in the text. Each table, figure and plate shall have full caption. Figures and diagrams should in general be reproduced by photographic or similar means. There should be a 60 mm margin around all figures, diagrams and plates, and all lettering must be in stencil or its equivalent.

Literature must be cited by author and year of publication or by number in the text, and a list of references must appear at the end of the thesis. Schools and Institutes may vary in the way they cite Literature provided the citing is in accordance with accepted International Conventions.

The original thesis must be submitted and copies taken from the original for submission must be good quality photocopies. Typed carbon copies are not accepted.

After examination and making any necessary corrections, the thesis shall be bound in black for Master’s degree and maroon for Ph.D degree. The spine of the thesis shall be embossed in gold with the initials and surname of the candidate, the degree for which it has been submitted and the year. This shall read from left to right when the title page is uppermost. The title of the thesis and the initials and the name of the candidate, Kenyatta University and year, shall also appear in capital letters on the front cover.

All four copies submitted to the Dean, Graduate school through the Chairman of Department and Dean of relevant School shall remain the property of the University and shall be distributed to the relevant School, Department, Library and Graduate School.

Submission and Examination of a Thesis
At least three months before a thesis is submitted a candidate shall give notice of the intention using the prescribed form KU/GS/ADM/2 to the Dean, Graduate School submitting at the same time, the title and an abstract (not longer than 2 pages and double spaced) of the work outlining the general scope of the work.

Every thesis shall be submitted in quadrouplicate, and must be accompanied by a declaration by the candidate confirming that the thesis has not been submitted for a degree in any other University, and that the contents of the thesis are the original work of the candidate.

A thesis submitted for the degree must be adequate in form and content. It must also include a list of references cited in the thesis whether published or otherwise and it must also conform to the format for a thesis of Kenyatta University.

The Senate shall, on the recommendations of the Board of the Graduate School appoint in respect of each candidate presenting a thesis a Board of Examiners consisting of:

• Dean of the Faculty as Chairman (or any other person appointed by Senate as the need may arise)
• An external examiner
• Two internal examiners, one of whom must not have supervised the candidate
• Two other competent persons who must not be from the candidate’s Department
• A Senate representative who is not a member of the School to which the candidate belongs.

The external examiners and each of the internal examiners shall be required to submit within five weeks an independent written assessment of the thesis to the Dean, Graduate School indicating:

• the strengths and weaknesses of each chapter
• whether or not the thesis is adequate in form and content
• whether or not the thesis reflects an adequate understanding of the subject, and in consequence
• whether or not the degree should be awarded.

As soon as all the examiners reports are received, the Dean Graduate school shall convene a meeting of the Board of examines at which the reports and other academic matters arising from the thesis shall be considered, and a report made on the prescribed form KU/GS/ADM/3 and appropriate recommendation thereon prepared for submission to Senate through the Graduate School.

Where the recommendation of the Board of Examiners is unanimous for or against the award of the degree, and where such unanimous recommendation is consistent in all respects with the reports of the external examiner and internal examiners, and the results of the oral examination, the Dean of the Graduate School shall forward such recommendations to the Vice-Chancellor for approval on behalf of the Senate.

Where the recommendation of the Board of Examiners is not unanimous, or where in the opinion of the Dean of the Graduate School the recommendation is not consistent in material respect with the matters referred to in regulation (vii) it shall be referred to the Graduate School Board meeting for an appropriate recommendation to the Senate.

The Senate may, on the advice of the Board of Examiners and the Graduate School invite a candidate to re-submit a thesis in a revised form. A thesis may be presented for re-examination only once.

A candidate whose thesis is referred to under this regulation shall be required to re-submit the thesis within twelve months.

Subject to Senate’s approval and only under the most exceptional circumstances, the degree may be awarded to a candidate without being orally examined.

A thesis accepted by the University and subsequently published in part or in whole and in whatever form, shall bear the inscription, “work forming part of the requirements for the degree of Master of Kenyatta University”.