Tuesday, 26 March 2013 23:56
2 Comments
The National Council for Higher of
Education will only recognise PhDs that Kampala International University
recently awarded to its students, if the anomalies that were found in
the students’ dissertations are corrected.
NCHE Chairman Pen-Mogi Nyeko told
journalists yesterday that investigations into KIU’s PhDs revealed
anomalies that have to be corrected.
“NCHE engaged expert reviewers who read
the dissertations and made reports per candidate…,” said Prof Nyeko, who
is also Vice Chancellor of Gulu University.
Last November, KIU announced it would
award 42 PhDs, leading to questions about its capacity to produce the
PhDs, before NCHE suspended the awards. Prof Nyeko noted that although
KIU policy documents for the PhD programme were well written and
contained good procedures that could have produced quality PhD
graduates, this was not reflected in some of the students’ work.
“There were flaws in the admission
processes, low quality examination processes, recruitment of some
non-qualified supervisors and examiners, and non-adherence to the
four-year approved duration for completion of PhD programme,” Nyeko said
in a statement to the press.
Sixty six candidates will be affected by
the decision – 24 students who graduated in 2011 and 42 in 2012. Eight
of the students, however, are required to make minor corrections on
their dissertations, 36 require major revisions of about 6-12 months.
“The remaining 22 dissertations were
rejected generally for having serious conceptual, philosophical,
theoretical, methodological, and new knowledge deficiencies as well as
obvious instances of plagiarism that rendered them irredeemable,” said
Nyeko.
These students were advised to embark on the research process afresh.
NCHE will identify a team of independent
assessors in consultation with KIU to ensure that her recommendations
are adhered to. KIU will bear the cost of the exercise, Nyeko said.aamwesigwa@gmail.com