Postgraduate Research Student Issues (Jan 2014)

Dear students...

Firstly, Happy New Year to all. Hope the new year will bring happiness and success to all of us. As part of our continuous effort to closely monitor the progress of our research students, we would like to highlight a few important issues that require your attention:

a) Defence Research Proposal (DRP)

Due to unforeseen circumstances and tight activities at the faculty for the Bachelor Degree Programme, our next DRP has to be rescheduled to 29 January 2014 (Wednesday). For those students who are going for the next DRP, please be alert on my further communication with you regarding DRP.

b) PhD Students in Semester 10 (Full Time) and Semester 12 (Part Time) 

For those PhD students who wish to appeal for Extension of Study (Rayuan Melanjutkan Tempoh Pengajian), kindly do so in semester 10 and semester 12, i.e. for Full Time and Part Time students respectively. Please be aware that you might face some technical difficulties and your application for extension is not guaranteed if you apply in semester 11 (Full time) and semester 13 (Part time). Please also be advised that you are only allowed to appeal ONCE throughout the duration of your study.  

For information, our next Faculty Postgraduate Academic Sub-Committee (Jawatankuasa Kecil Pascasiswazah) meeting is scheduled on Tuesday, 28 January 2014. Thus, please submit the required documentation to us latest by Wednesday, 22 January 2014 for our further action. For Master by Research students, kindly contact me directly for further advise on the issue of Appeal for Extension of Study.

c) Intention to Submit Thesis Form

For students whose thesis have been endorsed by your supervisors deemed to be 95% completed and wish to give notice of intention to submit the thesis to IPSis, please ensure that  you provide a copy of your 'Intention to Submit Thesis Form' to my office in order for me to do the follow up with IPSis. 

d) Students Waiting for VIVA-VOCE

Please also be aware that when you have submitted your intention to submit, the responsibility actually falls on IPSis to handle. The Faculty however will still assist the students to ensure the students graduate on time. In isolated cases, student must aware that there were cases where students have to wait longer then expected. The delay is beyond the faculty's control, but we always seek IPSis favour to assist.

e) Students Undergoing Thesis Correction

For this category of students, kindly observe and adhere to the submission of thesis correction deadline. You are reminded to submit your correction to the internal examiners at least 2 months before the thesis correction deadline. Failing which, the examiner will not have an ample time to review your list of corrections. Please be noted that any late submission might risk the student to be terminated from the research program.

f) Visiting Professors Visit

Our faculty has been arranging several official visits by our Visiting Professors from overseas in the area of accounting. Recently, we had Dr Philip Sinnadurai from Australia who was with us from 6-15 January 2014. I really hope that all of you can make full use of the Visiting Professors' presence as the faculty has spent substantial amount of money to bring them to the faculty for the benefit of the students. Next in the row are Prof. Dr. Malcolm Smith who will be coming in April 2014 and Prof. Dr. Sakthi Mahenthiran in June 2014. The actual dates will be informed accordingly.

g) Research Talks/Workshops

I would like to express my gratitude to the all the students who have attended the workshops that we have line-up for you. Honestly, I am very impressed by the commitment shown by some hardworking and well-disciplined postgraduate research students and I am sure that these students will make a good progress because they work really hard. As to ensure the handling of workshops always get our priority, please be advised that with immediate effect, PM Dr Azmi Abdul Hamid (our KPPS) will be helping me in handling the workshops for Postgraduate Department. It is therefore much appreciated if you can kindly liase with him for any matters related to the workshops in future.

h) Working Closely with Supervisors

In principal, all students are expected to work closely with your main and co-supervisors. As a reminder, for those in semester 1 and 2, you must be in contact with the supervisors at least once a week and for those in writing stage, you must submit your draft chapters and discuss with your supervisors at least once a month. Please take note of the dates of your meeting with them as you will need to report this in your Progress Report Evaluation Form. We are monitoring on this matter very closely. If any of you have any problem to see your supervisors, please let us know for assistance.

Happy working and all the best!

Best regards,

Dr. Suhaily Hasnan

Coordinator (Research)

Postgraduate Department 

Faculty of Accountancy

(Office No: 03-55438483)