A PhD Student at CASE (with a PhD roll number assigned by UET Taxila) has to complete at least 18 Credit hours of PhD Course Work and 30 Credit hours of PhD Dissertation work. A Student must have at least one semester of full enrollment (at least two graduate courses) each year. Students are required to maintain a minimum CGPA of 3.00/4.00 in order to maintain PhD student status. Failing to maintain this CGPA may lead to dismissal from the program. The minimum time period for the PhD program is three years and the maximum is five years. The PhD program start date will be counted after the completion of 30 credit hours for students in the M.Sc. leading to PhD track.

Doctoral Qualifying Examination

A PhD Student at CASE is allowed to appear in the DQE (Part I) after being admitted into the Ph.D. Program, however DQE – II Exam can only be taken after completion of 18 credit hours of course work. The DQE (Part I & II) must be completed within two years time period, there will be maximum two chances allowed for each (DQE – Part I) as well as (DQE – Part II).

Proposal Defense

A Student is expected to submit a proposal for the research topic approval from the Research Committee within one year of passing the DQE. However, the maximum time limit of submitting a research topic and getting it approved from the Research Committee is three and a half years from the date of admission in PhD program.

Doctoral Candidate

A student will be admitted to candidacy once he/she has passed the DQE and defended his/her dissertation topic.

Publications / Seminars

The student is required to publish one paper in HEC approved Journal. In the process the students are encouraged to publish two international refereed conference papers & give 2-3 seminars at CASE related to their area of research.

Final Defense

The student must defend the dissertation work before the jury. There must be a minimum period of one year between the proposal defense and the final defense. The dissertation may be submitted within a minimum period of 3 years after enrolment in Ph.D. Program. This period shall be counted from the date of approval of PhD admission by the BPGS. The student must defend his/her work in front of a panel of examiners formulated as per the existing policy. The candidate will have two chances to defend the PhD Thesis. Failure in the second attempt will be considered final and the student will be dropped from the PhD Program. Students who are unable to complete their PhD degree can apply for the MPhil degree, if the course work and research work done by the student fulfills the minimum degree requirements of MPhil under HEC guidelines then the student may be awarded MPhil degree.