Admission Requirements

The requisite entry requirement into any of the department’s Ph.D. degree programmes is a Master of Science degree in a relevant biological field of specialization from ABU or other recognized universities with a minimum CGPA of 3.50.

Graduation Requirements

All the Ph.D. degree programmes of the department are by Research Project and Dissertation. However, a candidate’s Supervisory Committee may prescribe relevant courses for the candidate to audit, in areas that will improve and/or strengthen the candidate’s capacity to conduct a better research and produce a better dissertation. The expected duration of a Ph.D. programme is three years; two years of research and one year dissertation write-up and defense.

Examinations

Examinations in any of the Ph.D. programmes of the department are in three parts, namely:

a) Seminars: This consists of three seminars, namely:

i) Research Project Proposal Seminar (usually before commencement of research work)

ii) Research Project Progress Report Seminar (usually after the first year of research work), and

iii) Final Seminar (after completion of the research work and write-up of draft Ph.D. dissertation). All the three seminars are subject to assessment by a panel of internal examiners. Each Ph.D. candidate is required to attend and participate in at least 75% of all departmental seminars that hold during his/her period of studentship. Failure to achieve this may result in delays in presenting a student for the Oral Examination.

b) Oral examination (Viva voce): This will be conducted by a renowned scholar from another institution, approved by the University Senate. The examination shall be based mainly on the candidate’s PhD Dissertation as well as the general area of the research conducted by the student.