The Ph. D. in Subject is offered as full-time Ph. D. program for faculty development at Ziauddin University.

The Ph. D. program duration is 3-8 years (including extension with approval of statuary body). This will comprise coursework of a minimum of 18 credit hours in two semesters required to be completed in the first year. It will be followed by a comprehensive examination with the declaration of success notified as satisfactory/unsatisfactory result to decide for the endorsement of Ph. D. candidacy. After that, the Ph. D. research synopsis would be allowed for submission, followed by a period of 2-3 years onwards for original research work (30 credit hours) that leads to open thesis defense.

• If a candidate has GAT (General/ Subject) at the time of application, he/she will be exempted from the university entry test.

OR

• If the test is not available in the NTS subject list, then a university committee consisting of at least 3 Ph. D. faculty members in the subject area, approved by the HEC will conduct the ZU Subject GAT as per with GRE Subject Test and qualifying score for this will be 70%. The test carries both the subject-specific components (70%) along with English Language and Analytical/Logical Reasoning (30%).
• Applicants should ensure that a complete application/ document should be submitted online.
• Two academic references and a statement of research interest.
• Short listed candidates will be invited for interview with short research proposal presentation to the Ph. D. Admission Committee.

1. 1. Courses of 18 credit hours shall be completed during the first year (two semesters) of Ph.D. degree program.
   2. Course work of 18 credit hours includes core and electives and a semester shall not be more than 12 credit hours. The coursework will comprise of:
   3. i) Compulsory Core Courses:These will be based on 12 credit hours and will be offered during the semester. These are essential for all students.
   4. ii) Elective courses: Elective course will be chosen by the students related to their interest/specialty. This 06 credit hours elective course will be taken during the semester. Minimum of 75% attendance is mandatory for appearing in examinations.
The student shall be given two attempts for examination if his/her CGPA falls below 2.5 and will be dropped from the program if the CGPA falls below 2.5 after second time. After the declaration of the semester examination for the coursework, student will be eligible for the comprehensive examination. After the declaration of the result/completion of all the requirements for the course work, the PG office shall write the student to fulfill the administrative requirements for the written comprehensive exam within three weeks’ time. It may include fee clearance, exam request form submission, and the proposed date within the allowed duration of six months from the date of declaration of the result of the last course taken by the candidate. The outcomes may be Pass, with condition (to appear and pass the oral examination), Failure with retake and Failure.

• Every student will pursue his/her research at the constituent Colleges/ Institutes/ Hospitals /Services and Advanced research laboratory at Ziauddin University.
• D. candidate can submit his research proposal after completion of 18 credit hours of coursework with a Minimum 3.0 CGPA
• Separate Guidance and Examination Committee (GEC) would be constituted for each student separately. The Committee would consist of four to five members including the Executive Director Research, Director of Postgraduate (PG), potential Ph. D. supervisors and internal subject reviewers.
• Synopsis open defense will be conducted in University Journal Club in front of Guidance and Examination Committee (GEC).
• Director PG shall communicate the GEC decision and ERC approval (where applicable) to the candidate and the supervisor by an official email within one week after the proposal defense.
• Synopsis certification by Ethical Review Committee (ERC).
• Final synopsis endorsement by Board of Advanced Studies & Research (BASR).
• A Ph.D. student must have at least 01 original research papers published/accepted for publication before submission of final thesis, presented in at least HEC approved X category journals with impact factor in the relevant area as specified by GEC and endorsed by faculty / departmental RC.

• D. Candidate should submit the thesis in specified format to the office of Director PG with the proper approval of assigned supervisor(s) not later than 3 months after successful 3^rdProgress Evaluation.
• Thesis submission for evaluation by two foreign experts to the Examination Department with a check-list of required training documents (GAT result, Semester results, Comprehensive transcript, ERC certificate, BASR synopsis approval, a published article in HEC/ PMDC recognized W/X category journal).
• A plagiarism test report of the thesis is necessary and must be submitted along with the submission of thesis.
• The Board of Advanced Studies and Research shall appoint two international and two national examiners with scholarly background in relevant field.
• After approval of international reviewers, the thesis would be submitted to national examiners by the controller of examination for open thesis defense.
• Guidance and Examination committee (GEC) may comprise of the Executive Research Director research, Director postgraduate, Supervisor, two External examiner, one internal examiner.
• Final step is the BASR endorsement for the degree award.