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Guidelines for PhD

The applicant must meet the following eligibility criteria specified for the program that he/she is applying for. General eligibility criteria for PhD programs is as follow:

Requirement Description
Academic Qualification 17.5/18 years of education (as applicable to the particular PG Programme) with Masters/MS/ MPhil/equivalent degree from an HEC-recognized university with a minimum CGPA of 3.00/4.00 (semester system) or 60% marks (only where CGPA is not given/available).The only exception to the 17.5/18 years education rule shall be a letter from the HEC authorizing a candidate with less than 17.5/18 years education in unambiguous terms for admission into a PhD programme.
Attestation HEC’s attestation on the candidate’s local degrees (on the back of the original degrees).
Equivalency HEC’s equivalency certificate for the candidate’s foreign degrees.
Aptitude Test NTS-GAT(Subject Test), or GRE(Subject Test), passed with minimum 60% marks, or BU Admission Test (70% passing marks). Result be submitted at the time of application.
Initial Research Proposal An initial research proposal (Maximum 2,000 words) to be evaluated by the Admission Committee.

PhD applicant must get in touch with relevant PhD faculty at Bahria University to discuss the initial research proposal and discuss their availability/consent to supervise him/her. Applicants can search and identify potential supervisors using Supervisor Search (link it to supervisor search page). Applicant shall bring a consent letter/email from the prospective supervisor mentioning willingness to supervise the prospective candidate in particular research domain/area. He / She shall also bring original academic documents along with photocopies when called for interview with admission committee.

Variety of scholarships are available for PhD scholars. BU offers full PhD scholarship involving tuition fee waiver and a handsome stipend of Rs. 30,000/- per month for bright PhD scholars so that they can focus completely on their research work and enhance their productivity. Further details of BU and external scholarship are available through our scholarship portal (Click here).

Your decision to enroll in for a PhD program is a big decision and it is very crucial to identify a research problem for which you are highly motivated and it excites you. Identifying the right supervisor is the foremost and the most critical step as this relationship will define the kind of guidance and support needed throughout your degree program and beyond.

  1. Thoroughly research your options on Bahria University’s Post Graduate Programs web as well as visit the concerned departmental websites. You can search for relevant supervisors Search supervisor and explore activities and research of variety of research groups (Go to the main menu for Research Groups).
  2. Publications and other research endeavors of a potential supervisor can be seen by clicking their names after searching the supervisor.
  3. Make contact with either the specific PhD faculty you are interested in working with to explore research opportunities in more depth.

This helps you to find a suitable supervisor whose expertise and research interests match with your interests and ambitions. It further tells you that whether that particular academic is available to take any further PhD scholars under his/her supervision as HEC enforces strict controls on how many research scholars a particular supervisor can supervise. Eventually, this process contributes to making your application successful if you meet other admission requirements.

Academic members of staff have a highly busy schedule and they often receive a lot of research queries all the time. Therefore, it is extremely important to explore supervisor’s interests thoroughly before you contact them.

Here are some tips for contacting PGP coordinators or academic staff to explore research opportunities:

  1. Take time over your email and make sure you highlight your strengths clearly.
  2. Make sure your English is as good as possible.
  3. Always customize/personalize your email for every individual academic. Sending same template/email to various academics in a mailing list (using emails in CC, BCC) will be considered as spam by majority of the academics and will not be answered.
  4. Academics in different areas will expect different things, but following information will be relevant to all:
    1. A brief summary of academic qualifications (MS/BS Degree titles along with CGPA)
    2. Total Years of Education (Must be 18 Years of Education for most PhD Programs))
    3. Whether you opted for Thesis option in your Master’s Program
    4. Research experience in terms of participation in any funded research projects, research publications etc.
    5. Research experience in terms of participation in any funded research projects, research publications etc.
    6. Research Proposal (less than 2000 Words). Research proposal is also mandatory for admission application.

This helps you to find a suitable supervisor whose expertise and research interests match with your interests and ambitions. It further tells you that whether that particular academic is available to take any further PhD scholars under his/her supervision as HEC enforces strict controls on how many research scholars a particular supervisor can supervise. Eventually, this process contributes to making your application successful if you meet other admission requirements.

A good research proposals must be both informative and persuasive, as this provides as pen picture of the candidate to the prospective supervisor. You need to clearly describe the topic, its aims and objectives, and its methodology. A prospective supervisor interested in working with you, may further refine the proposal in collaboration with the PhD scholar.

A good proposal should have the following basic elements, though their order and weighting can of course vary:

  1. A working title: Make this clear and descriptive.
  2. Some background and rationale.
    1. Explain the background and issues of your research.
    2. What are your aims and objectives?
    3. Explain why you have chosen them?
  3. Clear and defined research question (s)/research problem.
    1. Your question needs to be answerable within a set time frame
  4. A description of your theoretical framework and methodological approach.
  5. State of the art/Literature Review and a summary of existing work in the domain.
  6. Formally responsible for the monitoring of the progress of PG scholars throughout the academic program, to deal with any issues arising, whether academic or personal.
  7. A brief statement on your particular qualifications.
    1. Have your previous degrees given you the necessary knowledge of the field, discipline, and methodologies you require?
    2. What research training will you need to undertake?
  8. Reference.