All students participating in a Master of Science or Doctor of Philosophy degree program must complete a thesis or dissertation proposal for approval by the members of the student's steering committee. The major professor and each of the graduate steering committee members must approve the proposal using the Graduate School's proposal approval form. MS thesis proposals should generally be completed two semesters prior to defense of the thesis; PhD dissertation proposals must be completed to achieve candidacy (in concert or in parallel with the candidacy examination process). Each Department/Program may have requirements that exceed those specified broadly in this policy; however, they must be consistent with the Graduate School's requirements. Departmental requirements beyond the minimum stated here must be specified in writing and submitted to the Graduate School as well as listed in departmental web pages. It is the responsibility of the student to be aware of, and comply with, all Graduate School and Departmental dissertation proposal requirements.

The objectives of this examination are to confirm the student's breadth and depth of knowledge in their chosen field of study as well as the student's understanding of the scientific process. The doctoral candidacy examination should be administered upon completion of the majority of coursework, and successful completion of the test signifies readiness to undertake the research and dissertation component of the doctoral program. This examination must be taken within three years from the first date of matriculation, and at least one year prior to the dissertation defense.

Upon the recommendation of the appropriate Department Chairperson, the Associate Provost for Instruction and Office of the Graduate School appoints the doctoral candidacy examination committee consisting of the student's major professor, the student's steering committee and an additional faculty member from an appropriate area. Additionally, the Associate Provost for Instruction and Office of the Graduate School appoints a committee chair who is not from the department of the student's degree program. The role of the examination committee chair is to manage the examination, ensure its integrity and represent the interests of the faculty and student.

The examination must have both written and oral components, described below.

WRITTEN EXAMINATION

The purpose of the written test is to assess the readiness of the student to move beyond the coursework stage of the doctoral program, into the development of a substantial research project and dissertation. Traditionally, questioning should verify sufficient breadth and depth of knowledge to successfully undertake such research, and then communicate the results in a scholarly manner appropriate to the discipline.

To initiate the examination process, the examining committee shall convene at a planning meeting with the student. During the first part of the planning meeting, the committee determines the form and schedule for the process and establishes the date for the oral component (reported on form 6E). The student is then excused from the meeting and the committee develops and discusses the test content. There are three alternative forms for the written component, as follows:

• Form 1: Each member of the committee (excluding the chair) submits one distinct question, set of questions, or problem related to the objectives of the exam. The questions are discussed and agreed upon at the planning meeting. The major professor administers the written examination. Typically, each question or set of questions must be completed within a prescribed period of time, not to exceed approximately 8 hours each, with additional time permitted for reasonable breaks, meals, etc.. No more than one question or set of questions should be administered per 24 hours. Upon completion by the student, the examination questions are reviewed and graded by the committee members who prepared them. The committee then collectively reviews the entire examination.

• Form 2: The student prepares a written report on a Topic or problem assigned collectively by the examining committee as a whole. The Topic or problem must meet the objectives of the examination and its content cannot be directly related to the student's dissertation research topic. The student has approximately one month to develop a thorough understanding of the assigned Topic and prepare a written report. The report is reviewed by the committee members and committee chair.

• Form 3: The student prepares and defends a written proposal of future research likely to be carried out during their Ph.D. project. This research prospectus must be presented to the examining committee two weeks prior to the oral candidacy test and should include preliminary studies supporting the feasibility of the proposed research. The test will test the candidate's understanding of concepts directly related to his or her immediate area of research, knowledge of prior related research that has been conducted by others, their ability to design and interpret experiments in this area, and capacity to think and write independently and to present work plans orally in a clear and rational manner. The report is reviewed by the committee members and committee chair. Form 3 is available only to doctoral students in the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Resources Engineering.

At least 3 business days prior to the oral exam, the major professor shall confirm with the chair of the examining committee that the oral examination should proceed as scheduled. The written test is thus considered to be "provisionally successful." If the written examination component does not meet the standards established for the candidacy exam, the committee has two options.

1. If the deficiencies are relatively minor, or in the case of Form 1, limited to a minority of the written questions, the oral test may be postponed by the Office of the Graduate School at the recommendation of the chair of the test committee. The student may then be provided with an additional time period, the length of which should be determined by the full examination committee in consultation with the chair, to address deficiencies identified in the written examination. This time period should be no less than 8 hours (typically for Form 1), and may extend up to 5 business days for Forms 2 and 3. This action is treated as a suspension and extension of the written test "in progress," and, if ultimately successful, does not constitute a failure of the entire exam, nor count toward the limited number of attempts prescribed by Graduate School policy below.

2. If the deficiencies are severe, the major professor, in consultation with the examination committee may decide to fail the candidate without performing the oral component. This latter action does constitute a failure of the candidacy test in its entirety, and does count toward the limited number of attempts prescribed by Graduate School policy below.

ORAL EXAMINATION

The purpose of the oral examination is to further confirm the fitness of the student to apply the skills and knowledge acquired to date toward a successful and significant research project. The oral examination provides the opportunity for the student to demonstrate their ability to think synthetically and critically in a manner conveying their readiness to commence the dissertation project.

The oral component of the candidacy examination is typically scheduled for a period of approximately two hours, and is broken in to two distinct rounds of questioning. The first round, lasting approximately 60 minutes, consists of questions from each of the members of the examination committee, including the chair should they choose to contribute questions. Time should be shared equitably among the questioners, with interjections or interruptions by other questioners prohibited during the first round. The second round of questions may be more flexibly structured, with broader discussion and interchange among questioners is encouraged.

Any member of the faculty may be a silent observer for the oral component. The candidate may also invite a silent student observer to attend the oral examination. At the completion of the oral examination, the candidate and observers are excused from the room and the examination committee determines whether the student has successfully completed the oral component of the test and achieved the status of "doctoral candidate." The committee chair has the option to vote. Unanimous agreement is required to pass the student on the first attempt. If less than unanimous agreement is reached, the student is considered to have failed the first candidacy examination. A student who fails the first candidacy test may request a second exam, which must take place no more than one year from the date of the first examination. The second candidacy examination may, or may not include a new written component, at the discretion of the student's major professor and examination committee, in consultation with the examination chair. At the second exam, the student has passed if there is not more than one negative vote. A student who is determined to have failed the second candidacy examination is terminated from the doctoral program.

SCHEDULING THE CANDIDACY EXAM

To schedule a doctoral candidacy examination, the student should complete the following steps:

1. In consultation with your major professor, complete Form 6B for your Department Chairperson to review, sign, and forward to the Office of Instruction and Graduate Studies. Form 6B should be submitted according to the academic year deadlines for defense exams.

2. The Associate Provost for Instruction and Office of the Graduate School will assign a faculty member outside of your degree program to serve as chair of your examination committee. When you receive a copy of Form 6C which officially appoints your examination committee, you must consult with all members of your committee (major professor, steering committee, additional examiner, and defense chair) to arrange a mutually convenient date, time, and location for a planning meeting.

3. You must inform the Office of Instruction and Graduate Studies of the agreed upon date, time, and location for your planning meeting at least two weeks in advance of the date. This Office will confirm in Form 6D these arrangements with all concerned individuals.

4. At the planning meeting, your test chair and the committee complete Form 6E, the committee chair will sign it and return it to the Office of Instruction and Graduate Studies, which will distribute copies to you and the committee.

5. If you are using Form 1 of the examination, you and your major professor should arrange for a time and location to administer the questions.

6. The last step is to meet with your committee and complete the oral examination at the designated date. At the end of the oral examination, your committee will ask you and any observers to leave the room while it determines if you have satisfactorily completed the doctoral candidacy examination. You will be invited back to receive the decision of the committee which will also be reported on Form 6F and returned by the test chair to the Office of Instruction and Graduate Studies.

An test proctor will begin reading test instructions approximately 15 minutes before the test start time. Students must be in the test room with their test at this time. If taking the test on a laptop, it must be booted up and have passed the security check. Hand writers must not have a laptop with them in an test room, unless otherwise allowed according to the professor’s instructions. A student entering the test room after the proctor begins reading instructions will not receive additional time for booting up their laptop, passing the security check, and/or reading test instructions.

When instructed by the proctor, write your test number on the cover page of your exam, bluebooks, and any scratch paper you turn in as part of your exam. Handwritten test answers must be written in blue books in blue or black ink. Number the bluebooks you use (1 of 1, 1 of 2, 2 of 2, etc.). Proctors will allow time to read the professor’s instructions. Other than counting the number of pages of the exam, students are not permitted to turn the page of an test past the instructions page until the proctor instructs them to do so.

When taking a closed-book exam, no books, outlines, book bags, purses, or scratch paper (other than the scratch paper provided) may be at your seat during the exam. These items must be left outside of the test room or in the front or sides of the test room. Students may not begin to write anything, including on scratch paper, before the proctor begins a closed-book exam.

Students taking in-class exams are prohibited from having any electronic communication device, other than a laptop as allowed per the professor's instructions, during the exam. Cell phones and smart watches must be turned off during the test and placed in a bag or backpack. Violations of this rule may be considered an Honor Code violation. A clock in each test room will be the official timekeeper for the exam.

Non-alcoholic beverages are permitted in test rooms; however, the container must have a lid.

After the test instructions have been read and the test begins, the proctor will remain in the room. Any student who has a question or problem during an test should see the proctor.

Students may use the restroom or take a break during an exam. However, all test materials must be left in the test room and no additional time will be given. Students must sign in and out at the front of the room with the proctor.

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Calculate How Much Life Insurance You Need

A no-exam life insurance policy may not be able to provide the full coverage amount you need, especially if you’re looking to cover many working years or the years of raising a family.

Before you start getting life insurance quotes, calculate how much life insurance you need. A no-exam policy alone may not be able to provide sufficient coverage.

Assess Your Chances Before You Apply

Getting life insurance without a long application process is appealing, but don’t jump into a no-exam life insurance application without understanding your chances of getting approved. Many no-exam policies require very good or excellent health for approval. A denial goes on your insurance record and could hinder future applications.

Don’t be surprised if you end up doing a more traditional application process, including a life insurance medical exam if you’ve had some health issues.

Look Beyond the Cost

Of course you don’t want to overpay for life insurance, but research more than cost. There are coverage options that can be very valuable long after you buy the policy, such as the option to convert term life to permanent life insurance. Also, look at whether there’s an accelerated death benefit, which gives you access to money from your own death benefit if you become terminally ill.

Be Truthful On the Application

No matter what type of life insurance you’re applying for, be thorough and truthful on the application.

“Pay attention to each question carefully and be ready to respond with information around specific medical conditions you have. Giving more detailed information will help streamline the process as well as get a more accurate underwriting decision,” says Tavan of Legal & General America.

Intentional misrepresentations can lead to application denials or, worse, denial of a claim after you pass away. Life insurance companies have many ways to verify application information. Technology on the backend allows them to verify data from additional sources.

Have a Plan in Case of a Rejection

If the company rejects you for no-exam life insurance because of your health, don’t supply up your life insurance search. If you need life insurance, you likely have other routes.

• Be prepared to go through a more traditional underwriting process that involves a life insurance medical exam.
• Work with an experienced life insurance agent who can identify insurers known to be more friendly to your specific health conditions.
• An experienced life insurance agent can shop around your application anonymously so that you don’t risk another rejection.

Looking for traditional term life insurance? See Forbes Advisor’s ratings of the best term life insurance.

In this interview, the Head of Nigeria Office, West African Examinations Council, Mr Patrick Areghan, tells GRACE EDEMA about the strategies the examination body has put in place to curb malpractices

It is believed that with N2,000, one can get the West African Senior School Certificate Examination questions online an hour before the commencement of such an examination. How true is this?

You don’t just call a dog a bad name because you want to hang it. This is an organisation that has existed for 71 good years and it’s still standing strong, known for professionalism, integrity, and accountability. We don’t shirk our responsibility. In WAEC,  there’s nothing like leakage. It has never happened. What happens now is that we have some unscrupulous and unreliable supervisors who are ready to die for a mere pocket profit. When we supply them our question papers, one hour before the scheduled time, to enable them to transit between the collection point and the administration point, and we have released these materials to them, it’s out of our hands. However, there is a system we use to monitor their movement. We call it the Candidates Identity Verification, Attendance, Malpractice and Post Examinations Management System. When they collect (the question papers) at 8 am, we estimate about 30 minutes to transit, but what do they do? In the various schools, they will demobilise the system. They will tell you it’s not working. This is not true because that is what we use to take attendance. That’s what we use to record examination malpractice and know the details of the candidates but they will demobilise it.

WAEC has just more than 1,000 staff members. And we have about 21,222 secondary schools in the last exam. How do, let’s say 1,500 staff members, monitor 21,222 secondary schools? That’s not possible under the sun. So, we now rely on our ad hoc workers called supervisors. And these are people sent to us by the various states’ ministries of education.

We don’t have the right or power of our own to employ any teacher to serve as a supervisor or an invigilator. They have the credibility criteria that they follow. It doesn’t just end there. We sit down together; we screen them one by one and pick the supposedly good ones without blemish.

We organise training for them, which we call briefing and then we supply them letters of appointment and post them to schools that are different from their own schools. What happens? The Nigerian mentality is to go and make money. They won’t go into the test hall unless they collect money from candidates. When they get there, they pretend to be busy and bring out a copy of the question paper and take a photograph of it. They belong to different syndicate groups on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. These people advertise boldly that candidates should pay into so-and-so accounts and the students will now subscribe.

Luckily for us, we have got an in-built, in-house mechanism, which is a system we have put together to detect all those activities. We are able to track to identify who posted (the question paper), when it was posted, and where it was posted at the centre. Then we send police officers to go and arrest the candidates, supervisors, and invigilators. We have arrested them now. They are being tried in various states, but we want to report all of them to the Inspector General of Police so they can be centrally monitored.

What’s the implication of examination malpractice and carrying a certificate you didn’t work for around?

Having a certificate you didn’t work for is a sin because you are trying to cut corners. That’s not the way of God.  Second, it reduces self-esteem. You don’t even believe in yourself, in your ability to do anything again. Once you cheat, that self-esteem is gone. The third implication is the societal effect, which is, moral decadence. We are losing our societal value of working hard to achieve greatness. You want to achieve greatness through illegal means and it is affecting the moral and social fabric of society. Again, that’s corruption. It breeds cultism in universities; they are the quack doctors, engineers, teachers, and so on. You can see the multiplier effect.

But once that is discovered by us, you can lose your results. We can even withdraw or derecognise you. We can even withdraw recognition from the school. There’s a difference between derecognition and withdrawal of recognition. When we derecognise you, it means for the next two years, you are no longer recognised as a member of the committee of schools. You are ostracised. You have to pay a fine. Of course, we allow you to take the test because of the candidates but you will not get the results unless you pay the fine imposed on your school. Your teachers, and your school authorities, will not participate in the conduct of the examination. We will bring other people from other schools if you want the examination to be conducted in your school and this is with the support from the state Ministry of Education. But the requirement is that you can be taken to another school where the school is willing to accept you to write the exam. But when it is withdrawal of recognition, it means you have lost your number, the school is no longer in existence.

How can school owners tackle examination malpractice?

We now have what we call online collision. This means that somebody in Lagos State is writing the same thing as somebody in Ondo State because both of them are recruiting from the same source. Some good schools are not even aware that some of their candidates have been exposed to these things. But a good school should monitor its candidates and make sure they (the students) don’t go into the test halls with their smartphones.

It’s ridiculous when people are talking of expo. Expo will be flying all over the place when you are a subscriber. Schools should help WAEC to enforce the rules and make sure candidates don’t carry smartphones into the examination halls. The schools should make sure the examination halls are also conducive. In a conducive classroom, you can’t find anything written on the wall.

You see most of these so-called expos, whether out of mischief or crass ignorance, most of them are fake. 99.9 per cent of them are fake.

What can you say to the concerns of some stakeholders that WAEC should also conduct e-exams?

WAEC conducts 197 papers in eight weeks. Every candidate has 27 papers to write in eight weeks. How many CBT centres do we have in this country? Even if we have CBT centres, can you write essays online? We have objective questions, we have practical, we have oral, and we have essays. We examine four areas, some three. How many candidates can you bring into an urban centre for eight weeks? Assuming it’s even possible to write essays and practicals online, where are the facilities? Sometimes you have data on your phone, and you get to a certain place and it won’t work. We have a long, long, long way to go. Where is the electricity? Assuming the light is even stable, how many of them have a basic computer or laptop?

Going by the performance of candidates and the standard of WASSCE over the years, can students of today answer 1970 WASSCE questions?

WAEC exams have the same standard, whether in 1970 or 2023. That’s why when you say the standard of education is going down, I disagree because there is a difference between the standard of education and performance. If you say the performance of the candidates is dwindling, I fully agree. But as far as the standard of our examination is concerned, it is constant from time immemorial, today and till thy kingdom comes. Yes, in a way,  you can say the performance is going down generally because of poor facilities in schools, no availability of qualified teachers, lack of remuneration and motivation and what have you. Also, commitment from the teachers is not there. But the standard of education remains the same in all test bodies because the test syllabus is drawn from the national curriculum.

Comment on the dwindling aspect of students’ performance

The dwindling aspect is a by-product of the poor system of education we have. Ultimately, that would rub off on the quality of performance of the candidates. I do not totally agree with those people who belong to that school of thought. An examination is supposed to be derived from learning. It is the teaching that will determine the examination and the performance. The outcome is supposed to be measured by examination. Schools now wait to use the outcome to carry out their teaching activities. So, they will say ‘areas of concentration.’

How can the government and stakeholders move the educational sector forward?

Let’s focus on the 6-3-3-4 system. Let’s focus on the technical contents of our teaching. Let us make it work. Let’s equip our schools. Let’s recruit adequate and competent teachers. Provide teaching, learning, and laboratory facilities. Let there be libraries in schools. Let’s make sure the teachers teach by motivating them. Once you base the reward system on the number of students that passed, then teachers are led into doing the wrong thing. That’s why sometimes you see teachers organising for their candidates, writing on the chalkboard, dictating answers and all that because some states would say your promotion would be based on that. But when it’s genuinely done and they pass genuinely, yes you can reward them.

A Dhaka court today framed charges against 16 people, including Buet Prof Nikhil Ranjan Dhar, in a case filed over the question paper leak of bank recruitment examination in November 2021.

Nikhil Dhar and 15 others, now on bail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Tofazzal Hossain read out the charges to them.

Before that, the magistrate dismissed the petitions submitted for discharging Nikhil and others from the charges of the case.

The magistrate fixed August 26 for starting the trial of the case.

On January 31, Prof Nikhil was charged in the case even though Shamim Ahmed, a sub-inspector of the Detective Branch (DB) and the investigation officer, on November 16 last year submitted the charge sheet excluding Prof Nikhil as an accused.

Prof Nikhil was charged after a Dhaka court summoned IO Shamim to show cause why and how he relieved Prof Nikhil from the charges.

The case was filed with Badda Police Station under the Public Examinations (Offences) Act in November 2021.

Following the question leak in recruitment tests of five state-owned banks on November 6, 2021, the detectives have so far arrested 11 people.

Photos of the question papers with answers went viral on social media even before the test ended.

Initially, Bangladesh Bank ignored the question leak complaints and did not make any immediate enquiry.

Later, it cancelled the examination as several media outlets carried reports suggesting the question had been leaked.

The name of Prof Nikhil came up in accused Delowar Hossain's confessional statements during the investigation in the case filed with Badda Police Station under the Public Examinations (Offences) Act in November 2021.

A few days later, on November 21, 2021, Nikhil was relieved of the chairman post of Buet's industrial and production engineering department and exam-related duties.