Kigali Independent University Guidelines for writing a dissertation (22nd December 2013)

Parts of the documents Part 1: OBLIGATIONS, PROCEDURES AND FORMAT Part 2: CONTENT OF THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL Part 3: DISSERTATION CONTENTS AND FORMAT Part 4: REFERENCING STYLE

Part 1: Obligations, Procedures And Format 1.3 Formatting and style

Part 2: Content of the Research proposal 1. Title of Research Project (Academic Research) 2. Background to the study 3. Problem statement 4. Purpose of the study 5. Research objectives 6. Research Questions 7. Hypothesis (optional)

Part 2: Content of the Research proposal 8. Scope of the study 9. Significance of the study 10. Methodology 11. Dissemination of research findings 12. Structure of the dissertation 13. Duration of the project

Part 3: Dissertation contents and format Preliminaries Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study Chapter 2: Literature Review Chapter 3: Research Methodology Chapter 4: Research Findings Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusion and recommendation References Appendices

3.1 Preliminaries Cover Title Page Declaration Approval page Dedication Acknowledgement Table of Contents List of Tables List of figures / Diagrams / Illustrations Abbreviations and Acronyms Operational Definition of Key Terms Abstract

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Problem statement 1.3 Purpose of the study 1.4 Research objectives 1.5 Research Questions 1.6 Hypothesis (optional) 1.7 Scope of the study 1.8 Significance of the study 1.9 Definitions of key terms 1.10 Structure of the dissertation

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Problem statement 1.3 Purpose of the study 1.4 Research objectives 1.5 Research Questions

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study 1.6 Hypothesis (optional) 1.7 Scope of the study 1.8 Significance of the study 1.9 Definitions of key terms 1.10 Structure of the dissertation

Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Theoretical Perspectives 2.3 Related case studies

Chapter 3: Research Methodology 3.1 Research Design 3.2 Study population 3.3 Sampling 3.4 Data Collection Methods and Tools 3.5 Validity and reliability tests 3.6 Data processing 3.7 Data analysis 3.8 Limitations/delimitations 3.9 Ethical considerations

Chapter 4: Research Findings Depends on your topic

Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusion and recommendation

Part 4: REFERENCING STYLE 4.1 References within the text 4.1.1 Paraphrasing 4.1.2 Quotes 4.2. List of References 4.2.1 Books (print and online) 4.2.2 Journal and newspaper articles 4.2.3 Web documents and sites 4.2.4 Other electronic media 4.2.5 Audiovisual and other media 4.2.6 Unpublished works 4.2.7 Proceedings and technical reports

Thank you! Dr Kasai Ndahiriwe