ARBA MINCH UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

MASTERS THESIS GUIDELINE

June 2016
Arba Minch
1. BACKGROUND TO THE GUIDELINE
Arba Minch University has gone through long historical changes to acquire its present
status. Formerly, it was established as Arba Minch Water Technology Institute (AWTI) in
1986 with an objective of addressing water related issues of the country. After its 18 years
of continuous growth, Arba Minch Water Technology Institute was upgraded to Arba
Minch University in June 2004. Currently, the university has one Institute, five Colleges
and four schools located in six different campuses.
School of Graduate Studies (SGS) was established in 2002/03 with two MSc programs:
Hydraulics & Hydropower Engineering and Irrigation Engineering. Additional programs
such as Hydrology & Water Resources Management and Meteorology Science were
opened in 2004/05. Later on, other graduate programs including Electrical Power
Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Water Supply and Environmental Engineering
etc were introduced in Institute of Technology. As the school expands, programs are also
launched in other colleges. Currently, the SGS provides educational service in all the
colleges and the institute with 46 programs and more than 1800 PG students enrolled in
regular, summer, weekend and evening modalities. The school runs two PhD programs
namely Irrigation and Drainage Engineering in the Institute of Technology and
Operation Research in the College of Natural Science.
With its existing programs and the ones to emerge in years to come, SGS is working
towards the achievement of its vision. As its vision, the school aspires to be a leading
graduate school in the country with regard to the production of well-qualified manpower
and conduction of community-oriented problem solving researches.
In order that the SGS successfully realize its vision, the academic provisions of the
school should equip the students of the school with necessary theoretical understandings
and relevant and practical research skills. The provisions need to enable the students to
integrate their academic learning with research undertakings. To do this, after doing
course works, students in all graduate programs, except in which they are not required,
are mandated to carry out a scientific research (thesis) to fulfill Master‟s degree vii
requirements in their field of specialization. Regarding the importance of
thesis/dissertation work, Article 132 (1) of AMU senate legislation makes clear that a
thesis project gives an opportunity to individual students to make an effort in academic
pursuits to identify and analyze problems with the application of relevant research
methodology.
 The production of quality and relevant thesis demands the existence of supportive
guideline that directs the various activities of the research work. Towards this end, Article
132 (3) of AMU senate legislation requires the Research and Development Committee
(RDC) of the university to issue detailed thesis formats and guidelines that standardize
and direct the conduction, supervision and evaluation of theses across all
colleges/institute graduate programs hosted by SGS. In light of this, the SGS took an
initiative to prepare this guideline with a purpose of providing a standardized guidance to
students across all graduate programs of the university in order that they develop sound
proposals, undertake scientific research and produce up to the standard research report.
More specifically, the guideline has the following objectives:
 To offer standard guideline that creates uniform working procedures for proposal
development and for thesis writing across all graduate programs of the university.
 To ease the process of supervising, reviewing, assessing and approving the proposal
and research report.
 To provide quick reference to department heads, graduate program coordinators and
relevant bodies/institutions involved in thesis activities.
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2. THE MASTER THESISPROPOSAL
2.1. Eligibility
A graduate student who has successfully completed the course work required by the
program and registered for thesis work is eligible for perusing his/her research.
2.2. Topic selection and approval
At the onset of the thesis work is the selection of researchable, relevant and feasible
research topic. The general potential sources of research topics could be the research
thematic areas of the university and the country‟s development needs. Contact the
research directorate office for the research thematic areas of the university.
Specifically, graduate thesis topics can be initiated by:
(i) Potential advisors who are engaged in research and project studies. Respective
departments which are running graduate programs shall request potential advisors
at the end of second or third semester to submit potential thesis topics on which
they are also working or interested to work. These titles shall be posted to invite
interested students to consult the respective potential advisors. After consultation
with advisors, students shall submit the titles of their interest to the department.
(ii) Graduate student: A student who has developed an interest in specific area may
consult an expert staff in the area and formulate researchable title to be submitted
to the department.
(iii) Funding organization: When funding organizations, research institutions etc. are
interested to recruit graduate students to do their thesis on specific problems in
which the organizations/institutions are working, the Department Graduate
Committee (DGC) shall select the graduate students based on the term of
reference (objectives) set by these institutions or other relevant criteria set by the
department.
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2.3. Advisors assignment
Assignment and approval of advisors shall be made by DGC.
(i) Assignment of advisors shall take into account the expertise and research
experiences of the instructors to be assigned.
(ii) Under normal circumstances, advisors shall be assigned from the university. In
areas where there is shortage of staff, advisors can be assigned from outside
the university.
(iii) In addition to the principal advisor, there may be a co-advisor on condition
that the principal advisor has official commitments, is from outside the
university or the research area requires combined expertise.
(iv) While the principal advisor needs to have a minimum academic rank of
assistant professor or equivalent, the co-advisor must possess at least Master’s
degree and rich experience in the envisaged research area.
(v) It is the responsibility of the principal advisor to ensure that there is a smooth
communication between the candidate and the co-advisor during the course of
the thesis work.
(vi) Advisors shall sign contract of agreement before commencement of the
advisory duties (See Appendix 19 and 20).
(vii) The maximum number of students that an instructor can advise shall be five
for non-office holding staff and three for office holders unless otherwise
specially justified.
2.4. Funding
Access to research fund depends on modality of sponsorship, availability of other fund
sources and competition for the fund.
(i) Students from public Universities shall automatically obtain funds from the
Ministry of Education through the hosting university.
(ii) Students from other government and non-government organizations shall
obtain funds from their respective sponsoring organizations.
(iii) Self-sponsored students can seek for other fund sources. In this case, SGS
shall write support letters to students.
(iv) The university shall also provide limited funding opportunities on competitive
bases.
Students in categories (ii) and (iii) should enter an agreement with the SGS through their
sponsors or themselves for their sponsorship. The students need to pass through the
following steps. 3
(i) After receiving admission letter (Appendix 1) from SGS, they need to contact
their respective college/institute graduate program coordinator to collect the
contract agreement form (Appendices 19 & 20), to know the amount to pay,
and to fill the form in the presence of the coordinator.
(ii) Students of category (ii) above are required to take the form to their
organization and get the form signed by the head of their organization. The
agreement enforces each organization to pay the total study fee (including
research grant) of the student within a semester after the student has begun the
study. Once the total amount is paid by the sponsor, the students are required
to register each semester bearing the receipt of payment to graduate program
coordinator and the registrar office.
(iii) Students of category (iii) above need to sign the agreement form themselves to
pay the semester fee at the start of each semester. In making the fee, students
need to:
a. First, transfer the semester fee to university account (to be obtained from SGS) at
Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.
b. Then, take the bank invoice to the university finance to obtain the university
receipt.
c. Next, show the university receipt to institute/college graduate program coordinator
and collect registration slip.
 d. Lastly, take the signed slip, together with the university receipt, to the registrar
office to finalize the registration.
3. COMPONENTS OF THE THESIS PROPOSAL
The thesis proposal shall contain the following elements.
 Title
 Introduction
o Background
o Statement of problem
o Objectives
o Research questions and/or hypotheses
o Significance of the study/Benefits and Beneficiaries
o Delimitation/Scope
o Operational Definitions
 Literature review
 Research Design /Methods and Procedures/Materials and Methods/
 Ethical Consideration
 Work plan
 Financial Requirements
 References

Details of these components are provided hereby.

3.1. Title
Research proposal title should demarcate the main focus or theme of the proposed study.
It should be informative/descriptive yet discrete and contain the key words of the
proposal. In addition, it should be concise, simple and appealing. Preferably, it should not
exceed 20 words.
3.2. Introduction
The introduction should set the background to the study, give a clear and concise
statement of the problem including objectives and research questions of the study or the
hypothesis involved, significance of the study, definitions of the important terms, and
scope/delimitation of the study. These are described in the following subsections.
3.2.1. Background
This section has to provide background information starting from broader perspective of
the topic to be studied leading to the specific problem to be addressed. This part usually
integrates review of related literature to place the study within the larger context of the
scholarly literature. The purpose of this section is to lay the broad foundation for the
problem that leads to the study, to create reader interest in the topic, and to make the
reader feel the urgency of the problem and the need to study it.
In writing, it particularly:
 Starts from already known theoretical framework of the study topic.
 Review related literature to show gaps in the existing knowledge and practice so as to
provide justification for the current research.
 Concisely sets the aims of the research and show how it fills the identified gaps in the
literature and practice.
Please note that the background section gives you an opportunity to show that you have a
good knowledge of the body of literature, the wider context in which your research
belongs and that you have awareness of methodologies and related theories.
3.2.2. Statement of the problem
Nearly all research proposals are designed to respond to a particular problem. A problem
might be defined as the issue that exists in the literature, theory or practice that leads to a
need for the study. The problem statement
 Clearly and precisely describes the issue that initiated the researcher to conduct the
study on the topic.
 Should be presented within the context in which the problem is imbedded.
 Answers the question “What practical and theoretical gaps necessitated the study to be
conducted.” If a researcher is unable to answer this question clearly and accurately,
there is a problem of confusion and lack of proper understanding of the problem to be
addressed. This usually results in rejection of the proposal.
 Establishes the foundation for procedures to be followed in the proposal and will
avoid conceptual and methodological obstacles typically encountered during the
process of proposal development.

3.2.3. Objectives
The objective of the research should emerge from the statement of the problem and the
topic of the study. The main purpose of the research objective is to interlink the topic and
statement of the problem and to show the focus, direction and the ultimate goal of the
study.
Objectives should be simple (not complex), specific (not vague), stated in advance (not
after the research is done), and stated using “action verbs” that are specific enough to be
measured. 6
A thesis proposal may have general and specific objectives. General objective provides a
short statement of the scientific goal to be pursued by the research. It should be stated
correctly as per the topic. Specific objectives are directly drawn from the general
objective and be written in action oriented words such as to examine, to explore, to
evaluate, to innovate, to design, etc. Specific objectives should not be less than two and
more than five.
Please remember that your specific objectives are indicators against which the success of
your research will be judged.
3.2.4. Research questions and/or hypotheses
Research questions
The research questions emerge from the objectives of the study and always written in
question forms. Even if some research guidelines dictate that either the objectives
(general and specific) or the research questions (general and specific) should appear in a
proposal, graduate students of AMU are required to use objectives (general and specific)
and specific research questions together.
Hypotheses
These are statements that predict the relationship between two or more variables. These
statements are supposed to be proved/accepted or disproved/rejected at the end of the
study. They should originate from the objectives and usually serve as a substitute to the
research questions in quantitative studies. Hypotheses can be null and alternative.
 The null hypothesis (H0) represents a theory that has been put forward, either because
it is believed to be true or because it is to be used as a basis for argument, but has not
been proved.
 The alternative hypothesis (H1) is a statement of what a hypothesis test is set up to
establish. It is opposite of null hypothesis and only reached if H0 is rejected.
Make a clear and careful distinction between the dependent and independent variables
and be certain that they are clear to the reader.
3.2.5. Significance of the study/Benefits and Beneficiaries
It indicates how the proposed research will contribute to existing knowledge and practices
in the field of study.
When thinking about the significance of the study, keep in mind addressing the following
questions:
 What are the expected outputs of the study?
 Who are the potential beneficiaries?
 How the expected results enhance the work of practitioners, researchers, experts,
policy makers, etc.?
 How will results influence programs, methods, and/or interventions?
3.2.6. Delimitation/Scope
A research should be delimited to a specific area of study. Delimitation addresses how a
study is narrowed in scope in terms of time and space. This section specifies the context,
population, methodological procedures, and issues to be addressed.
3.2.7. Operational Definitions
When the researcher thinks that some of the key words are used in a special manner in the
context of the current study, he/she needs to provide a section with operational definitions
of terms. Similarly, when the researcher thinks that some terms in the study are unfamiliar
to the reader, he /she has to provide definitions of the key terms in a section named
definitions of the key terms .
3.3. Literature Review
The main aim of review of related literature at the proposal stage is to show how the
current study relates to previous studies and to highlight gaps in the existing body of
knowledge and practices. In principle, the literature review is guided by research
objectives/research questions. In a thesis proposal, the literature review is generally brief.
Only more relevant references should be selected and included with the aim of identifying
different methodologies used in the literature and making a selection of appropriate
methodological approach applicable to the current study.
Make sure to follow appropriate style of in-text citation and reference listing.
So in this section, the researcher may:
 compare and contrast different authors' views on issues related to the current study
and show own stand,
 group ideas of different authors who draw similar conclusions,
 make critical review of different components of previous research papers on the area,
 identify different methodologies used in the literature and make a selection of
appropriate methodological approach applicable to the current study,
 place the current study within the existing state of the art knowledge
It is important that you take special care to include sources which are very essential and
current publications.
It is important to note that your review should not be simply a description/summary of
what others have said, rather it should take the form of a critical discussion, showing
insight and an awareness of differing arguments, theories and approaches. It should be a
synthesis and analysis of the relevant published work, linked at all times to your own
purpose and rationale.
A good literature review, therefore, is critical of what has been written, identifies areas of
controversy, raises questions and identifies areas which need further research.
3.4. Research Methodology
This section might be named „Methods and Procedures‟, „Materials and Methods‟,
„Research Methodology‟ depending on the agreements in different fields. In this section,
the researcher needs to identify and provide detailed step-by-step description of the
methodology in the study so as to enable a reviewer or any other reader to clearly
understand it. Thus, the section describes the design opted for the study,
subjects/participants used to provide data, tools/methods used to gather data, and
procedures followed to collect and analyze data. Specifically, the section includes:
 Description of the study area
 Description of study design (historical, descriptive survey, experimental or quasi
experimental, mathematical modeling, etc.)
 Description of study participants/subjects
 Determination of sample size and selection process (sampling techniques)
 Methods (tools) of data collection
 Strategies of ensuring data quality
 Description of materials and procedure
 Description of your methods of data analysis, including reference to any specialized
statistical software and simulation models (e.g., ANOVA, MANCOVA, AQUAD,
SAS, SPSS, SYSTAT, STATA, EVIEW, etc)
In some studies as a part of the research design conceptual framework/theoretical
framework/analytical framework is included. It provides the structure/content for the
whole study.
Make sure that this section is written in the future tense at the proposal stage. 9
3.5. Ethical Consideration
Ethics of research here refers to the morals of investigation or intervention with regard to
minimal abuse or disregard of social and psychological wellbeing of persons, community
and/or animals participate in the research work.
Therefore, the researcher needs to include a statement of ethical consideration and needs
to obtain ethical clearance. Here, the benefits, and any harm to the study participants
should be clearly presented. The issue of confidentiality (keeping the information only for
intended purpose without using any personal identifiers) should be indicated. Any
research which involves experiment on human subjects needs national ethical clearance.
3.6. Work plan
In the work plan (Appendix 6), specific activities needed to achieve the objectives of the
research should be identified, listed in chronological order and assigned to defined time
periods for implementation. This is the general time schedule that indicates: when the
research starts and ends, whether there are particular stages in the research and which
activities are to be accomplished when. Therefore, work plan is used to guide, monitor
and evaluate progress of research activities.
3.7. Financial Requirements
This is the financial plan (Appendix 7) for implementation of the research. It should be
clear, realistic, reasonable and estimated based on real market price. Based on the
requirement, budget may be itemized under the following categories:
 equipment, stationery, materials,
 travel expenses (transport or fuel, perdiem, etc),
 research assistance (advisor, data collection, laborers etc),
 services (secretarial, photocopying, printing, and binding etc.), and
 Others (to be specified).
3.8. References
This section includes a list of works cited in the proposal. Some of the well-accepted and
standardized formats/styles of reference (APA, MLA, Harvard or VANCOUVER styles)
should be applied consistently. See the APA referencing style provided under section
3.3.1 of this guideline as a sample.

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4. TECHNICAL LAYOUTS OF THE THESIS PROPOSAL
To maintain uniformity among all research proposals, they have to comply with the
standard format provided under.
1) Paper specification
items guideline
Color Black and white
Size 21 cm x 29.7cm (A4)
Paper weight >80gm
Typing with Computer
Left margin 1.25 inch
Right margin 1 inch
Top margin 1 inch
Bottom margin 1 inch
Spacing (between lines) 1.5
Spacing (paragraph) 6pt before and after
Font size (text) 12
Font size (Heading 14,13,12 respectively.
1,2,3)
Font type Times New Roman
Font style Regular
Breaking a word on 2 Not allowed
lines
Correction with fluid Not allowed
Overwriting Not allowed
Printing quality Laser or better quality
Copying High quality photocopy
Binding Spiral