Research Project Allocation and Advisor Appointment for MSC students
The appropriate Department Chair (or nominee) will serve as the academic advisor for all newly admitted graduate students and will guide the students’ course selection in their first semester of study. Within one month of the first semester, full-time students will have an opportunity to select their preferred research projects and research advisors. For part-time students, this is normally completed in the second semester of study.
The College will instruct eligible students on the research project selection process and appropriate timelines. Generally, a new student should approach the faculty members of his/her department and specify the tentative thesis title, problem statement, desirable outcomes as well as the advisory team made up of KU faculty and industry experts (if appropriate).
Each student must submit his/her project selections by the specified deadline. In cases where a student does not make a selection, a project and main advisor will be allocated based on the recommendation of the student’s academic department.
The final allocation of a research project to each graduate student will be approved by the relevant Department Chair and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies of the College. Once the allocation is confirmed, the faculty member listed as the Main Advisor will take the leading role in guiding the student in course selection and supervising his/her research work until graduation. The following guidelines apply:
• The Main Advisor must be a faculty member from the student’s home department. An exception to this requirement may be made for multidisciplinary fields such as Robotics and programs that have cross-departmental support, such as MSc in Water and Environmental Engineering, or cross-College support, such as MSc in Computational Data Science.
• In addition to the Main Advisor, the student must have at least one Co-Advisor to provide support to the research supervision process and guidance of the student. The Co-Advisor does not necessarily have to be from the student’s home department.
• The Main Advisor and Co-Advisor must be full-time members of KU faculty with professorial rank appointments (Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor). Subject to approval, additional co-advisors may be selected from adjunct professors and on/off-campus experts from industry or academia.
The MEng degree program does not include a thesis component, thus MEng students are not required to participate in the research project allocation process and complete research milestones. The student’s academic advisor will be appointed by the Department Chair.
Students who are sponsored by organizations external to KU must have their sponsor’s approval before a research project can be allocated.