Guidelines for MS Thesis

Indicative word limit for thesis: 12000-16000 (excluding front matter and appendices)
Title: 14pt, Times New Roman, bold.
Main body: 12pt, Times New Roman, 1.5 line spacing, justified on both sides. Color: black
Heading 1: 12 pt, bold, ALL CAPS.
Heading 2: 12pt, bold, sentence case.
Heading 3: 12 pt, italic.
Margins: left 1.25 inch (recommended for binding); right, top, and bottom: 1 inch
1.
Front Matter
Words Limit
6-22
Approved title
Preliminary pages (plagiarism free certificate, originality certificate,
supervisors approval of work certificate etc.)
Abstract
Table of contents
List of tables
List of figures
List of illustrations or abbreviations
Acknowledgement
Dedication
800-1000
2.
Introduction
Background of the study
Gaps
Research question (s)
Research objective (s)
Significant of the Study (both empirical and theoretical contributions)
Proposed thesis structure
3500-4500
3.
Literature review
Concepts & definitions
Theoretical reflections
Critical analysis of the literature
Identify literature gap(s) pertaining to the topic under study
Substantiating evidences from the literature
1000-1500
4.
Proposed theoretical/conceptual framework
Research Framework (with full justification and theoretical foundation)
Proposed research model (with diagram)
Hypotheses (if a deductive approach is adopted)
1700-2000
5.
Proposed Research Methodology
Research design (e.g. survey, case study, experiment etc.)
Sample design
Population frame
Sample selection (with full justifications)
Instrument development/selection
Variables and their measures (questionnaires or interview guides)

 Treatment of scales
Proposed data collection procedures (self-completion questionnaire etc.)
Level of analysis
Proposed data analysis techniques (with full justifications)
Data Screening (missing values, outliers, and normality)
Reliability and validity
Hypothesis testing (e.g. regression and correlation)
For qualitative data content analysis, thematic analysis etc.
Software
SPSS, SAS, AMOS, STATA, Eviews etc. for quantitative analysis
NVIVO for qualitative analysis etc.
1500-2000
6.
Empirical Results
Relate results to previous research
3500-4000
7.
Discussion, Conclusion, Implications, Limitations and future research
directions
8.
Reference list** (APA for in-text citations, tables, figures, and
references)
9. Appendices
9.1 Questionnaire(s) or interview guides
* Please be careful, while selecting research articles. Articles must be recent (i.e. from the last 510 year publication) selected from the highly respected journals. Avoid WebPages, and
Wikipedia, etc.
** Citations should be cross referenced.
*** Page Numbering
Preliminary pages:

Must be numbered in lower case Roman numerals (ii, iii, iv, etc.)
The title page is "i" but this number must not appear on the page
Numbering begins at "ii" on the first page of the abstract

Body of thesis:

Must be numbered in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.)

The first page of the text is "1"
Subsequent pages are numbered continuously throughout, including pages with tables
and figures, bibliographies, appendices, and index

Whole thesis:

Every page except the title page must have a number on it

There must be no blank pages in the thesis.
Page number sequence and completeness will be checked at final submission

**** Tables, Figures and Illustrations

Tables, figures and illustrations must be identified with the word "Table", "Figure", or other
appropriate descriptor, and include a title and/or caption.
Tables in Chapter 1: Table 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
Figures in Chapter 3: Figure 3.1, 3.2, 3.3

You can use color in tables, illustrations, and figures.

**** Title and preliminary pages
Title and all preliminary pages must follow the sample in Thesis Handbook