Acada Info Chemistry Prog

A minimum of 12 credits of Thesis Research (297) is required. Students are permitted to register for more than 12 credits of M.S. Thesis Research as necessary and with the permission of the thesis advisor. The selected thesis advisor must be a fulltime program-affiliated Assistant, Associate or Full Professor at KAUST. This advisor can only become project-affiliated for the specific thesis project upon program level approval. Project-affiliation approval must be completed prior to commencing research.

M.S. Thesis Defense Requirements
An oral defense of the M.S. Thesis is required, although it may be waived by the Dean's Office under exceptional circumstances. A requirement of a public presentation and all other details are left to the discretion of the thesis committee.
A written thesis is required. It is advisable that the student submits a final copy of the thesis to the Thesis Committee Members at least two weeks prior to the defense date

The thesis defense committee, which must be approved by the dean, must consist of at least three members and typically includes no more than four members. At least two of the required members must be KAUST faculty. The chair plus one additional faculty member must be affiliated with the student’s program. This membership can be summarized as:

MEMBER	ROLE	PROGRAM STATUS
1	Chair	Within Program
2	Faculty	Within Program
3	Faculty or Approved Research Scientist	Outside Program
4	Additional Faculty	Inside or Outside KAUST

Notes:

Members 1-3 are required, member 4 is optional
Co-chairs may serve as member 2, 3, or 4, but may not be a research scientist
Members 2 and 3 must use primary affiliation only
Adjunct professors and professors emeriti may retain their roles on current committees, but may not serve as chair on any new committees
Professors of practice and research professors may serve as members 2, 3 or 4 depending upon their affiliation with the student’s program, they may also serve as co-chairs
Visiting professors may serve as member 4

View a list of faculty and their affiliations: HERE

Under exceptional circumstances where students are not able to complete a thesis after fulfilling all other M.Sc. requirements, a non-thesis (course only) option could be permitted with approval of the academic advisor and the program chair. The Chemistry program looks at this option as a last resort only in the occasions of extreme significance that effect students’ ability to complete their thesis.

Submitting the Thesis

The division recommends that the student submit the Thesis to the examining committee no later than two weeks prior to the defense. However, the committee chair sets the final requirement for the submission timeline.

Thesis Defense Date

The deadline to defend the Thesis is no later than two weeks before the last day of the semester. The student must set the date of the Thesis Defense in line with the committee member’s schedules. At the time the student submits the Thesis Committee Formation form, the defense has to be scheduled.

Booking a Venue of the Thesis Defense

It is the student’s responsibility to book a room and make the necessary IT arrangements for the Thesis Defense. Room booking is done thru the student portal under Service Request Management.

Thesis Defense Announcement

The student must submit to their GPC the title and abstract of his/her Thesis a week before defense date. The GPC will announce the Thesis defense to program members. The time and location of the defense must be included in the email. The student is required to check their program guides for further instructions related to their defense format.

An oral defense is required however the Dean can waive this requirement. The requirement of a public or private defense is left to the discretion of the committee.
As a general guideline the defense is expected to be a 45-minute presentation followed by 15 minutes of general Q&A then a closed-door Q&A session with the committee.

Thesis Defense Evaluation

A pass is achieved when the committee agrees with no more than one dissenting vote otherwise the student fails. The final approval must be submitted no more than three days after the defense.
After examination/defense, you will receive one of the following outcomes:

Pass: The student will be given one week to apply any corrections required by the committee members. During the following week, the student is required to upload the final draft of Thesis document to Blackboard for format check and to start the submission process
Fail: The student must notify the program GPC immediately of the committee decision. The student is required to submit MS Thesis Approval form within two days after the Thesis defense regardless of the outcome.

Thesis Submission

Once the post-examination corrections are made, the student must do the following:

Upload the final draft of the Thesis document to Turnitin through Blackboard under the course titled (“Year”_”Semester”_THES) available on the list of Courses: Quick View.
Inform your GPC when this has been done.
Submit the M.S. Thesis Final Approval form to GPC.
Submit the Copyright form available on KAUST Library website to GPC.

The GPC will check for format errors and plagiarism

A Turnitin Plagiarism report will be sent to the Thesis Supervisor to confirm the authenticity of the Thesis document. If citation corrections need to be made, the supervisor will let you know and you must re-upload the Thesis after corrections are made.
The GPC will inform the student of any format corrections required in accordance with KAUST Thesis and Dissertation Guidelines.
If there are no formatting or plagiarism errors, the GPC will submit the final draft of the Thesis, the M.S. Final Approval form, and the Copyright form to the Library Archive.
The library will send the tracking number of the Thesis document to GPC.
GPC will add the tracking number to the M.S. Thesis Final Approval form.
GPC will send the M.S. Thesis Final Approval form to officially notify the Registrar Office and confirm the completion of the M.S. Thesis degree requirements. A copy of the email will be sent to the student.
The registrar office will start the graduation and exit processes at this stage.

View Online Program Guide

Course List & Syllabi

Core Courses (12 credits)

Elective Courses (9 credits)

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PH.D. DEGREE REQUIREMENTS:

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OTHER KAUST DIVISIONS

KAUST ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

KAUST RESEARCH

KAUST

ChemS 320	Advanced Organic Chemistry I	3
ChemS 330	Advanced Inorganic Chemistry I	3
ChemS 340	Advanced Organic Chemistry II	3
ChemS 350	Advanced Inorganic Chemistry II	3
ChemS 360	Advanced Physical Chemistry I	3
ChemS 370	Advanced Physical Chemistry II	3

ChemS 210	Material Chemistry I	3
ChemS 212	Spectroscopy Analysis	3
ChemS 214	Nano-Catalysis	3
ChemS 215	Polymers and Polymerization Processes	3
ChemS 218	Photo and Electro Catalysis	3
ChemS 220	Organometallic Chemistry	3
ChemS 240	Supramolecular Chemistry	3
ChemS 250	Material Chemistry II	3
ChemS 301	Crystallography and Diffraction	3
ChemS 319	Bioinorganic Chemistry	3
ChemS 326	Biocatalysis	3