UMT Hosts DBA Dissertation Defense Meeting (Hong Kong)

Congratulations to Dr. Bard-Lord Lam, Oral Defense passed!

Click here to view Dr. Lam's story

Bard-Lord have just passed his dissertation oral defense on 2nd Oct 2014 (Thursday) and completed his DBA at UMT.

His dissertation title is "The Bible cover designs: A study of personal preference in the Hong Kong market and its implications"

Please join us to congratulate Dr Lam and wish him every success in future!

Date: 2014 Oct 2
Time: 9:30pm - 10:30pm
Venue: Hong Kong

UMT Dissertation Defense Committee:
J. Davidson Frame (Chair of Defense Committee) in USA
Dr. Yanping Chen (UMT President) in USA
Dr. Raymond Cheng (DBA Faculty and Advisor) in Hong Kong


UMT doctoral aspirant Mr. Bard-Lord Lam and DBA dissertation committee conduct the dissertation defense through Skype. The oral defense includes the presentation of doctoral research, literature review, identifying variables and their relationship to each other, and summarizing the finding and analyiss in scholarly research.

Among the dissertation committee were Dr. Raymond Cheng, UMT President Dr. Yanping Chen and UMT Academic Dean, J. Davidson Frame.

Congratulations to Dr. Bard-Lord Lam on his excellent work and his successful dissertation defense! Also, many thanks to BL's mentor, Dr. Raymond Cheng, for his dedicated work. We really appreciate the support Dr. Cheng has given UMT doctoral students as well as the UMT DBA program.

A word of guidance for future DBA candidates: You will be given 20 minutes to deliver a presentation on your research effort. These days, students typically make Power Point presentations, although this is not a requirement. If you use Power Point, be careful not to include too many pages. Certainly, do not include a lot of textual commentary that you expect the audience to read. The best slides are those that contain a few bulleted items and slides that have data, charts, or other graphical material that are important to supplement your presentation. In structuring your presentation, follow a basic outline, such as:

1. Cover page of dissertation document, showing title and names of committee members
2. Table of contents of dissertation, showing different chapter headings
3. Key hypotheses and/or research questions addressed in the dissertation
4. Methodology employed in addressing hypotheses/research questions (keep it simple). Be sure to highlight areas that need to be strengthened (e.g., “In my study, the sample of managers I used was not drawn randomly, so the external validity of my findings may be limited.”)
5. Key results of research and research limitations
6. Conclusions
7. Areas for future research”

J. Davidson Frame,
PhD, PMP, PMI Fellow
Academic Dean, UMT
Director, Doctoral Program

Dissertation Committee
When students pass their comprehensive examination, they are assigned a Dissertation Committee. Similar to the Advisory Committee, this committee will comprise at least three faculty members with appropriate terminal degrees. Students may request substitutions or additions to this committee, which must be approved by the Academic Dean. Students work closely with their dissertation committee members through the remainder of their doctoral program.

Each student must nominate one member of the dissertation committee who resides in a location convenient for regular interaction in person. This individual must meet the requirements for becoming adjunct faculty at UMT and must possess a terminal degree in a relevant discipline from an appropriately accredited institution. Selection of a nominee is solely at the discretion of the UMT administration. UMT will provide compensation to the local faculty member directly: the student will not bear any additional financial burden for his/her services.

Special Topics in Research
The next major step toward the doctoral degree is for students to develop expertise in their chosen area of concentration. Students build a general reading list covering the major topics relevant to the concentration and an in-depth, specialized reading list relevant to their specific research interests.
The minimum requirement is six (6) credits for Mgt 420. Additional research may be undertaken with Mgt 498, which may be repeated. These hours count toward the total hours for dissertation research.

Dissertation Proposal
The critical work product of the Special Topics in Research component is a formal written proposal for dissertation research. This proposal must include a clear statement of the problem to be researched and a survey of the relevant literature. The proposal must specify the research methods, data collection, and data analysis techniques in detail. The methods to be employed must be appropriate, reliable, and appropriate for the measures taken.

Proposal Defense
The proposal for the dissertation research must be approved by the student’s Dissertation Committee before the student may commence work on the dissertation. The defense is an oral examination, limited to no more than three (3) hours. The student may be directed to rework portions of the proposal and repeat this examination. When approved by the committee, the student is promoted to the status of doctoral candidate and may proceed.

Dissertation Research
Students begin the final phase of their studies immediately after the successful oral defense of the proposal. Working closely with their committee, students conduct their research project and develop their dissertation, achieving the highest levels of scholarship. The dissertation must include original research that is focused either on expanding the methodological scope of the content area, developing new theories, or confirming theoretic models. Research methods that may be employed include field experiments, surveys, and case studies. The minimum requirement is nine (9) credits for Mgt 499. This course may be taken in 3 or 6 credit-hours increments and may be repeated, as necessary.

Dissertation
The dissertation is the final scholarly product of the program. This document must complete the proposed research study, presenting detailed results and analyses. The dissertation must present a careful synthesis and evaluation of the work done and the findings obtained. All claims must be warranted and limitations admitted. Suggestions for future research in the field that build on the instant research are required to demonstrate the fruitfulness of this research.

Dissertation Defense
An oral examination of the doctoral candidate will be conducted by the dissertation committee. This defense is limited to three (3) hours. The final document must be delivered to the committee at least 30 days prior to the scheduled defense. It is expected to be ready for publication in camera-ready or desktop publishing format. The candidate may be directed to rework portions of the dissertation and repeat this examination until it is approved by a majority of the dissertation committee.

Publication
After the dissertation is approved by the Dissertation Committee, the student must arrange two bound copies to be provided to the UMT library. UMT will work closely with students to gain publication of the main work in a scholarly or other journal or publication of a book, as appropriate. Students also may arrange publication at cost by UMT Press.

Assessment of Learning
Students in the doctoral program must demonstrate their ability to conduct appropriate research in the field and to interpret and apply the results of this research. Students must demonstrate their ability to evaluate, synthesize, and incorporate emerging relevant technologies and trends in theory and practice. Students must demonstrate the skills necessary to advance the body of knowledge and practice in the field.

Course-level assessments of learning are conducted by instructors following UMT’s standard guidelines. UMT expects 300-level courses to include at least one objective examination as a measure of learning of facts, terminology, and so forth. Assessments also are to include at least one, substantial written assessment. Written assessments are to present the original research of the student and to be prepared with professional care and attention to details, methods, and findings. Students must demonstrate higher cognitive abilities including, but not limited to, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. For courses with quantitative skill requirements, exercise sets are required, however, these may be integrated with objective assessments. Additional short written assignments may be used.

Additional assessments include the qualifying and comprehensive examinations, which must be passed to continue in the program and to advance to the dissertation research phase of the degree program, respectively. The final assessments are the oral defense of the written proposal and the final dissertation. The majority of the advisory/dissertation committee must approve the proposal and the dissertation for the student to be awarded the degree.