Abstract
The Postgraduate Tracking System (POSTRACKER) has an ambitious goal of providing the ultimate comprehensive students data management and monitoring system for postgraduate research students of an academic institution. The POSTRACKER is completely a unique invention and it is developed to track students’ progress towards graduation (e.g. data on registration, working title, supervisor(s), defence research proposal (DRP), progress to date, Viva-Voce, examiners, deadlines for correction (after Viva-voce), etc.) . This automated tracking system is believed to be effective in monitoring the postgraduate research students’ progress and in reducing the amount of time that students take to graduate. Such information made it possible to see if students are achieving their academic goals and administrator could see, as soon as possible, if a student is not progressing. The POSTRACKER is also useful in helping the postgraduate department to plan their educational activities every semester and improve data communication between administrator and the students. In this way, the progress of the students (both in terms of research outputs and educational activities) is frequently monitored and measures such as counseling will be taken if progress is lacking. Close tracking and monitoring of individual student using POSTRACKER is particularly useful for all postgraduate schools in public and private universities especially when all the universities in Malaysia are heading toward the 4-year Graduate on Time (GoT) Phd program.
Highlights
Monitoring research students is a complex task that requires advance innovative efforts (Ismail, Zainal Abiddin, Hassan & Ro’is, 2014). Wamala, Oonyu, and Ocaya (2011) studied the completion time of doctoral study at Makerere University, Uganda and found that the university has dismissed 69 out of 295 students because of poor performance and lack of progress since the commencement of the program
Tinto (2004) posited that increasing student retention and graduation is possible and recommended the implementation of a mechanism to monitor student progress and performance. Postgraduate students, those undergoing research programs, require an external monitoring mechanism that can guide them in their studies
The data gathered by the Faculty of Accountancy, Postgraduate Department, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), from 2002 to 2012 show that the faculty has faced continuing problems in monitoring the work of its research students (Ph.D. and Master by Research or MBR students)
Summary
Monitoring research students is a complex task that requires advance innovative efforts (Ismail, Zainal Abiddin, Hassan & Ro’is, 2014). Wamala, Oonyu, and Ocaya (2011) studied the completion time of doctoral study at Makerere University, Uganda and found that the university has dismissed 69 out of 295 students because of poor performance and lack of progress since the commencement of the program. Tinto (2004) posited that increasing student retention and graduation is possible and recommended the implementation of a mechanism to monitor student progress and performance Postgraduate students, those undergoing research programs, require an external monitoring mechanism that can guide them in their studies. The data gathered by the Faculty of Accountancy, Postgraduate Department, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), from 2002 to 2012 show that the faculty has faced continuing problems in monitoring the work of its research students (Ph.D. and Master by Research or MBR students) This problem has caused difficulties in achieving the targeted graduate on time (GOT). The system includes student registration data, research working titles, supervisor(s), DRPs, student progress to date, viva voce, examiners, and deadlines for correction (after viva voce) This automated tracking system is effective in monitoring the progress of postgraduate research students and reducing the amount of time that students require to graduate. 2015, Vol 3, No 1 recognized as an effective system and has received the Silver Award in the Research Invention and Innovation Design (RIID) Competition (UiTM Melaka, Malaysia) in December 2013
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