The rapid change in University education landscape as a result of COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a review of the research proposals and thesis examination approaches in order to keep up with the times and incorporate integrated technologies into the interaction between graduate students and the faculty. Virtual and blended methods have increasingly become important because they help to break down the traditional walls of evaluation in post graduate studies. The current technologies and other e-learning resources have made graduate evaluation flexible and friendly to the student and supervisors.
Currently, Kibabii University graduate regulations for examination of research proposals and theses provide for three forms of interactions; online, blended and face to face. This is an improvement from the traditional face to face which required participants to be physically present in the room where thesis defence was taking place. In doing this, quality assurance mechanisms have been put in place to avoid cases of plagiarism and other malpractices. This flexibility that came along as a measure of COVID-19 pandemic containment protocol have provided an opportunity for graduate students to complete their studies on time as supervision and examination barriers have been broken.
