Khalifa University
Ph.D. Dissertation & Master's Thesis Formatting Guidelines
Official layout specifications, binding margins, and document formatting requirements.
Governing Body: Office of Graduate Studies (Abu Dhabi, AE)
1. Page Setup & Geometry
Page dimensions, binding margins, and print/digital alignments
2. Typography & Spacing Hierarchy
Font selections, heading styles, line spacing, and paragraph indentation
3. Technical & Archival Compliance
ETD ProQuest repository requirements, table spanning, and vector DPI rules
Table captions: above.
Figure captions: below. Colour photography minimum 300 DPI.
Right-aligned equation numbers (chapter.seq). Preserves native MathML and Word equation blocks.
Library ETD guideline: PDF/A-1b (Note: ScholarSpec formats submission-ready Word .docx documents; export to PDF/A upon final committee approval).
4. Preliminary Pages Checklist & Order
Strict graduate school ordering, title page numbering suppression, and Roman pagination
- 1Title PageMandatoryPagination:
suppressed countedRequirement: Must follow official KU format with institution logo, college, department, degree title, student name, and date of submission. - 2Signature Page / Examination Approval SheetMandatoryPagination:
suppressed countedRequirement: Contains formal approval signatures of Dissertation Defense Committee and Dean of Graduate Studies. - 3Declaration of AuthorshipMandatoryPagination:
roman visibleRequirement: Certifies that the dissertation is original work conducted at Khalifa University. - 4Generative AI DeclarationMandatoryPagination:
roman visibleRequirement: Mandatory statement disclosing any assistive AI tools utilized or affirming that no generative AI was used. - 5Copyright NoticeMandatoryPagination:
roman visible - 6AbstractMandatoryPagination:
roman visibleRequirement: Comprehensive summary not exceeding 350 words, accompanied by 5â7 keywords. - 7AcknowledgementsOptional / If ApplicablePagination:
roman visible - 8Table of ContentsMandatoryPagination:
roman visible - 9List of FiguresMandatoryPagination:
roman visible - 10List of TablesMandatoryPagination:
roman visible - 11Nomenclature and AcronymsOptional / If ApplicablePagination:
roman visible
6. Academic Integrity, Similarity & AI Policy
Plagiarism threshold, similarity checking software, and Generative AI disclosure rules
Khalifa University academic integrity policy treats undeclared AI use as plagiarism. An explicit declaration statement describing any GenAI assistance must be incorporated in the front matter.
8. Institutional & Departmental Policies
Khalifa University doctoral candidates must satisfy graduation publication milestones, requiring first-author peer-reviewed journal papers in Scopus/WoS Q1-ranked journals prior to scheduling the final dissertation defense.
While engineering/CS departments commonly use Overleaf/LaTeX, Word submissions must strictly follow the official KU 35mm left-binding margin and A4 double-spaced format.
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* Provisional ScholarSpec layout used where the cited handbook does not specify this value. Confirm with your thesis office before submission.
- A4 standard dimensions (210 x 297 mm). Left binding margin 35 mm, top, bottom, and right margins 25 mm. Double line spacing (2.0x). Times New Roman 12pt.
- Q1 journal publication requirements apply prior to PhD defense.
- Downgraded to partial 2026-10-13: the public official sources cited here state no paper size, margins, spacing or typeface (the formal guide is behind a login or set by faculty/school). Geometry is left null rather than guessed.