Kuwait University
College of Life Sciences

Information Science Department
ABET Accredited in General Computing

Rules & Regulations

The MSIT Non-Thesis option requires successful completion of comprehensive examination and a graduate-level capstone project. All MSIT students who choose Non-Thesis Option must pass the Comprehensive Examination after satisfactorily passing the core courses (1832500, 1832501, 1832502, 1832505, 1832592). The Comprehensive Examination is conducted each semester by the MSIT Program committee.

The Comprehensive Examination has a written exam and an oral exam. The written exam constitutes 60% and the oral exam constitutes 40% of the total grade. The written exam covers three domains which are the core courses of the MSIT Program. The three domains are as follows:

Course # Course Name
1832500 Introduction to Information Technology
1832501 Information Technology Infrastructures
1832502 Information Technology Management

The comprehensive examination committee consists of at least Three faculty members representing the three areas listed above. The comprehensive examination committee is appointed by the MSIT program committee. The comprehensive examination committee is responsible for conducting the written exam and the oral exam.

The structure of the comprehensive examination is as follows:

  • Each written exam consists of Subjective types of Questions. The written exam can include Objective types of Questions at the discretion of the examiner. It is preferred that Objective types of Questions do not exceed 40% of the total grade.
  • The syllabus for each written exam should cover the entire syllabus from the respective core course. The mode of the written exam may be OPEN book. However, the final decision is by the comprehensive examination committee.
  • The duration of each written exam is 40 minutes.
  • The duration of oral examination for each candidate is 20 minutes. Oral Exam is graded using the rubrics set by MSIT Comprehensive Committee.

The comprehensive examination committee conducts the exam and submits the result to the MSIT Program Director. The MSIT Program Director will then submit the grades to the college of graduate studies.

A student can appear for the comprehensive examination two times. A student who appears second time need not appear for all the exams. The student can choose to sit for the weak exams only. The grades of the previous exams will be retained for the second appearance. The grades in the second appearance is the maximum of first and second appearance for each exam.

The MSIT Comprehensive Examination will be held on the following dates:

Exam Type Date
Written Exam Monday of the 4th Week Every Semester
Oral Exam Tuesday of the 4th Week Every Semester

The place and Time of the MSIT Comprehensive exam will be announced through circulation.

The syllabus of the MSIT Comprehensive exam is as follows:

Exam Course # Course Name Syllabus
Exam I 1832500 Introduction to Information Technology All Chapters
Exam II 1832501 Information Technology Infrastructures All Chapters
Exam III 1832502 Information Technology Management All Chapters

The grading system of the comprehensive examination is as follows:

Exam Type Course # %
Written Exam I 1832500 20%
Written Exam II 1832501 20%
Written Exam III 1832502 20%
Oral Exam 1832500 + 1832500 + 1832500 40%

The overall passing grade is 70%