The course of the program is designed with three strategic motives:

i ) Enhancing theoretical understanding and research skill through coursework

ii) Preparing for independent studies

iii) Undertaking thesis work 

i) Enhancing theoretical understanding and research skill through coursework :

All  students registered to LBU PhD program  should compulsorily participate  in a total of 18 credit hours coursework covering areas of research in religious studies, Buddhist history, philosophies, literature, art, architecture,  and   research methodology. The classes on the research methodology shall be conducted according to the syllabus prepared for the Ph.D. degree by LBU. The classes of Ph.D. program at LBU will be  conducted online in modular system in three packages of 6 credit hours each. 

ii) preparing for independent studies:

PhD students  should proceed undertaking the defined steps before independent thesis work appear to the defense at  each of the steps before proceeding to the next. The steps include  preparation of research proposal, term paper, annotated bibliography, literature review and seminar paper. International students may be  facilitated for online defense except for the final thesis defense.

Research proposal

Upon completion of the coursework for Research Methodology, PhD student should complete research proposal following the research framework discussed in the coursework and in  prescribed format.   The proposal should be submitted  to  the office of the Dean of Buddhist Studies for defense. The proposal will be reviewed by the Dean’s office and checked by two external examiners and feedback/ suggestions will be provided as necessary by the Dean’s office. Based on the recommendation of the review and the external examination students may be asked to appear for proposal defense, or revise and  re-submit.  

Synthesis Paper:

Each Ph.D. candidate should submit a Synthesis Paper based on at least 5 different Ph.D. theses which should be related to his/her Ph.D. topic.

Term paper

Upon completion of the research methodology course, each PhD student  should submit a  term paper, focused  on theoretical  aspect of a research methodology of his/her choice. The term paper will be evaluated  by LBU’s internal examiner.

Annotated Bibliography

The candidate should briefly review and prepare annotated bibliography of 75 research works related to the proposal and to relevant areas of Buddhism, Buddhist philosophy; literature; culture and history.  The annotated bibliography should be submitted to the office of the Dean of the Faculty of Buddhist Studies.

Review of literature

Following successful submission of the annotated bibliography, the student will be registered as confirmed PhD candidate and a supervisor designated formally. The candidate will be asked to undertake in-depth reviews of the published works, journals, periodicals and other documentations related to his/her research area under the supervision of the designated supervisor.   Within two year of the registration, the theoretical and systematic review of preexisting literature related to the subject matter should be completed and the report of about 50 pages along with the approval recommendation of the supervisor should be submitted to the Dean’s Office. The review report will be evaluated by the expert assigned by the research committee. Based on the feedback/suggestions of the evaluator the candidate should revise his/her review of literature and submit it again to the Dean’s office.

Seminar Paper

Once the review of literature is concluded, the candidate should submit a research seminar paper written on his/her own research field or subject as per recommendation of the supervisor. On the basis of the review and evaluation of the paper by external examiner the candidate should finalize the paper and submit to  the Dean’s office.

 Thesis work:

Thesis should be prepared following the duly approved proposal under the designated supervisor. Upon final approval by the supervisor, a hard bound copy of the thesis along an electronic copy should be submitted to the Dean’s office. After the internal evaluation of the thesis,  the Dean’s office will recommend for final external examination and final vive voce defense for which the candidate should submit three hard bound copies of the  thesis  along with the recommendation of the supervisor  to the Dean’s office. After the final submission of the thesis the candidate should face a viva voce examination in person.