DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Philosophy of the Programme
The philosophy of the Doctor of Philosophy in Information Systems Programme is to develop
and disseminate knowledge in the Information Systems discipline; whilst at the same time
influencing Information Systems practitioners’ actions, understanding and policy direction
using cutting edge research. In pursuing this philosophy, SCI expects that doctoral candidates
shall develop as academic researchers by continuously developing research writing skills as
authors of scholarly papers by themselves or co-author with their supervisors for publication
in scientific journals and conference proceedings. In addition, the doctoral candidates shall be
expected to present findings from their research at various national and international
conferences. The School recognizes the dynamic nature and emerging trends in ICT
developments, the importance of individual, organizational, communities and societal
context, complexities that shall guide the PhD research agenda.

 Rationale
Over the recent past, there has been tremendous interest in the field of Information Systems,
driven by the market assimilation and institutionalization of IS locally, regionally and
globally.
The aim of reviewing the programme is to align the programme with the dynamic changes
and complexities in the Information System landscape, coupled with the national and regional
academic and research needs, as well as industry needs. The programme is also structured to
instill requisite Information Systems skills necessary for the realization of Vision 2030 and
the Sustainable Development Goals.
The review took into consideration the following factors among others: a) best practices b)
experiences learnt over the last 4 years, c) alignment to the School’s research strategy, d)
analysis of the current program, e) analysis of stakeholder’s feedback, f) alignment the
country and regional academic, research and development needs, g) benchmarking with other
international doctoral programmes and alignment with the discipline’s Joint task force on
Global Competency Model for Graduate Degree Programs in Information Systems
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The School of Computing & Informatics has established the following research groups that represent the broad areas of research:

• Distributed Systems
• Software Engineering
• Management Information Systems
• Artificial Intelligence

In addition to the areas stipulated above, other research areas shall be incorporated from time to time as recommended by the Institute of Computer Science Board and the Board of Postgraduate Studies and approved by Senate

A graduate of the Ph.D. programmes will, among others, be able to join research groups in Information Systems or Computer Science at universities or in industry, and teach information systems and/or computer science programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The objectives of the proposed programmes are therefore:

• to provide a progression path for graduates of our MSc. (Computer Science) and MSc. (Information Systems) programmes;
• to facilitate research at the Institute;
• to serve national and regional development needs with respect to staff development;
• to provide high quality training in computer science and information systems locally and internationally.

Contacts of support persons

dept-computing@uonbi.ac.ke