The standard duration of the Fellow Programme in Management (FPM), which is a doctoral-level program equivalent to a PhD, typically ranges from 3 to 5 years.  The Institute adopts the following program structure:

1. COURSE WORK

The Fellow Program Management at IIHMR offers three specialization as Hospital Management, Health Management and Health Information Technology Management. In partial requirement fulfillment of the Fellow Program, a minimum number of course credits are required to be earned as prescribed below. The courses are spread over three modules.

• Module I – Common Courses ( 12 credits)
• Module II – Stream Specific Courses (12 credits), Credit Seminar (3 credits)
• Module III – Credit Seminar (3 credits), Review Paper ( 3 credits)

Module I ( 12 credits)

Module II ( 12 credits)

Health  Management Stream 

Hospital Management Stream

Health Information Technology  Management Stream 

Module III  (6 credits)

2. Comprehensive Examination

Each research scholar will be required to undertake a comprehensive examination to get the degree on completion of the course work. All the credits specified above shall be earned within a maximum of three years from the date of admission to the Programme. Extension after the three years shall be approved by the Director for a period of one year with a review of progress every six months. Final approval shall be given by the Director of the Institution.

3. Pre-Registration Seminar

Each research scholar needs to register his/ her research proposal. The registration procedure is given below:

a. Pre-Registration Report: After selecting the topic, as a first step the scholar should submit a pre-synopsis report approved by the guide.

b. Pre-Registration Seminar: TTwo weeks after submission of pre-registration report, research scholar should give a seminar defending the work proposed before the research advisory committee (RAC) constituted by the Director.  The Report shall include the proposed title of the Thesis, are and framework of the proposed research objectives, scope of the study, hypothesis if any, and methodology to be followed. 

This stage is very important for screening the candidate for further progress in the Programme. In case the research scholar fails to defend his/her Thesis proposal successfully, he/she shall be allowed to resubmit the modified research proposal as suggested by the above-mentioned Committee. He/ she needs to give a fresh Seminar based on the modified research proposal and in case he or she fails to defend it in the second time, the research scholar shall be terminated from the Programme.

c. Application for Registration: A candidate must apply for formal registration within one month after successful completion of the pre-registration seminar. The application for registration to be made in a prescribed form and shall be accompanied by the following:

1.  Title and summary of the Thesis proposal approved by the Guide(s). 
2.  Date of Pre-Registration Seminar
3.  Effective Date of Registration. The registration shall be effective from the date of application for the registration

4. Ethical Clearance

All research activities carried out by the faculty and students of IIHMR are governed by the  ethical principles of health research as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines. The same applies to FPM scholars. 

Once the candidate registers their thesis title, within next two months they should apply to get ethical clearance/ data collection approval from FPM Student Review Board. The application to be made in a prescribed form and shall be accompanied by the following:

1. Title and summary of the Thesis proposal approved by the Guide(s). 
2. Effective Date of Registration. 
3. Consent Forms 
4. Tools
5. Supporting documents (if any)

The candidate shall give a presentation before the FPM Student Review Board. The committee may approve/ reject / suggest modifications related to ethical components of the study. Any suggestions from the committee, the necessary changes need to be included, and the proposal re-submitted for obtaining clearance. 

The candidate can only start collecting primary data after obtaining ethical clearance. 

5. Synopsis Submission

Every research scholar before submission of his/ her Thesis must give pre-Synopsis Seminar at the Institution. The procedure for the pre-Synopsis Seminar is as follows: 

a. Pre-Synopsis Report: The Report (not more than 40pages) shall include the focus and the summary of the Thesis, highlighting his/ her own contribution, details of the methodology, results, analysis, conclusions, limitations and scope for future research. 5 copies of the same to be submitted through the Guide(s). 

b. Pre-Synopsis Seminar:  Within 15 days of  submitting the report, the  candidate shall present before the Committee consisting of Director, Guide(s) and two Faculty experts in the relevant area of research to obtain approval. An outside expert, having expertise in research shall be included in the Committee.

c. The Committee shall judge the work regarding its acceptability and suggest modification or elaboration of the work, if necessary. After incorporating the suggested changes/ modifications to the satisfaction of the Committee, an abridged version of the same in about 15-70 pages shall be submitted as Synopsis for the purpose of sending it to prospective examiners. 

d. Five copies of the Synopsis with necessary modification incorporated shall be submitted within a period of one month from the date of the pre-Synopsis Seminar to the Institution with a Certificate by candidate and the Guide(s) stating:

1.  That there is a prima facie case for consideration of the Thesis.
2.  That the work does not include any work which has at any time previously been submitted for an award of Fellow in Management or other equivalent Degree.

e. Selection of Examiners:  On receipt of Synopsis, the Director shall draw up a list of 6 possible examiners of the Thesis in consultation with the Research Advisory Committee and Guide(s). The examiners shall be from outside Institution, one from India and one from abroad, having good academic and research standing in the field. Two examiners shall be selected by the Director from the list and the synopsis forwarded for the Examiner’s acceptance to review the Thesis. 

7. Thesis Submission

The thesis shall be submitted within a period of 6 months from the date of submission of the synopsis together with the clearance certificate provided by the supervisor. 

a. Pre-Requisites

1) Requirement for Teaching Assistantship - Each scholar is required to work with a faculty member as a ‘teaching assistant’ supporting the faculty in teaching which may include teaching. This can be opted in the second or third year as per the feasibility of the scholar and requirement of the faculty. 

2) Publication Requirement - It is mandatory for the FPM scholar to publish at least one paper in UGC/ Scopus indexed journals.

b. Pre-Thesis Seminar: Prior to submission of the FPM thesis, the FPM research scholar shall make a pre-FPM Thesis presentation before the Research Advisory Committee, which shall be open to all faculty members and other research scholars/students. The feedback and comments obtained from them may be suitably incorporated in the draft thesis in consultation with the guide. 

c. The Thesis shall be submitted in six type written/ printed copies and a soft copy with necessary Certificates and clearance within a period of 6 months from the date of submission of the Synopsis.

d. Each thesis will go through a Plagiarism Check that will be verified by the Institute Library before submission. The certificate of verification given by the library must be submitted along with the thesis at the time of thesis submission in the Examination Branch. The thesis must be submitted within 30 days from the date of plagiarism check. 

In case of issues related to Intellectual Property Rights, necessary patents shall be filed before disclosure in the seminar 

e. After receiving the Thesis, the same will be submitted to two examiners who had accepted to review the Thesis. 

f. Thesis Evaluation: The Thesis will be evaluated by the Examiners by critically reviewing  and evaluating  the quality and extent of the work of the candidate as embodied in the Thesis. A definite recommendation as to whether the Thesis is of a sufficient standard and suitable for the award of Fellow in Management will be submitted by the Examiners.

Acceptance/ Rejection of Thesis:  The Thesis shall be accepted if all the examiners make positive recommendations. If the examiner cannot make definite recommendation for the award of the “Fellow in Management”, He/ She shall indicate the required modification/ revision involving rewriting of chapters but not involving further research work or complete rewriting of the Thesis with an additional research work reinterpretation of data.

If recommendations for rejection or inconclusive recommendations are made by anyone of the examiner, Director shall refer the Thesis to another examiner or examiners(s) from the panel. If such a panel of examiner(s) rejects the Thesis, it shall stand rejected.

8. Viva Voce

The candidate should defend her/his work before the panel of experts constituted by the Director on the date scheduled by the Institute.  If the thesis needs any modification or changes as suggested by the panel, it should be incorporated and re-submitted. 

If the thesis is rejected by more than one panel member, the thesis stays rejected.

9. Award of Fellow

On successful completion of the viva and on the recommendations of the Institution’s Governing Board, the Institution shall award “Fellow in Management” to the research scholar. The title of the thesis with photo of the scholar shall be mentioned in the certificate of award.