{
  "id": "competency:phd",
  "code": "CDU-GEN-PHD-1000",
  "level": "PhD",
  "name": "PhD — Doctor of Philosophy (NQF 10)",
  "faculty": "Faculty of General Studies",
  "lineage": [
    {
      "institution": "Conquest Designer University",
      "year": 2026,
      "note": "authored for the January 2027 intake on the shared first-year spine; the house’s own executable programme, mapped against the framework for assessment — no prior institution and no registration is claimed"
    }
  ],
  "researchProject": "Original research: a Master's graduate carried to a defended thesis",
  "description": "A 360-credit NQF 10 doctorate by research. Admission requires a Master's degree — the progression rule is data in the one register's own room, and the Master's step resolves into the 27 existing NQF 9 rows. The milestone-planning unit executes today; the thesis and its defence are examined by people, never by a model.",
  "syllabus": [
    "Proposal and milestone plan (executable arithmetic today)",
    "The research years and the thesis — credit-bearing, examined by people",
    "The credit rule, the prerequisite graph and the completion arithmetic, proven by the one conformance gate"
  ],
  "reference": {
    "Credit rule": "one credit is ten notional hours (the framework lookup)",
    "Award size": "Doctoral Degree: 360 credits at NQF 10, per the one framework lookup",
    "Progression": "admits a Master's graduate with a passed research module; the Master's rows are the existing 27"
  },
  "role": "You are a first-year lecturer who shows every step. State the rule, substitute the numbers, name the units, and end with what the student should try next. You never claim the programme is registered or accredited; the mapping against the framework is published as a mapping.",
  "feeUsd": 1,
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "qualification": {
    "award": "PhD",
    "nqfLevel": 10,
    "qualificationType": "Doctoral Degree",
    "totalCredits": 360,
    "minCreditsAtExitLevel": 360,
    "iscedFields": [
      "001"
    ],
    "standards": [],
    "registration": "not registered"
  },
  "modules": [
    {
      "code": "D10-PRO1001",
      "title": "Proposal and milestone plan",
      "nqfLevel": 10,
      "credits": 60,
      "prerequisites": [],
      "coRequisites": [],
      "outcomes": [
        "plan the research against an honest milestone arithmetic"
      ],
      "assessment": {
        "formative": [
          "worked examples re-run against the published reference",
          "seeded practice scenarios, deterministic per (pan, unit, attempt)"
        ],
        "summative": "the milestone unit is the executable check; the proposal is read by people",
        "passMark": 50,
        "subminimum": 40,
        "moderation": "internally assessed by the unit itself — its reference implementation is the marker; the working is published so anyone can re-run the mark (D-13.1 — no model marks anything)"
      },
      "unitIds": [
        "phd_milestones"
      ],
      "notionalHours": 600
    },
    {
      "code": "D10-RES1011",
      "title": "Research years",
      "nqfLevel": 10,
      "credits": 180,
      "prerequisites": [
        "D10-PRO1001"
      ],
      "coRequisites": [],
      "outcomes": [
        "conduct the research programme (future years; examined by people)"
      ],
      "assessment": {
        "formative": [
          "worked examples re-run against the published reference",
          "seeded practice scenarios, deterministic per (pan, unit, attempt)"
        ],
        "summative": "annual progress review by people (future years — no executable unit, stated honestly)",
        "passMark": 50,
        "subminimum": 40,
        "moderation": "internally assessed by the unit itself — its reference implementation is the marker; the working is published so anyone can re-run the mark (D-13.1 — no model marks anything)"
      },
      "unitIds": [],
      "notionalHours": 1800
    },
    {
      "code": "D10-THE1021",
      "title": "Thesis and defence",
      "nqfLevel": 10,
      "credits": 120,
      "prerequisites": [
        "D10-RES1011"
      ],
      "coRequisites": [],
      "outcomes": [
        "the thesis, defended before human examiners"
      ],
      "assessment": {
        "formative": [
          "worked examples re-run against the published reference",
          "seeded practice scenarios, deterministic per (pan, unit, attempt)"
        ],
        "summative": "examination by people — a model never writes or marks a thesis",
        "passMark": 50,
        "subminimum": 40,
        "moderation": "internally assessed by the unit itself — its reference implementation is the marker; the working is published so anyone can re-run the mark (D-13.1 — no model marks anything)"
      },
      "unitIds": [],
      "notionalHours": 1200
    }
  ],
  "units": [
    {
      "id": "phd_milestones",
      "name": "Milestone plan — the research calendar",
      "answers": "The milestone dates of a doctorate from a start year and a duration, with the credit-to-hours arithmetic.",
      "reference": "Doctoral milestone arithmetic; one credit = ten notional hours (the framework lookup)",
      "example": {
        "startYear": 2027,
        "durationYears": 4,
        "totalCredits": 360
      },
      "signature": {
        "input": {
          "startYear": {
            "type": "number",
            "describe": "start year (whole)",
            "min": 2026,
            "max": 2100
          },
          "durationYears": {
            "type": "number",
            "describe": "planned duration (whole years, 2–8)",
            "min": 2,
            "max": 8
          },
          "totalCredits": {
            "type": "number",
            "describe": "credit size (whole, ≥ 120)",
            "min": 120,
            "max": 720
          }
        },
        "output": {
          "proposalYear": {
            "type": "number",
            "describe": "proposal defended"
          },
          "midpointYear": {
            "type": "number",
            "describe": "midpoint review"
          },
          "submissionYear": {
            "type": "number",
            "describe": "thesis submitted"
          },
          "notionalHours": {
            "type": "number",
            "describe": "credits × 10"
          },
          "hoursPerYear": {
            "type": "number",
            "describe": "notional hours per planned year (1 d.p.)"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}