2013

ABU Zaria: PG School

Application Forms Guide
Official guidelines to applicants on filling and submitting
ABU's Postgraduate application forms online
All application forms into the various programmes of the University
are now purchased, filled, submitted and processed online. This
document contains official instructions and useful guidelines to all
candidates wishing to fill and submit ABU's application forms online
for PG programmes. Applicants, their referees, as well as cyber cafe
operators are strongly advised to carefully go through this document
and follow the instructions in order to ensure an error-free completion
and submission of the PG application form.

University Software Development Committee

Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria - Nigeria
Last Updated August, 2013
 ABU Zaria: PG School Application Forms Guide
2013

Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

Guidelines For Filling ABU PG Application Form Online
For PGD, MSc, MPhil and PhD Programmes

Prepared by the development team of

ABU Software Development Committee

Document Version Number: A01 - 13 – R5.8

Last Revised: August-30-2013

DISCLAIMER:
Apart from the contact support lines and e-mail given at the end of this document, all other information
contained in this document pertaining to names, photographs, phone numbers,
e-mail addresses, or qualifications of individuals is fictitious and meant for illustration only.
Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 4
1 What the PG application forms portal does .................................................................................... 5
2 Accessing the PG application forms portal ...................................................................................... 5
2.1 Who can access the PG application forms portal? ................................................................... 5
2.2 What devices can access the application forms portal? .......................................................... 5
2.3 What is the portal access URL (address)?................................................................................. 6
3 Starting the PG application process ................................................................................................. 7
3.1 Creating applicant's unique portal access account .................................................................. 7
3.2 Applicant's unique Transaction ID and paying at the bank ...................................................... 9
4 Continuing with the PG application after payment ....................................................................... 11
4.1 Filling details of applicant's basic biodata .............................................................................. 12
4.2 Filling details of applicant's O-Levels qualifications ............................................................... 12
4.3 Filling details of applicant's A-Levels qualifications ............................................................... 12
4.4 Filling details of applicant's professional qualifications ......................................................... 14
4.5 Filling details of applicant's employment history ................................................................... 15
4.6 Filling details of applicant's previous theses and projects...................................................... 16
4.7 Filling details of applicant's proposed area of PG research ................................................... 17
4.8 Filling details of other required information .......................................................................... 18
4.9 Filling details of applicant's referees ...................................................................................... 19
4.10 What applicant's referees will see .......................................................................................... 21
4.11 Uploading applicant's passport-size photo ............................................................................ 22
4.12 Reviewing applicant's form, making a declaration and submitting finally ............................ 23
5 Monitoring application status after submission ............................................................................ 25
6 Contacting the University for enquiries concerning your PG application ..................................... 26

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INTRODUCTION
All application forms into the various programmes of the University are now purchased, filled,
submitted and processed online. Such programmes include PG programmes, Diploma
programmes, LVT programmes, Sasakawa programmes, inter-faculty/inter-university transfers,
special admissions and some certificate programmes.

This document contains official instructions and useful guidelines complete with sample
screenshots to guide all candidates wishing to fill and submit ABU's application forms online for
PG programmes. Applicants, their referees, as well as cyber cafe operators are strongly
advised to carefully go through this document and follow the instructions in order to ensure an
error-free completion and submission of their PG application forms online.

We eagerly look forward to having you join us to study at the famous Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria.

Best wishes from

ABU Software Development Committee
30th August, 2013

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1 What the PG application forms portal does
ABU School of Postgraduate Studies offers various PG programmes at Postgraduate Diploma
(PGD), Masters, MPhil and PhD levels. The PG application forms portal provides a platform for
anyone wishing to study at any level of postgraduate studies to purchase the application form,
fill the form and submit the completed form online.

2 Accessing the PG application forms portal

2.1 Who can access the PG application forms portal?
The ABU PG application forms portal can be used by anyone who falls into any of these
categories of people:

 All prospective applicants into ABU PG School

 All persons specified as referees by prospective applicants
 All authorized staff of ABU PG School, MIS Office, the University Management, as well as
relevant members of the development team.
 Appropriately authorized staff of all participating banks can also access the PG
application forms portal using a different module known as PayEazy, which manages all
categories of fees payable by applicants and students of the University – including
application form fees.

2.2 What devices can access the application forms portal?

The PG application forms portal is a web-based application that runs on the World-Wide Web;
hence any standard desktop or laptop computer connected to the Internet can access the PG
application forms portal. Some portable Internet-enabled devices, such as smart phones and
blackberries, can also be used to access the portal though the user experience will be quite
different on those devices. Whatever the class or type of device used, you should ensure that
the device meets the following requirements:

 Any of the following modern web browsers is required:

- Microsoft Internet Explorer (at least version 8)
- Mozilla Firefox 3 and higher
- Opera 10 and higher
- Google Chrome

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 Microsoft Office 2007 or 2003 to export or open and Excel spreadsheets generated by
the portal.
 Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 or higher versions to open and print PDF documents generated
by the portal.

2.3 What is the portal access URL (address)?

The ABU PG application forms portal can be accessed by connecting to the Internet and going
to http://forms.abu.edu.ng. Please do not add any "www" when typing the URL in the
browser's address bar.

Fig. 1: The opening page of

ABU PG application forms
portal.

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3 Starting the PG application process
Before filling and submitting the PG online application form, applicants must first create an
account on the portal. Around the top right corner of the landing page (see Fig. 1) where there
is Start Application instructions, click the ‘Create an Account’ button to get started. The
account creation page shown in Fig. 2 should open.

Fig. 2: The account creation page enables the applicant to select their
programme of interest and create a unique portal account.

3.1 Creating applicant's unique portal access account

Creating an account simply involves selecting the application and programme type the
applicant is interested in (e.g. Masters, PhD or Postgraduate Diploma). The applicant’s
surname, first name and other names (if they have that many) must be typed in as well as their
GSM phone number, email address and a log in password. This first step for filling the form is
illustrated in Fig. 3, for a candidate who wishes to study MSc Computer Science (Full Time).

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Fig. 3: The account creation page, showing it correctly filled by an

MSc Computer Science (Full Time) applicant.

Important Warning: All information supplied at this step (and at all other steps) must be for
the applicant. Most applicants rely on commercial cyber café outlets to fill their application
forms. This is perfectly okay and acceptable, so long as correct data is filled in for the
applicant. A lot of problems arise however, when applicants just drop their money and data
with the café operators and go away, hoping that the café operators will fill in the data
correctly. But our statistics have shown that majority of applicants who just drop their data
with somebody to fill for them often end up having wrong or incomplete data filled for them –
thus instantly disqualifying them from being considered for admission.

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Applicants are strongly advised to always, always stay with whoever is filling their data for
them and ensure that their data is filled correctly and completely. Neither ABU PG School nor
the ABU Portal Development Team shall be held liable for failure of any applicant to submit
correct and complete data.

We emphasize once more that:

1. The email supplied must be that of the applicant, not that of the person helping the
applicant to fill the form. The email supplied here is what the applicant will use to login
to the portal subsequently. The portal will also always use that email to automatically
communicate with the applicant as the admission is being processed; and it can never
be changed once submitted. Applicants who do not have working emails are advised to
reactivate their email accounts or open a new one before coming to create an account
on the portal.

2. The GSM phone number supplied must be that of the applicant, not that of the person
helping the applicant to fill the form. The portal will always use that GSM phone
number to send automatic SMS alerts to the applicant right from after the account is
created to when payment is made at the bank to when the applicant is offered
admission and so on. Supplying someone else’s phone number means the applicant's
information will always be sent to someone else!

3. Finally, all information entered at the account creation stage cannot be changed once
submitted. Please double-check the programme selected, name spellings, phone
number and email before you push the ‘Create Account’ button!

3.2 Applicant's unique Transaction ID and paying at the bank

Once the account creation page is correctly filled and the account is successfully created, the
portal displays a ‘Bank Payment Slip’ page which contains a unique Transaction ID for the
applicant as well as information about the type of form the applicant is purchasing and the
amount they are to pay for the form. Fig. 4 shows these details for our sample applicant in this
guide:

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Fig. 4: The Bank Payment Slip / Transaction ID page shows important information
about the applicant’s payment for the form.

To print the Bank Payment Slip click the ‘Preview and Print Transaction Slip’ button; after
which the applicant should proceed to any of the banks listed on the landing page of the portal
and make payment. The bank staff will provide the account number and account name to the
applicant at the point of payment. Please note that apart from the N10,000.00 form fee, the
bank will charge a certain token amount as bank administrative charges. The amount charged
may range from N200.00 to N500.00.

It will be noticed from Fig. 4 that there are ten other tab options after the Bank Payment Slip
page (Biodata, O-Levels, A-Levels, Employments, and so on). Applicants can continue on to
those other tabs only after making payment at any of the designated banks. Any attempt to go
to any of those tabs without making payment will be automatically checkmated by the portal;
and a message as shown in Fig. 5 will be displayed:

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Fig. 5: Any attempt to proceed with the

application process without paying will be
rejected by the portal with the message:
“ERROR: Access denied. You cannot continue
to that page until we have confirmed your
payment.”

NOTE: Sometimes, the bank you pay at may not immediately commit the transaction after you
pay; hence you will still not be able to continue filling your application form. This is purely a
matter of bank policy or logistic expediency; and applicants may sometimes need to wait for up
to 48 hours after payment before they will be able to proceed with their application.

For applicants who are resident outside Nigeria, you may have to make arrangements with
someone in Nigeria to help you make the payment; as the portal currently does not support
international payment transactions.

4 Continuing with the PG application after payment

Once applicants have made payment for the form at any of
the designated banks listed on the portal’s home page, they
can return to the portal and log in to continue with their
application. For the user name, they should type the e-mail
address supplied at the time of creating their account on
the portal; and also type the password they supplied then
and click the Login button as shown in Fig. 6:

Fig. 6: You can log back onto the portal at any time by typing your
user name (e-mail) and portal account password.

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4.1 Filling details of applicant's basic biodata

The biodata page requires the applicant to type

such basic information as gender, date of birth,
place of birth, nationality and so on. The
applicant's passport photo may also be
uploaded at this time. Fig. 7 illustrates the
entries for our sample applicant

Fig. 7: Supply applicant's basic biodata information as required

and click ‘Save & Continue’ button.

4.2 Filling details of applicant's O-Levels qualifications

This is where applicants should enter their O-Level results. A maximum of two sittings are
allowed. In any case, applicants must enter a minimum of five subjects in their O-levels,
otherwise they shall not be able to submit the form at the final stage. Fig. 8 illustrates the O-
level entries for our sample applicant (he has only one sitting in this case).

4.3 Filling details of applicant's A-Levels qualifications

The A-Levels tab enables applicants to enter details of all qualifications they have obtained
after secondary school O-Levels. These include IJMB, NCE, ND, HND, first degree and all other
academic qualifications obtained before the current one they wish to apply for. For PhD
applicants, a minimum M.Sc. CGPA of 3.0 is required. Details of A-Level qualifications can be
added one at a time. Fig. 9 illustrates the A-Level entries for our sample applicant (he has three
a-level qualifications in this case).

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Fig. 8: Enter details of applicant's O-Levels as applicable and click ‘Save & Continue’ button.

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Fig. 9: Enter details of

applicant's a-levels one at a
time as required and click
‘Save’ button each time you
add one. When you have
added all a-level
qualifications, click the
‘Continue’ button.

4.4 Filling details of applicant's professional qualifications

The A-Levels tab enables also enables applicants to enter details of any number of
professional qualifications they have obtained up to the time of applying for this admission.
Applicants are advised to supply details of all their professional qualifications to boost their
chances of admission. The blue highlight in Fig. 9 shows the link to click in order to open the
page for entering details of professional qualifications; which can be added one at a time as
illustrated in Fig. 10:

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Fig. 10: Enter details of

applicant’s professional
qualifications one at a time
and click the ‘Continue’
button when all professional
qualification records have
been added.

4.5 Filling details of applicant's employment history

This step requires applicants to supply information about all employments they have had up to
the time of applying for this admission. Applicants are advised to supply details of all their
employment histories to boost their chances of admission. Details of employment histories can
be added one at a time. Fig. 11 illustrates the employment entries for our sample applicant:

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Fig. 11: Enter details

of applicant’s
employment
histories one at a
time and click ‘Add
Employment Record’
button each time
one is added. Click
the ‘Continue’
button when all
employment records
have been added.

4.6 Filling details of applicant's previous theses and projects

On this page, applicants are expected to provide information about all projects, theses and/or
other publications they have worked on after their senior secondary school education. Details
of theses or projects and other publications can be added one at a time. Fig. 12 illustrates the
theses/projects details for our sample applicant:

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Fig. 12: Enter details of applicant’s

project/theses works one at a time as
required and click ‘Save Thesis/Project’
Button each time one is added. Click
the ‘Continue’ button when all records
have been added.

4.7 Filling details of applicant's proposed area of PG research

All applicants are required to indicate their proposed area of research if granted admission for
their postgraduate studies. For PhD applicants, a research proposal is also required; which
should be prepared as a Microsoft Word (97 – 2003) document and uploaded. The proposal
should be typed and set in Times New Roman font, size 14pt, double line-spaced and should
not exceed 70KB in size. Fig. 13 illustrates the proposed research topic and area of
specialization details for our sample applicant:

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Fig. 13: All applicants must

specify their proposed research
topic; while PhD applicants must
also upload a research proposal.

4.8 Filling details of other required information

On this page, applicants are required to supply information about any academic awards or
prizes won, how they would pay their school fees, if they are currently running any other
academic programmes and so on. Fig. 14 illustrates details of these entries for our sample
applicant:

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Fig. 14: Supply all other

relevant details and
click ‘Save Details’;
then click ‘Continue’
button.

4.9 Filling details of applicant's referees

Each applicant shall be required to supply details of exactly three (3) referees in connection
with their application. At least two of the referees must be persons who have taught the
applicant in school at one time or the other. Referees must have different emails and phone
numbers. Referees would be notified automatically through SMS and email and they shall be
required to submit their assessment or comments on the applicant online.

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Applicants are strongly advised to first contact all their three referees and get their
correct email and phone numbers before filling this page; as wrong referee emails or
phone numbers would mean sending the request to the wrong quarters and thus,
potentially cutting down the applicant’s chances of being considered for admission.

Details of referees can be added one at a time. Fig. 15 illustrates the referees’ page entries for
our sample applicant:

Fig. 15: Enter details of applicant’s referees one at a time as required and click
‘Save Referee’ button each time a referee is added.

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4.10 What applicant's referees will see

Each referee added by an applicant will receive an automatic email in the inbox of their email
address as provided by the applicant. The referee is expected to click on the link at the bottom
of the contents of the email, so that the PG eForms portal will open and they will be able to fill
their comments about the applicant. Fig. 16 shows the page displayed for one of the referees
specified by our sample applicant:

Fig. 16: Each referee

will see substantial
details about the
applicant before filling
the form. Referees are
expected to comment
on things like how long
they have known the
applicant and in what
capacity, their
assessment of the
applicant’s mental and
intellectual capabilities,
etc.

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4.11 Uploading applicant's passport-size photo
All applicants should upload their recent passport-size photographs. The photo should not be
more than three (3) months old and should be sharp and clear, measuring approximately 185
pixels by 220 pixels. The photo should be in JPEG format and should not exceed 100KB in size.
Fig. 17a – 17c illustrate the process for attaching an applicant’s photo:

Fig. 17a: The photo upload page on first open.

To start, click the ‘Browse…’ button.

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Fig. 17b: Select the picture to

upload and click the ‘Open’ button.

Fig. 17c: The file name of the selected

picture appears by the Browse...
button and you can click ‘Upload
Picture’ button to finish the picture
upload.

4.12 Reviewing applicant's form, making a declaration and submitting finally

The declaration page is the final step where applicants finally submit the form after checking
the declaration checkbox. If there are any important data items that have not been filled by the

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applicant, a bold message in red colour will be displayed, asking the applicant to go back to the
appropriate tab and fix the missing or invalid data.

Applicants are strongly advised to review all information they have entered on each tab
before submitting the form finally. Once the form is finally submitted, applicants may no
longer be able to make changes to their form.

Fig. 18: Check the declaration box and click ‘Submit Finally’ button to
finish your application.

Upon clicking the ‘Submit Finally’ button, the applicant will receive an SMS confirmation
message and the completed form will be displayed in a printable version which the applicant is
encouraged to print and keep.

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IMPORTANT: Applicants who have their first degree or other post-secondary school
qualifications from schools other than ABU Zaria are to request their former schools to send
official transcripts of their academic records to The Secretary, School of Postgraduate
Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria – Nigeria within the shortest time possible.

5 Monitoring application status after submission

After submitting the form
finally, applicants can always
log in to the portal at any
time to check their admission
status. Upon logging in,
applicants will be taken to
their completed form and
they will be able to clearly
see their admission status at
the top of the page where
their information begins, as
shown in Fig. 19.

Fig. 19: After final submission,

applicants can log in again at any time
to check their application status.

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6 Contacting the University for enquiries concerning your PG application
All questions, requests, complaints or suggestions concerning the ABU PG eForms Portal should
be directed to any of the following channels:

E-Mail: [email protected]

GSM:
 +234 (0) 8026600710
 +234 (0) 7067430539
 +234 (0) 7067430531
 +234 (0) 7067430512

Please note, however, that the support phone lines are open from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Mondays to Fridays only. Any call made outside of the specified day and time range will not
be answered.

*** END OF ABU PG APPLICATION FORMS MANUAL ***

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