SAMPLE 1 FORM RDC/1A

(Revised Oct 2006)

THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH DEGREE PROPOSAL

Robert van der Veen

Note: Please note that the information given in this form will only be used for processing this application.

Layout and length

A typical PhD proposal will be somewhere between three and four thousand words (excluding
references and appendices). While we do not insist on a definite layout, applicants are
encouraged to keep the following in mind: i.e. about 13 pages with 1.5 spacing and leaving
enough margin for comments.

1. Project Title:
Communication Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsement in Print Destination
Advertising

2. Project Objectives: (Purpose of proposed investigation)

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of celebrity endorsement on the
attitude of Mainland Chinese visitors toward Hong Kong and their visitation intentions
accordingly. The objective of this study is threefold. First, based on an extensive
literature review a conceptual framework addressing how celebrity endorsement
could explain the effect on tourists’ attitude and their visitation intentions will be
proposed (see appendix 1). Second, an experimental design will determine the
effects of four celebrity endorsers (native/male, non-native/male, native/female, non-
native/male) displayed in a print destination advertisement on tourists’ attitude and
their visitation intentions. Thirdly, structural equation modeling will examine the
relationships between a celebrity endorser as measured by the core perceptions of
source credibility (Ohanian, 1991) and tourists’ attitude, and to ascertain how these
elements combined may influence visitation intentions. These three steps seem
necessary in order to investigate if celebrity endorsement allows destination
marketers to communicate and enhance the perceived value of the destination’s
uniqueness trough a print advertisement towards appropriate target markets.

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 1
3. Scope and Background of Research:
(Please identify key issues/problems to be addressed)

Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO) are increasingly forced to play a more

active selling role as consumers appreciate a one-stop-service (Buhalis, 2000).
However, the destination’s offering cannot be physically presented to the market for
inspection in the evaluation process of consumers and at the point of sale (Cai, Feng
& Breiter, 2004). Therefore, the tourists’ perceptions play an important role
influencing behavioral intentions (Lennon, Weber, & Henson, 2001; Sönmez &
Sirakaya, 2002; Yuksel & Yuksel, 2001).

Until now, there are no tools from other disciplines rather than marketing useful in
order to enhance awareness and attention of the destination’s unique benefits
(Nielsen, Murnion, & Mather, 2000). Hence, marketing destinations is important
because places that fail to market themselves successfully face the risk of economic
stagnation and decline (Kotler, Bowen, & Makens, 1996). The DMO has the
challenging task to use graphic and verbal representations to positively influence the
purchase decision (Fesenmaier, 1994). Advertising provides one of the most efficient
means by which a country can convey its image to potential travellers (Bojanic, 1991)
and as a pull motive or external stimuli it could attract a person to a particular
destination (Crompton & McKay, 1997; Goossens, 2000; McGehee, Loker-Murphy, &
Uysal, 1996; Ross & Iso-Ahola, 1991; Uysal, Gahan, & Martin, 1993).

Advertisers have long since used endorsements as a promotional strategy to

communicate product merits (Kamins, 1990); however, the endorsement theme has
only recently begun to appear in some tourism studies (Chang, Wall & Tsai, 2005). It
has been claimed that advertisements with endorsers are a ubiquitous feature of
modern marketing (McCracken, 1989) and an effective form of persuasive
communication (Hsu & McDonald, 2002). Identifiable people (e.g. celebrities), are the
favorite among advertising agencies (Kamins, 1990). Celebrities are able to offer a
range of personality and lifestyle meanings that the anonymous person cannot
provide and these meanings may be generated by various political, social,
entertainment, military or athletic achievements and could be transferred to the
product (McCracken, 1989; Stout & Moon, 1990). Film, sports stars, fashion models
or other celebrities tend to be used because they are able to penetrate the
commercial clutter of advertising and seize consumer attention (Morgan & Pritchard,
2001). Anholt (2002) reminds us that the real prize is the wealthy consumers’ rapidly

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 2
 diminishing attention span, a commodity whose price has steadily and inexorably
risen, as advertising messages have proliferated. Therefore, this study will focus on
the celebrity endorser, as research show that celebrities are the most suitable
endorsers compared to other types of endorsers in having impacts on the audience’s
attention, recall and purchase intentions (Hsu & McDonald, 2002).

Large multinational organizations make substantial investments in order to align

themselves and their products with celebrity endorsers in the belief that they will (a)
draw attention to the endorsed products and (b) transfer image values to these
products by virtue of their celebrity profile and engaging attributes (Buck, 1993;
Erdogan, 1999; Kamins, 1990; Ohanian, 1991; O’Mahony & Meenaghan, 1998;
Shimp, 2000; Tripp, Jensen, & Carlson, 1994; Walker, Langmeyer, & Langmeyer,
1992). These virtues of belief accompanying the celebrity endorser have been well
researched. Celebrities endorsers are not only able to create and maintain attention,
but may also infer the right message in a limited amount of space and time, and
achieve high recall rates for marketing messages in today’s highly cluttered
environment (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995; Atkin & Block, 1983; Erdogan, 1999;
Friedman & Friedman, 1979; Kamen, Azhari, & Kragh, 1975; Kamins, Brand, Hoeke,
& Moe, 1989; Mathur, Mathur, & Rangan, 1997; Newsom, Turk, & Kruckeberg, 2000;
Ohanian, 1991; O’Mahony & Meenaghan, 1997). Research indicates that celebrity
endorsers are able to contribute more to increased brand visibility (Friedman &
Friedman, 1979; Till, 1998; Tom, Clark, Elmer, Grech, Masetti & Sandhar, 1992),
higher attention levels (Atkin & Block, 1983; Friedman & Friedman, 1979), more
positive attitudes toward the advertising and the product (Atkin & Block, 1983;
Freiden, 1984; Friedman & Friedman, 1979; Kamins, 1989; Tripp et al., 1994), and
greater purchase intentions (Friedman, Termini, & Washington, 1976; Ohanian,
1991) than non-celebrity endorsers. There have been a number of studies that have
examined whether, and under what conditions, celebrities make appropriate
endorsers for products (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995; Atkin & Block, 1983; Freiden,
1984; Kamins, 1989; Kamins et al., 1989; Ohanian, 1991; Tripp et al., 1994) and it is
noted that appropriate use of celebrity endorsers can be highly effective in product
promotions (Michell & Olson, 1981; Atkin & Block, 1983; Misra & Beatty, 1990),
because famous persons have distinct images that can be transferred to associated
brands (Khale & Homer, 1985; Langmeyer & Walker, 1991; McCracken, 1989;
Simonin & Ruth, 1998). Therefore, the frequent use of celebrity endorsers, their
economic value (Agrawal & Kamakura 1995), and their perceived effectiveness in
endorsing all kinds of goods and services (Kamins & Gupta, 1994; Till, 1998; Tom et

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 3
 al., 1992) underscores the need to examine the celebrity as an effective
spokesperson for destinations.

The choice of holiday destination will help define the identity of the traveler and, in an
increasingly homogeneous world, set him apart from the hordes of other tourists
(King, 1991). World Tourism Organization (2001) referred to the future of the
destination as a ‘fashion accessory’, indicating it is probable that ‘the next century will
mark the emergence of tourism destinations as a fashion accessory’, and fashion
products, may work better with celebrity endorsement (Chao, Wührer, & Werani,
2005). Therefore, as style and status indicators, destinations could offer the same
consumer benefits as other more highly branded lifestyle accoutrements such as
cars, perfumes, watches and clothes (Clarke, 2000). The link between a destination
and a well-known personality could be of enormous benefit in the promotion of a
destination (Holloway & Robinson, 1995) and may attract tremendous media
attention (Morgan & Pritchard, 2001). The current study proposes to test this
proposition.

To determine celebrity endorser effectiveness, Ohanian's (1990) three-part measure

of source credibility was found appropriate. Her source credibility dimensions assess
perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness of the source. Source
credibility provides the best understanding of how spokespersons can be more or
less effective, depending on their personal characteristics and situational
contingencies related to the endorsed product and the targeted audience (Stafford,
Stafford, & Day, 2002). Pornpitakpan (2003) evaluated Ohanian’s model, and the
reliability and validity of the scales to measure source credibility, using four Chinese
celebrities as stimuli and 880 Singaporean undergraduates as respondents. Her
research verifies the factor structure of the celebrity endorsers’ credibility scale,
which Ohanian (1990) developed from American samples. This suggests that the
dimensions of the source credibility scale proposed by Ohanian (1990) remain
appropriate when used among Asian respondents. Although, the number of
dimensions of source credibility has been debated, most research consistently
includes at least trustworthiness and expertise dimensions (Hovland, Janis & Kelley,
1953; Ohanian, 1991). The attributes of the celebrity, have shown the most support
as effectiveness predictors (Buhr, Simpson & Pryor, 1987; Freiden, 1984; Kahle &
Homer, 1985; Nataraajan & Chawla, 1997; Ohanian, 1991; Swerdlow, 1984; Tom et
al., 1992). Empirical evidence has established that source expertise and
trustworthiness affect attitude change and product evaluations (McGuire, 1985 and

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 4
 that they were key characteristics of celebrity endorsers (Tripp et al., 1994). This is
also confirmed by the Source Credibility Model by Hovland et al., (1953), which
contends that the effectiveness of a message depends on perceived level of
expertise and trustworthiness in an endorser (Dholakia & Sternthal, 1977; Erdogan,
1999; Ohanian, 1991; Ratneshwar & Chaiken, 1991; Solomon et al., 1999).
Moreover, research indicates that endorser's expertise is important in affecting
attitude and intentions to buy an endorsed brand (Daneshvary & Schwer, 2000; Dean
& Biswas, 2001; Erdogan, 1999; Friedman & Friedman, 1979; Goldsmith, Lafferty, &
Newell, 2000; Holloway & Robinson, 1995; Lafferty & Goldsmith, 1999; Till & Busler,
1998; Shimp, 2000). Thus, it appears that these two constructs are essential for a
conceptual framework explaining the effects of celebrity endorsement. In addition,
research points out that consumers tend to form positive stereotypes about attractive
individuals and found that physically attractive communicators are more successful at
changing beliefs (Baker & Churchill, 1977) and generating purchase intentions
(Friedman et al., 1976; Kahle & Homer, 1985) than their unattractive counterparts
and is therefore included in the proposed framework (appendix 1).

This study is not predicting direct effects of the celebrity endorser dimensions on
intentions to visit as it may not directly trigger consumers’ intention to visit but be
mediated by other factors. Regardless of the nature of the compatibility, research
findings consistently confirm that the greater the consumer’s perception of
compatibility, the more positive effects of the on consumer response (Cornwell,
Weeks, & Roy, 2005; Rifon, Choi, Trimble, & Li, 2004). Scholars note that there will
be satisfactory advertising effectiveness and enhanced purchasing potential only
when congruence exists between the characteristics of the endorser and the
endorsed product (Basil, 1996; Lynch & Schuler, 1994; Kamins et al., 1989, 1990;
Kamins & Gupta, 1994; McCracken, 1989; Misra & Beatty, 1990; Mittelstaedt &
Riesz, 2000). However, as Pornpitakpan (2003) indicates, Ohanian’s (1990) model
does not include items that measure the match-up between the celebrity endorsers
and the product type being endorsed.

This study proposes to develop a comprehensive scale for the match-up dimension
for explaining celebrity endorser effectiveness. Furthermore, tourism studies indicate
that attitude is an important factor in tourist choice behavior (Ajzen & Driver, 1991;
Chen, 1998; Fesenmaier, 1988; Iso-Ahola, 1980; Mathieson & Wall, 1982; Mohsin,
2005; Um & Crompton, 1991). Moreover, Pike (2006) denotes that destination
competitiveness is ultimately decided by attitudes in the market place. Therefore,

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 5
 seems necessary to include attitude in the conceptual framework, as it serves as a
reliable indicator of how people will act under a given set of circumstances (Mayo &
Jarvis, 1981). Consumer research supports the mediated effects of attitude toward
advertisement and attitude toward brand on purchase intentions (Biehal, Stephens, &
Curlo, 1992; Burke & Edell, 1989; MacKenzie, Lutz, & Belch, 1986; Miniard, Bhatla, &
Rose, 1990; Mitchell & Olson, 1981). In addition, tourism studies have demonstrated
that information sources, socio-psychological motivations, image and attitude toward
destinations influence travellers’ preferences and intentions (Court & Lupton, 1997;
Goodrich, 1978; Milman & Pizam, 1995). Following is the dimension of behavioral
intention which refers to a person’s subjective probability to perform a certain
behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) or to the likelihood of
purchasing a tourist product (Moutinho, 1987) and it is based on the intensity and
amount of efforts made by the person to actually engage in the target behavior
(Ajzen 1991). Hence, consistent with past endorsement studies (Chang et al., 2005;
Chao et al., 2005; Daneshvary & Schwer, 2000; Goldsmith et al., 2000; Kahle &
Homer, 1985; Kamins, 1990; Lafferty & Goldsmith, 1999; Misra & Beatty 1990; Till &
Busler, 1998; Wang, 2005) the dependent variable will be advertising effectiveness:
attitudes toward both advertising (Aad) and brand (Ab), and visitation intentions (PI).

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 6
4. Research Methodology:
This study will focus on short-trip market because short break holidays are generally
considered to be a low involvement decision ((Bargeman & Van der Poel, 2006;
Davies, 1990; Edgar, Litteljohn, Allardyce, & Wanhill, 1994; Fache, 1994; Middleton
& O’Brien, 1987; Teare, Davies, & McGeary, 1989) and endorsement is more
effective under low product involvement condition than high product involvement
condition (Chaiken, 1980; Heesacker, Petty & Cacioppo, 1983; Park & Young, 1983;
Petty & Cacioppo, 1985; Petty, Cacioppo & Goldman, 1981; Traylor, 1981).
Guangzhou provides a large target market for short-break visitors to Hong Kong
(Huang & Hsu, 2005) and will therefore be chosen as study location. For this study a
short break is defined as a non-business trip away from home of between one to five
nights (Huybers, 2003; MacKay & Smith, 2006; Pike, 2006). The short-break market
is one of the most competitive tourism markets for many destinations, given the
plethora near home places available to travellers (Pike, 2006). Therefore, any
competitive advancement within this market segment would be of interest for the
HKTB.

A realistic destination and real celebrities will be chosen for this study to measure
existing attitude or perceptions about the destination and celebrity. Real celebrities
may evoke a richer set of feelings and responses than a fictitious celebrity (Till &
Shimp, 1998) as they have a life of their own (Pringle & Binet, 2005) and this is what
them makes them interesting in first place. Even tough, a fictitious destination could
avoid possible confounding effects (Lafferty & Goldsmith, 1999) a the depicted
location (Hong Kong) will be identified to the respondents in order to avoid the
inconsistency among destination images (Andsager & Drzewiecka, 2002). It is
important to recognize that the results might increase generalizability to the use of
well-known celebrity endorsers towards a known destination.

This study will administer a questionnaire which will use a number of published items
and scale format to measure the effectiveness of the celebrity endorser. To ensure a
high level of clarity, the questionnaire will be translated through the double translation
method (McGorry, 2000).

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 7
 Ohanian (1990, 1991) developed a list of 139 adjectives relating to source credibility.
This was reduced to 15 key dimensions, five each for expertise, trustworthiness, and
attractiveness. The scale consisted of 15 semantic differential items encompassing
the dimensions of (i) attractiveness (attractive/unattractive, classy/not classy,
beautiful/ugly, elegant/plain, and sexy/not sexy), (ii) trustworthiness
(dependable/undependable, honest/dishonest, reliable/unreliable, sincere/insincere,
and trustworthy/ untrustworthy), and (iii) expertise (expert/not an expert, experienced/
inexperienced, knowledgeable/ unknowledgeable, qualified/unqualified, and
skilled/unskilled). It was validated using respondents’ self-reported measures of
intention to purchase and perception of quality for the products being tested. It was
tested by the developer (Ohanian, 1990) to possess reliability and nomological (i.e.,
the relationship between the scores of a scale and how these scores relate to the
measures of other constructs or behaviours), convergent, and discriminant validity.

Scales to measure attitude toward advertisement will be drawn from previous studies
(Chang et al., 2005; Lafferty & Goldsmith, 1999; Simons & Carey, 1998).
Respondents will be asked to rate “my overall attitude towards the advertisement” on
four 7-point semantic differential scales marked by the adjectives ‘good–bad’, like–
dislike’, ‘interesting–uninteresting’ and ‘irritating–not irritating’. To measure attitude
toward brand, Till and Shimp's (1998) scale will be used. Subjects will be asked to
rate "how would you describe your overall feeling to Hong Kong?" on three 7-point
semantic differential scales anchored by favorable/unfavorable, positive/negative,
and strongly dislike/strongly like. Visitation intention will be measured by applying
Machleit and Wilson (1988) and Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann's (1983) purchasing
scale. The visitation intention dimension will also take into account the joint decision
making process by asking the respondent “how likely is it that you and your travel
companion(s) will visit Hong Kong in the next 12 months?" for the following three
items, probable/improbable, likely/unlikely and possible/impossible. A pre-test
among a student sample will be conducted to make sure that the experiments and
questions were clear and comprehensive before the actual study will be undertaken
(Vern & Thompson, 2002).

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 8
 This study first employs a classical experiment to test the effects of the manipulation
(celebrity endorsement) on attitude towards the destination and if there is any
influence on visitation intentions resulting from this. Experiments are popular in
marketing and behavioral studies (Louviere, Hensher, & Swat, 2000) and they refer
to an investigation where the phenomenon under study is under control of the
investigator (Cox & Reid, 2000). A crucial factor in the classical experimental design
is that a researcher manipulates a factor (celebrity endorser) and has control over the
setting in which the change is introduced to and no manipulation for the control
group. It is assumed that if any endorser effect existed, it would show up in at least
one of the four treatment groups.

The study will use a minimum ratio of at least 5 respondents for each estimated
parameter, with a ratio of 10 respondents per parameter, which is considered most
appropriate (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 2002). Secondly, the data from the
experiment will be used for structural equation modeling. Although, structural
modeling techniques were developed for the analysis of non-experimental data, the
experimental context actually strengthens the use of the techniques (Baron & Kenny,
1986; MacKenzie, 2001). The method of data analysis used for this study will be
structural equation modeling using the Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) software
package Version 8.54 for the analyses of CFA and SEM (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1993;
Jöreskog, 2000). Before testing the structural relationships between the latent
variables, a Conformity Factor Analysis (CFA) is necessary to assess the
relationships between the latent variables and their indicators (Gerbing & Anderson,
1988; Herting & Costner, 2000). LISREL is widely used for estimating structural
equation models, because it allows testing for the goodness of fit, to diagnose
problems, to fix or constrain model coefficients, to do multiple-group analyses, to
estimate means and intercepts as well as slopes, and most importantly, to distinguish
consistently between latent concepts and observed indicators (Hayduk, 1987).

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 9
5. Project Significance and Value:
Although marketers often use endorsers to promote their products or brands, there is
a lack of research on the use of advertising endorsers in the tourism industry (Chang
et al., 2005). To date no study has directly related destination advertising to celebrity
endorsement and tested whether differences in attitude result in different behavioural
intentions, and this gap will be addressed by this study.

The proposed conceptual framework, which integrates attractiveness and the source
credibility factors from Ohanian (1991), in order to explain and predict celebrity
endorsement effectiveness on people’s attitude towards visiting a destination and
their visitation intentions will not only contribute to the field of tourism, but also
contributes to the knowledge of consumer behavior in general. The second
contribution to existing literature is represented by the inclusion of the match-up
dimension which is integrated into the Ohanian’s (1991) model as a moderator of
celebrity endorser effectiveness. By moderating the source credibility factors with the
match-up dimension in explaining celebrity endorser effectiveness on tourist’ attitude,
the current study puts forward a more comprehensive conceptual framework in
reflecting the complicated phenomenon of celebrity endorsement.

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 10
6. Implication of the proposed research
Most scholarly research about the factors affecting the effectiveness of celebrity
endorsement has been US-based (Erdogan & Baker, 2000). Thus, there is a further
need for a study in a different context with a different sample, which is being
proposed in this study by exploring the tourists’ attitude to Hong Kong and their
visitation intentions from Mainland Chinese travelers’ perspective.

Hong Kong has been the leading tourism destination for Mainland Chinese outbound
travelers, however this position will by no means be everlasting (Huang & Hsu,
2005). A ‘wait and see’ approach is considered as inappropriate, as some strategic
framework is necessary to harvest the economic benefits in a way that would befit
the destination (Connell, 2005). It is likely that as tourism continues to gain economic
importance, advertising strategies previously unrelated to tourism research should be
considered in order to investigate their effectiveness and efficiency. Implications
derived from the proposed study may provide useful information for the Hong Kong
Tourism Board (HKTB) and other DMOs to support and perhaps enhance marketing
activities using celebrity endorsement.

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 11
7. Timeframe
I propose to complete the research described in the next 36 months, and present and
defend my study by July 2011. The following charts show a tentative schedule for
work progress on the proposed study. Many of the activities may be pursued in
parallel or with some overlap. I have allocated most of my time for reviewing the
literature and for the write up. After significant headway has made in developing and
testing my measurement instrument, I will begin to collect primary data. I have
allocated the next twelve months for this task followed by the analysis.

Literature review

Pilot

J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

2008 2009

Data collection

Analyzing data

Write Up

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J

2010 2011

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 12
Reference

The research proposal should include a reference list containing all the references cited in the
proposal using a consistent and appropriate format such as indicated in the APA style guide.

8. References
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© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 21
Appendix I

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 22
Other useful information

References
Cantor, J. (1993). A Guide to Academic Writing. London: Greenwood Press.

Huff, A. (1999). Writing for Scholarly Publication. London: Sage Publications.

Luey, B. (1990). Handbook for Academic Authors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rountree, K. & Laing, T. (1996). Writing by Degrees. A Practical Guide to Writing

Theses and Research Papers. Auckland: Longman

Rudestam, K., & Newton, R. (1992). Surviving Your Dissertation: A Comprehensive Guide to
Content and Process. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications.

Thomas, L. (1985). Completing Dissertations in the Behavioral Sciences and Education: A

Systematic Guide for Graduate Students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

(Above references were retrieved from the Department of English

http://www.engl.polyu.edu.hk/eeprs/Ref_theses%20and%20dissertations.htm#Books_T&D)

© No part of this proposal could be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. 23
9. Details of Any External Collaboration:

In these circumstances, are there likely to be any complications associated with the
publication of your thesis? Give details.

10. Research Ethics/ Safety Approval

(Please read the policy and procedures for safety approval available at the Health,
Safety & Environment Office Homepage. Please attach approval letter where
appropriate.)

I/We confirm that approval:

* has been * is not required * will be obtained
obtained before the start
of the project

Human Research Ethics

Animal Research Ethics

Biological Safety

Ionizing Radiation Safety

Non-ionizing Radiation Safety

Chemical Safety

(* Please tick as appropriate)

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11. Statement of the Applicant

I wish to register for a research degree on the basis of the proposal given in this
Form (RDC/1A).

I understand that, during the period of my registration with the University, I may not
be a candidate for any other degree or award.

I understand that, except with the specific permission of the Research Committee, I
must prepare and defend my thesis in English. (You are required to seek permission
if another language, which is considered more appropriate to the subject, is to be
used in the presentation of the thesis. Please submit the justification together with
this application)

I undertake to abide by the general regulations of the University.

Signature Date
(Student Applicant)

Name of Applicant

12. Endorsement by the Proposed Chief Supervisor

Signature of Chief Supervisor Department/School

Name of Chief Supervisor Date

[Please send this form, application form (for admission to the Degree of
MPhil/PhD), and Form RC/1 to the Head of Department/Director of School for
completion of Section 10.]

13. Recommendation of Head of Affiliated Department in the University

I support this application, and confirm to the best of my knowledge that adequate
facilities as requested in Form RC/1 will be provided to enable the student to conduct
and complete the research programme in an efficient and safe manner. I also agree
to provide adequate research space for the applicant during the research
programme.

Signature Date
(Head of Department)

[After completing all sections, please return this form to the Research Office]
RDC/1A

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