Postgraduate Lifecycle Management System

The Postgraduate Lifecycle Management System (PGLMS) supports the MPhil and PhD academic lifecycle at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya. It provides role-based workflows for applications, admissions, supervision, progress monitoring, thesis examination, and programme completion.

Overview

PGLMS consolidates processes that would otherwise rely on paper forms, spreadsheets, and email. The system maintains a consistent record of decisions, submissions, assignments, and supporting documents throughout a candidate’s programme.

The platform covers:

Public applications and admission review
Student registration and programme milestones
Supervisor and examiner assignments
Research proposal and ethics workflows
Progress-report submission and review
Thesis submission, examination, and corrections
Viva scheduling and outcome recording
Completion, graduation, and record archiving
In-app and email notifications

Users and Responsibilities

Role	Primary responsibilities
Student	Submit proposals, progress reports, ethics declarations, theses, and corrections; monitor programme milestones and decisions.
Supervisor	Review assigned students, provide recommendations, assess progress reports, and certify academic submissions.
Examiner	Access assigned thesis material and submit examination or viva recommendations.
Head of Department	Confirm academic decisions, examiner assignments, ethics outcomes, viva outcomes, and programme completion.
Administrator	Review applications, manage users, coordinate assignments, schedule vivas, maintain records, and monitor system activity.

Interface Overview

Public landing page

The public landing page introduces the system and provides access to applications and authentication.

PGLMS landing page

Authentication

Firebase Authentication provides identity verification, while server-side authorization restricts access according to the user’s assigned role.

PGLMS login page

Application portal

Prospective candidates can complete a structured application and upload the required supporting documents.

PGLMS application portal

Administration dashboard

The administration dashboard summarizes active candidates, pending decisions, registrations, and examination activity.

PGLMS administration dashboard

User management

Authorized administrators can provision accounts, assign roles, and maintain user records.

PGLMS user management interface

Architecture

PGLMS is implemented as a full-stack Next.js application. Client and server components communicate with validated route handlers, which integrate with the system’s authentication, database, storage, email, and monitoring services.

Area	Technology
Application framework	Next.js 16 with the App Router
User interface	React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Radix UI, and Lucide
API and validation	Next.js Route Handlers and Zod
Database	PostgreSQL hosted on Supabase
Data access	Prisma ORM
Authentication	Firebase Authentication and Firebase Admin SDK
Document storage	Private Supabase Storage buckets with signed URLs
Email	Nodemailer over SMTP
Monitoring	Sentry
Testing	Vitest, React Testing Library, and Playwright

Request flow

Browser
  |
  v
Next.js application
  |
  v
Validated route handlers
  |
  +-- Firebase Authentication
  +-- Prisma and Supabase PostgreSQL
  +-- Supabase Storage
  +-- SMTP email delivery
  +-- Sentry monitoring

Security and Data Handling

Role checks protect authenticated routes and operations.
Firebase tokens are verified on the server.
Application input is validated before processing.
Sensitive documents are stored in private buckets and accessed through time-limited signed URLs.
Academic decisions and workflow transitions are retained for audit purposes.

Testing

The repository includes several levels of automated testing:

Unit tests for business rules, validation, and data transformations
Integration tests for database-backed workflows
Component tests for rendering and user interaction
Playwright end-to-end tests for complete user journeys
Static analysis through ESLint and TypeScript
Dependency auditing through npm

See the main project README for setup instructions and the complete command reference.

Project Documentation

Project Team

Registration number	Name	Email
E/23/442	D.K.G.P.C.B. Wijerathne	e23442@eng.pdn.ac.lk
E/23/118	D.A.A. Gunawardana	e23118@eng.pdn.ac.lk
E/23/178	S.N.R. Kodituwakku	e23178@eng.pdn.ac.lk
E/23/023	M.N.P.V. Aththanayake	e23023@eng.pdn.ac.lk

Academic supervision

Dr. Upul Jayasinghe — upul@eng.pdn.ac.lk