The Research Proposal

Before you begin to write your research proposal you need to ensure that the institution or department offers specialisation in your area of research. A successful PhD is a long-term symbiotic relationship between the research student and their supervisor/s and many students are turned down for a PhD, not because they are not capable, but because the department may not have the required expertise for the length of time required. Academics are researchers themselves and may well be due for study leave in order to complete a piece of research or write a book.

Departments within an institution may well vary in their approach to appraising research degree applications. Some departments encourage potential PhD students to contact possible supervisors before completing their research proposal. Others may wish to receive the completed research proposal before allocating a supervisor. Your application and proposal may well go into an application pool and be allocated a supervisor at a later date. Before you go into too much detail is it best to check with the department or institution how they go about assessing PhD applications.

The Research Proposal - what are Departments looking for ?

Length of the proposal– this is debatable, some institutions would like to see anything between 2,000 and 4,000 words, however, it is more important that your proposal is sufficiently rigorous and of a high quality for academic consideration.

Consider...

1. What is your central research question, why is it timely and important for your PhD? This is an opportunity to capture the attention of your potential supervisor.
2. How does your central research question relate to existing academic studies in your field? This may include a review of relevant research literature or data and how your studies relate to the existing body of work. A successful PhD should be innovative and original so your research proposal should be sure to cover how your research is pitched against and adds to key perspectives in the academic arena.
3. How you intend to place your central research question in context to existing academic studies in that field. The body of work or particularly theory you have chosen as a context for your studies and what advantages you will gain from this particular theory.
4. How your studies will be empirically grounded or what practical methodologies and fieldwork you need to instigate to demonstrate importance for your central research question.
5. You will also need to demonstrate awareness of problems or difficulties you may encounter whilst investigating your central research question with possible strategies that will help you to overcome any problems.