Guidance provided by Professor Leigh Wilson, Director of the University of Westminster’s Graduate School, has contributed to careers advice and university information website Prospects’ guide to PhD research proposals.
Such proposals are designed to articulate what candidates want to research and why in 1,500 to 3,000 words. While research proposals are about the work that has not been done yet, explains Wilson, what prospective supervisors and funders are focusing on just as strongly is evidence of what you have done; how well you know existing literature in the field, including the most contemporary schools of thought; and how clearly you have seen what is missing – what your research can provide that is new.
In the article, Professor Wilson particularly stresses the value of concentrating the research within specific framing, and avoiding grand, vague ideas: “Although it's tempting to make large claims and propose research that sweeps across time and space, narrower, more focused research is much more convincing,” she explained. “To be thorough and rigorous in the way that academic work needs to be, even something as long as a PhD thesis can only cover a fairly narrow topic. Depth not breadth is called for.”
Read the full article on the Prospects.ac.uk website.
Find out more about research degrees at the University of Westminster.
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