A taught master's has a start and end date, clear entry criteria and lectures and seminars.
A PhD is the inverse of this. A PhD can start at any time, and the espoused study time is estimated to be three years. The entry criteria is a good master's degree and a pre-determined English level qualification. The acceptance or rejection is mainly based on the merits and applicability to the university of your research proposal. You will be working within a PhD team of staff and students, and you a supervisor. Above all, you will have to be self-motivated, have an appetite for reading and have a passion for your research topic.

Sending a cold PhD proposal means that no prior contact with the university generally results in rejection after several weeks or no response. Why?

• The university has to have an interest in your research area
• The university will need to have a supervisor, director of studies and another specialist(s), if multi-disciplinary, available and interested in your research
• Generally, the university will not appoint the supervisory team as described above. The research staff are relatively autonomous and decide whether to supervise your PhD.
• PhD students' work contributes to the university's research ranking; therefore, your topic must complement the university's research portfolio.

How do I get a PhD offer?

• Don't just randomly pick a university
• Look for a university that has research activity with your area of interest
• Look on their website for a Research Group comprising researchers often from the same faculty, specializing in the same subject.
• Some universities have Research Centre , which is often multi-disciplinary, such as cross-faculty.
• Research Groups and Centres often express areas of research they are interested in and invite proposals.
• Write your proposal based on the research group/centre interests, and often you can contact a staff member to discuss your proposal.

World Student Advisors Managing Director and his team have developed networks with UK universities Research Groups and Research Centres . If you would like to discuss your PhD proposal World Student Advisors Student Support Centre WhatsApp: +44 791 4797 830

Here are guidelines for PhD proposal

When applying for the MPhil/PhD programme, a research proposal will be an essential part of your application. It will be used to assess your proposed research academic potential and our ability to supervise and support you to successful completion. The purpose of this document is to guide you in writing a research proposal. We are looking for an approximately 3,000-5,000-word research proposal.

What is a Research Proposal?

A research proposal sets out:

• the broad topic you wish to research (substance)
• the reasons for the research (rationale)
• what the research hopes to achieve (aims and objectives)
• how you are going to conduct the research (methodology)
• how you plan to undertake the research within the time available (outline plan)
• the expected results concerning knowledge and understanding in the subject (potential outcomes or contribution to knowledge)

How to Write a Research Proposal

Evaluate the context of your ideas; read widely and relevantly to make sure that your proposal has originality, will add knowledge to the field and build on existing literature. Then structure your writing as follows:

Context: Set your research context and explain what you will research, why the research is of value, and how you propose to go about it. You also need to demonstrate that your proposed research has a significant contribution to existing bodies of literature. That is, it should explain clearly how your research will either fill a gap, develop, complete or follow on from previous research.

Aim(s) and objectives: Outline what you seek to achieve by providing a clear research framework. Be clear and concise; you cannot cover everything on the topic within a PhD project, so be specific about what you are seeking to explore. Typically an overarching aim and up to 5 objectives work well, and then use these to justify the significant approaches you will take.

Research questions: Follow your aims and objectives and explain the questions you want your research to address hypotheses you want to test.

Literature review: Summarize current literature in your proposed area of research to determine the relevance and value of your research. Significantly, it would help if you made your contribution clear by demonstrating your knowledge of the literature on your topic and how your research would contribute to it. Through the literature review, you lay the foundations for your research questions by critically evaluating what has already been done, how it could be improved, where the gaps are, or the new frontiers that your research will address.

Methodology: Given your aims and research questions/objectives, consider your research approach (including your theoretical/conceptual framework), your main research design (e.g. qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods) and the most appropriate research methods for achieving them. Explain why the proposed research method(s) is the most appropriate methodology for effectively addressing your research questions/objectives. This includes a justification of the methodology by explaining what alternatives have been considered and why these have been disregarded.

Plan: Outline the main stages of your research and how you would assess progress throughout the project supported by a project plan with indicative milestones presented in the form of a Gantt chart. In project planning, the scheduling of individual activities is typically worked backwards from the deadline. Of course, some tasks have to be carried out consecutively, but others can be carried out concurrently.

Outcomes: Describe what you hope to discover at the end of your research and what new areas it might open up. At the start, this can be a challenge as you cannot know the research findings before completion, but there must be a range of possible outcomes or contributions to knowledge.

References: Include a list of all literature sources cited in the proposal using the Harvard referencing style.

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Additional Tips

Make the Contribution Clear

Demonstrate your knowledge of current literature on your topic and how your research would contribute to it. What would your research add to contemporary literature and make a unique contribution to research on the matter? You need to draw on relevant research (not everything written on the subject but key articles/texts) and demonstrate critical reflection on this work and how your study would add to it. 

Have a Good, Specific Title

Be sure to include essential keywords that relate to your research and make sure your title goes beyond just describing the topic. It should give a clear indication of your approach and research questions.

Define a Clear Aim and Your Objectives

Provide a clear framework for the research, so be clear and concise. You cannot cover everything on the topic within a PhD so be specific about what you seek to explore. Typically, an overarching aim and 3 – 5 objectives work well, and then use these to justify the significant approaches you will take in terms of concepts, theory, and empirical approach.

Have a Strong Research Design and Methodology

Of course, MPhil/ PhD study often evolves due to developing the literature review, but having a straightforward method at the start will help you and potential supervisors determine the viability of your research. Set out in clear terms your overall approach (e.g. will it be mainly qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods research, does it involve primary data collection, and if so, what methods will you use?). Justify your approach by engaging in the literature on the pros and cons of your specific methodological choices so that you can, for example, justify why survey data might be appropriate, or in-depth interviews are the best approach, or indeed a combination of different methods. Also include a clear timeline for completing these tasks along with the other elements of your PhD (literature review, analysis, writing up etc.). A well-developed methodology section is crucial, so include how you will get the data you require and techniques regarding analysis and a rationale for these choices.

Don't Produce a Proposal for 'Mass Consumption.'

If you are applying to multiple institutions, make sure you understand and tailor your proposal to the relevant research being undertaken there. Research the University and department you are using, its staff, and their research related to your topic. Readers can easily spot if a proposal has been produced for mass consumption.

Avoid Plagiarism

This one should be obvious. Make sure that all of your work is your own, written in your own words. You need to ensure that the literature review and the way the contribution is defined and developed and all other elements are correctly cited using appropriate references and that you write them. If not, your application will not succeed.

Let Your Passion for the Topic Shine Through

By constructing a clear and well-written proposal, your interest in the topic should be clear. Demonstrate your interest in the subject and what the study aims to achieve – this may include contributions to theory and have practical applications such as recommendations for policy and practice.