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Research proposals

What can research proposals assess?

Warwick is a research-intensive university and we claim that our graduates leave with an understanding of, and capability in, research. It is important to recognise that the research undertaken by undergraduate and postgraduate taught students might not produce knowledge which is new to the world, but that researching a topic that is new to them will still enable them to develop their skills, knowledge, and understanding.

One way to support their development as researchers is to ask them to develop a research proposal, certainly as a stage towards their final year project. A possible progression would be an annotated bibliography in year 1, a research proposal in year 2 and a full research project in the final year.

A research proposal requires learners to select a topic [intrinsic motivation as it is their choice] and through analysis and synthesis of knowledge, decide an original research question and then propose a way to answer that problem. The requirement to complete a literature review will deepen their knowledge and understanding of the topic and selecting an appropriate research methodology means they need to know the ‘standard’ approaches used in the discipline.

Design

Research proposals will bear the hallmarks of their discipline, but one might expect:

  • title
  • background and rationale
  • research question(s)
  • research methodology
  • plan of work & time schedule
  • bibliography

The ability to carry out a literature review to develop the research question, and to generate the bibliography and to select a research methodology means this is an ideal synoptic task to follow courses on both topics. Work plans and schedules will get the learners into the realms of time management and estimates and these are valuable generic skills.

Finally, you need to think how the students will present their proposal: written, oral presentation or poster, and whether this will be an individual or group task. All of these are valuable generic skills that need to be developed in our graduates.

Diversity & inclusion

The range of possible topics [home and international] and appropriate choice of time frames to complete the task [particular needs] will help make the task more inclusive.

Academic integrity

Students are likely to be more personally invested in a topic that they have themselves chosen, which increases their intrinsic motivation and enables them to produce work that they are proud of. This promotes academic integrity.

The individuated nature of these research assignments also reduces the risk of 'answers' floating around on the internet which can help to reduce year-to-year plagiarism.

Support for students to manage their time effectively, regular milestones and check-ins - perhaps using the list above to structure stages - will help keep students on track, reducing deadline stress which might be particularly acute given a large piece of work (likely to be heavily weighted and therefore high stakes). This in turn should reduce motivation to take short cuts which might compromise academic integrity.

Generating evidence over time further encourages academic integrity and makes academic misconduct more easily detectable (which may also act as a deterrent). (Click here for further guidance on academic integrity in assessment.)

Generative AI is already being utilised as a tool to support academic researchers, and may be authentically used to support all stages in the creation of a research proposal. Integrating skills development for productive and ethical use of AI is likely to become an increasingly important aspect of researcher development. Banning the use of AI in this sort of assessment may therefore be undesirable. Adding a reflective piece or requirement to provide commentary on how the research proposal was developed (research journal/diary or blog) might be helpful if you want to place constraints on the use of AI.

Student and staff experience
Benefits

Learning through research is a great way to engage learners, especially within a culture like ours, and there are opportunities to develop a range of transferable skills.

Challenge

If you think about your own development in this aspect of academe you will, no doubt, recall the difficulties of the early researcher and the support that you needed. You need to plan for this support and guidance for your students.

Workload

We might need to check that students do not spend too long on this sort of task to the detriment of other work (on other modules, as research tends to take as much time as it is given).

Multiple titles can add to the setting, specifying and marking load for staff.