Title – a project title that gives a clear indication of the topic and context

Introduction (200-400 words) – the basic information about the topic and context, the field or disciplinary area of education studies where the project sits, and why this project is urgent, timely, important, meaningful – and how the project has the potential to make an original contribution to knowledge. You may also wish to identify personal and/or professional as well as academic motivations for conducting the proposed study, including your suitability for undertaking this project based on your prior studies and/or professional background.

Literature review (approx. 750 words) – the areas of academic literature that are relevant to your proposed project, and giving a summary of what existing research in this area has discussed, and how your project contributes to the existing scholarship. We are aware that many applicants to the programme may not have access to a wide range of up to date literature at the time of applying and take this into consideration when we review applications. In the proposal we are looking for evidence of applicants having located a range of sources and understood how they fit together to create an ongoing debate or conversation in a field of research. This section may include:
Further information about the context of the study, including the policy context if relevant, or this can be presented in a separate section.
You may also want to include information about your theoretical or conceptual framework in this or a separate section, if you already have ideas for this aspect of the study in place at this stage.
The literature review section should end with a short conclusion stating how the proposed study is located within but also extends existing research – this forms part of the rationale or justification for the study.

The overarching research questions and sub-questions that form the basis of the study (300-400 words). The research questions should be directly based on your topic and should relate to the rationale for the study as identified in the literature section. The research questions should form a coherent set of questions, rather than departing in different directions. Although a doctoral thesis is a substantial piece of work, the aim is to make a specific contribution to knowledge. The research questions frame this specific contribution. Along with stating the questions, include a short account of the questions, elaborating what they mean and what is being asked, and why.

Study design (approx. 750 words) – this section should describe the research design of the study. The section should include information on how the research design and methods will help to answer the research questions. The section should include:
the intended research approach (could include paradigm/theoretical stance/ontology/epistemology),
the proposed methodology (e.g. ethnography, case study, small-scale qualitative study, secondary data analysis, philosophical analysis, historical analysis, survey, action research),
the proposed methods (e.g. interview, observation, questionnaire, diary, or equivalent for a non-empirical study e.g. the concepts to be used for philosophical or historical analysis),
the participants to be included in the study (if applicable), or texts or policy documents or secondary data sources. How the participants will be sampled and recruited or the sources will be selected/accessed.
ethical issues you foresee in the proposed project, including related to your own positionality as a researcher – who are you in the research context? There is no project without some ethical issues and we are looking for brief discussion of this in the proposal.
plans for analysis – of course this is very early stages to propose a mode of analysis, but we are looking for some knowledge of modes of data analysis.

Conclusion (approx. 200 words). The proposal’s conclusion should summarise how the study is intended to achieve the original contribution to knowledge, and could also include a discussion of the project’s intended impact – on professional practice for instance, or policy, and on academic knowledge.

Brief timeline for the period of the doctoral degree

Word count. Please state the proposal word count at this stage of the proposal (excluding the references / appendices).

References / appendices. A list of cited references should be included after the main body of the proposal, and is not included in the word count. The references should use a Harvard referencing format or equivalent e.g. APA. Following this, any further detail should be included in the appendix. However note that this is for accompanying information only and will not be used to review the quality of the proposal.