How to Write a Research Proposal That Gets Approved (UK Postgrad)
The structure UK supervisors actually want - and the three sections most proposals get wrong.
A UK postgraduate research proposal is a contract, not an essay. It needs to convince your supervisor that the project is interesting, feasible, and finishable inside your timeframe.
Standard structure
Working title; background and rationale; research question(s); literature review (mini); methodology; ethics; timeline; references. 1,500–3,000 words for most UK masters, 5,000–8,000 for PhD.
Where most proposals fail
Methodology too vague, timeline too optimistic, and ethics treated as an afterthought. Be specific about every method; halve your optimistic timeline; treat ethics as a full section.
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