Masters Project
Proposal Form

Your project proposal must give as much information as possible about what you intend to do and how you will go about it. It must be typed on A4 size paper and contain the following:

1 Your Contact Details

Name, Degree and Class Name, Registration ID Number, email address, phone number where you can be reached during your project work (please provide theses details for every member of the project group).

2 Project Title

Give the title of your proposed project. Later, as you delve more deeply into your subject, you may wish to change the original title to more accurately reflect what your project is about. Your supervisor will advise you on this.

3 Purpose of the Project and your Reasons for Choosing it.

State clearly and concisely the purpose and motivation for your project.

4 Project Question(s)

What is your research question(s), what do you expect your work to accomplish, and what conclusions do you hope to draw from it? Please remember to confine your aims to what you really can accomplish in the time available and with the resources at your disposal. If you are going to work with a hypothesis – what is it?

5 Personal Learning Objectives

What do you personally want to gain from carrying out the research and how you will know if you have achieved it?

6 Relevant Past Studies

What theories will you draw on to shape your research? What do “leading authorities” in your subject area have to say about it? This information will help you (a) to develop and support your own views, and (b) to demonstrate to your readers that you are aware of such previous work in your field. Always include references.

7 Sources of Data

What types of information will you need to collect in order to answer your project question(s), where will you get it from and how accessible is it. Can you get access to a Company or organisation(s)? There are two kinds of data: primary, which you collect yourself, perhaps by using interviews, questionnaires or observation, and secondary, which has already been published and collated for some other purpose, such as annual reports, management reports, company surveys or the Internet, and which you can re-analyse to help answer your research question. Be specific about what sources of primary and/or secondary data you will use in your project.

8 Proposed Methodology

What is your proposed research approach and research strategy? What methods will you use to collect and analyse your data? For example, if you are going to investigate a problem in a particular organisation, what “tools”, such as interviews, questionnaires, personal observations, examination of written records or of systems will you employ and how will you process the results? In short, how are you going to get your information and use it in order to answer your project question(s)?

9 Anticipated Problems

What difficulties might you have to overcome in conducting your project? Is it going to be difficult for you to gain access to the information, either primary or secondary, that you will need? If so, what can you do about it? Can you foresee any other snags that might hinder your work and how do you propose to deal with them? Pre-planning will improve the chances of project success.

10 Outline of Chapters

Give a very brief summary of the contents of each of your proposed chapters. This provides you and your supervisor with an outline plan to work to. You may have to make some changes as you obtain more information, but it is essential to create such a framework at the outset.

11 Expected Schedule

How long do you expect to take to complete your project? State as precisely as you can:

· the overall time scale, including key milestones;

· the target date for completion of your first two chapters;

· other deadlines which you intend to set yourself;

· when you expect your final draft to be ready, and the target date for completion of your project.

12 Group Agreement

If you intend to do your project with one or more other students who are taking the same degree programme as you are, it is important that you discuss at the outset what types of difficulties might arise in group work (e.g. interpersonal communication difficulties, what happens if one member of the group becomes indisposed, or people make different contributions according to their capabilities). Here you should write down the agreement that you have reached, and all members of the group should sign and date this agreement.

Agreement:

Signatures ……………………………………………………………………. Date ……………………………..

13 Supervision

The supervisor’s role is to guide you through your project and to monitor your progress. Use the Supervisor Index on the intranet to identify a supervisor who has expertise in the area of your project.

Supervisor’s Name: ………………………………………………………………………………………..

Supervisor’s Signature: ………………………………………………………………………………………..

Date: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

14 Ethics Application

Does your research involve people? Yes/No

Will you be sending out questionnaires? Yes/No

Will you interview people on the telephone or face-to-face? Yes/No

Does your research involve observing people at work? Yes/No

If you answered Yes to any of these questions, please complete an Ethics Application (the form is available on MyPlace) and attach it to this Project Proposal Form.