Hi,

I'm struggling to get accepted as a PhD student because of my Research paper. Most of the time I get the feed back that my research isn't sufficient enough for a PhD material. Can anyone give my research topic a read and give me some feedback please? I'm based in UK, London. I have BA(Hons) and MA from Kingston University.

Here is a link to my proposal :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mhmhl5okqkqobka/Research%20Proposal-Long.pdf?dl=0

Link doesn't work

In what discipline? (And, yes, as ToL sez, that's 404.)

It works ok if copy and paste.

I haven't read it, but first off I would say change the typeface - stick to the obvious ones Arial/Times New Roman/Calibri etc

Also, I think it looks quite long. It's not my field so can't be of much help.

Ah thanks. Yes have to echo ToL; no expertise here either, sorry. But regarding the length, twelve pages is OTT: try and summarise it in a couple of pages (for instance, cut out the lit. rev, but DO highlight where your work will sit within the current literature). Can you reduce each section to a couple of lines?

Ultimately though these are cosmetic points- the proposal is intended to demonstrate how your work will contribute original to current knowledge. If you are being rejected, it is ultimately because they don't see any originality in it. Incidentally- who have you been showing it too? You say you've been at Kingston for both your previous degrees- were you thinking of staying there? Institutions are usually keen to retain students for postgraduate studies, and there would be nothing unethical about you discussing proposals within your curent department- finding a gap in knowledge- before submitting formally.

I swore I wrote a 2 post response after reading the introduction of conclusion....sheesh....not typing that over...

EDIT: NVM, OP created identical threads.

The title does not make sense to me. It needs re-writing.

The literature review needs to be incorporated into the introduction and you need references throughout the whole document, Also use Harvard referencing. Mendeley (a software will make this much easier to do)

I'd be happy to look at it again and comment on it, once you have made above changes. Feel free to PM me. Best of luck

Hi Eds,

Thank you for looking it through.I do have a summarized version and will post the link below.
And in regards to staying in Kingston I couldn't find any supervisor who can help me on this field, their Design PhDs are more Environmental Design and design sustainability based. I've applied to a few other universities and I was told this may not be a design project instead a social science project? But i thoroughly want to keep it in line within the design discipline. My main motive here is to prepare design undergrads towards a freelancing career as i found there are no taught module here in Uk universities that prepares students into freelancing if the economy struggles and they find it hard to get their first job as a designer.My contribution to the current literature would be a course module that will use my research findings to teach freelancing.

I'm not sure if this will be accepted abroad such as US,Can, Aus as I haven't applied with the current paper.
I figured let me fix it with others feedback on this and go from there.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/faa33dgqua4bwfk/Research%20Proposal-Short.pdf?dl=0

Thanx Hugh, I'll look into the referencing part, and I was told the title needs to be more specific as in asking a question to the problem? rather than a statement? and isn't the title for your PhD is ever changing? or it needs to be specific when you are applying with a proposal?

Hi markhossain,

In my experience having a successful application depends a lot on the research question you are focusing on and the extent to which this in the "economic/academic" interest of the funding body. I would love to have a chat with you and see how we can make your application more successful. Please feel free to contact me!

Pieter