PhD Bootcamp

Research Proposal
10 December 2023
Ryka x Didit
 PhD Research Proposal

Decide
your
kind of •PhD Advertisement
project

•Own Research Topic

 PhD Research Proposal

Your PhD is worthwhile

Your PhD is feasible

You’re capable of completing

it at that university
 PhD Research Proposal
Just be clear, concise and coherent
1000-2000 words (depend on university’s guidelines)
Do’s Don’t
Give yourself enough time to do a good job Send the same proposal to several
universities

Set out to impress Use online proposal templates (without

evaluating them first!)

Demonstrate original thinking! Confuse the proposal with the PhD

Ignore your university's help and guidance

 Title

Overview

Methodology

Outcomes and impact

 Title – Keep it simple and descriptive: the clever alliteration and quotes
Overview can come later when you write up your thesis. For now, you just want the
person reading this to know exactly what your research is about and,
perhaps, which prospective supervisor to send it to.

Methodology
Example

Outcomes and Nursing Students’ Attitudes towards Rural Nursing Practice

impact
- YUEXIAN TAO
 Overview – Start by defining your research question (the what) and
explaining how it contributes to current work in your field (the why). This is
also a good place to reference one or two pieces of scholarship: the
full literature review can wait until your PhD begins, but you should show
that you have some understanding of relevant academic research.

Overview Example
Background: Nursing shortage is a worldwide phenomenon;
in rural areas, this shortage is exacerbated by geographical
imbalances. Reducing the inequality of health outcomes
Methodology
between rural and urban areas requires improvement in the
rural nursing workforce. Thus far, little research has been
Outcomes and conducted on the recruitment of nursing students to rural
impact nursing in China.

Aim: This study aim to explore nursing students’ perspectives

of rural nursing practice and their intentions to work rurally
after graduation, and to identify factors contributing to those
intentions.
 Methodology – Make sure the reader understands the practical and / or
theoretical approaches you'll take to your research. What data will you
collect, how will you collect it and how will you analyse it? Ideally refer to
relevant research methods and models. It's also a good idea to provide
Overview some sort of roadmap for how you'll go about things. Don't worry, you can
change it later (and you will).

Example
Methodology
Methods: Exploratory interviews will be conducted with eleven nursing
students to obtain their perspectives of rural nursing practice. This was
Outcomes and followed by a hand distributed and collected self-completion
questionnaire survey that involved 445 final year nursing students in six
Impact
nursing schools in one province in China. The questionnaire measured
students’ rural career intentions and their perceptions of rural nursing
practice. The survey data were collected between December 2011 and
March 2012. The response rate for the questionnaire survey was 89%.
 Outcomes and impact – What will exist as a result of your research (other
than just another PhD on a library shelf) and what will it make possible?
You don't need to identify every specific outcome from your project (blue
sky research is fine) but you should think about what some potential
outcomes might be.
Overview
Example

Results: The results will indicate that the majority of final year nursing students did not
Methodology
intend to work rurally. The most frequently cited barriers deterring them from considering
a rural job were the perceived fewer opportunities for skills development and learning,
potentially lower financial rewards, and family members’ disapproval of rural working.
Outcomes and Regression analysis showed that the length of time living rurally and educational level were
impact the most important predictors of nursing students’ intentions to take a rural job
immediately following graduation. The logistic regression illustrate that rural identification,
degree, and rural placement experiences were significant predictors for nursing students’
intentions to work rurally in their future nursing career.
 Other Key Components
Literature Aim and
Introduction Review objectives
(300 words)
(500 words) (100 words)

Research
Methods Time Schedule
(100 words)
(1000 words)
 Other Key Components
1. Guidelines check!
2. Form proposal university
3. Proposal PhD Advertisement
4. Full Research Proposal Example