What is the thesis proposal submission form template?
Departments review many thesis and dissertation proposals each year, and they arrive in every shape: a long essay, a one-page email, a slide deck. Reviewers spend time hunting for the research question, the methods, the timeline and whether a supervisor has agreed, and ethics needs sometimes surface only when data collection is about to start.
This thesis proposal submission template gives every proposal the same structure. The student gives their programme, department, level and study mode, then the working title, field, keywords, research questions, background, key literature and expected contribution. The methods page records the approach, methods and data, resources, timeline, target submission date and word count. The last page names the supervisors, asks whether they've agreed, flags human participants, sensitive data, animals, hazards or risky fieldwork, records ethics status and reference, takes the full proposal and bibliography, and ends with an integrity declaration and signature.
Each proposal is filed as a PDF in your FileIt vault with its documents attached, ready for the review panel.
- Best for
- Universities, colleges, graduate schools and departments running thesis or capstone programmes
- Filled in by
- Undergraduate, master's and doctoral students
- Time to complete
- About 30 minutes with a draft proposal ready
- Includes
- Programme and level, title, research questions, rationale, literature, contribution, approach, methods, resources, timeline, supervisors, ethics screening and status, uploads, integrity declaration, signature
Who uses a thesis proposal submission form?
- A department collecting master's dissertation proposals each spring
- A graduate school standardising doctoral research proposals
- An honours programme matching students with supervisors
- A research ethics office screening which projects need review
- A capstone coordinator tracking proposals across a cohort
- A part-time student submitting a proposal remotely
Questions on this thesis proposal submission form
33 questions over 4 pages · includes signature, file upload, conditional questions, multiple pages, consent checkbox.
1 Student & programme
- Student*
- Student ID*
- University email*
- Programme or degree*
- Department or school*
- Level* Undergraduate · Master's · Doctoral
- Study mode Full-time · Part-time
- Year of entry
2 Research proposal
- Working title*
- Field or sub-discipline
- Keywords
- Research question(s)*
- Background and rationale*
- Key literature
- Expected contribution*
3 Methods & timeline
- Approach* Quantitative · Qualitative · Mixed methods · Theoretical or conceptual · Experimental or lab-based · Practice-based or creative · Archival or historical
- Methods and data*
- Resources needed
- Timeline and milestones*
- Target submission date*
- Expected word count
4 Supervision, ethics & submission
- Proposed supervisor*
- Second supervisor or adviser
- Has the supervisor agreed to supervise?*
- Does the research involve any of these?* Human participants (surveys, interviews, observation) · Personal or sensitive data · Children or vulnerable people · Animals · Hazardous materials · Fieldwork abroad or in risky settings · None of these
- Ethics, consent and data protection plan* asked only when it applies
- Ethics approval* Not needed · Will apply after this proposal is approved · Application submitted · Approved
- Ethics reference number* asked only when it applies
- Full proposal document
- Bibliography
- Academic integrity*
- Student signature*
- Date*
The thesis proposal submission form, page by page
1 Student & programme
The student gives their name, student ID, university email, programme, department, level, study mode and year of entry.
2 Research proposal
The working title, field and keywords come first, then the research questions or hypotheses, background and rationale, key literature and expected contribution.
3 Methods & timeline
The student chooses their approach, from quantitative and qualitative to practice-based or archival, and describes methods and data, resources needed, a timeline with milestones, the target submission date and expected word count.
4 Supervision, ethics & submission
The student names the proposed supervisor and second supervisor and confirms whether the supervisor has agreed. They tick whether the research involves human participants, sensitive data, children, animals, hazardous materials or risky fieldwork, describe their ethics, consent and data plan, give the ethics approval status and reference if approved, upload the full proposal and bibliography, confirm academic integrity and sign.
Make the template yours
- Add word limits to the long-answer questions to match your guidelines
- Replace the supervisor fields with a dropdown of available supervisors
- Add your ethics office to the notification list so they see proposals that flag ethics needs
- Change the levels to the programmes you run
- Set a closing date for each proposal round
Tips for a better thesis proposal submission form
- Ask students to discuss the proposal with their supervisor before submitting
- Read the research question and timeline together; ambitious questions need realistic plans
- Send ethics screening answers to the ethics office early
- Use the Responses table to see which supervisors have the most students
- Keep approved proposals with the student's record for later progress reviews
Every response becomes a PDF in your vault
Each signed proposal becomes a PDF in the vault folder you choose, with the full proposal and bibliography attached. The programme office is notified, and the student receives a copy.
The Responses table lists proposals by student, level, supervisor and ethics status, and exports to CSV for review panels.
- Start from this template. It opens in the FileIt Forms designer — change any question, add pages, set the rules for when questions appear.
- Share it. Turn on a public link, or send it to people by email, each with their own link. They don’t need a FileIt account.
- Get the answers as PDFs. Each response is saved as a PDF in the vault folder you choose, with uploaded files attached — and listed in a Responses table you can export to CSV.
Thesis proposal submission form: frequently asked questions
Is this thesis proposal template free?
Yes. It's a FileIt Forms starter template on every account.
Does this form replace ethics review?
No. It screens for ethics needs and records the status. Ethics approval happens through your institution's own process.
Can students upload their full proposal?
Yes. They can upload the full proposal and a bibliography as PDF or Word files.
Can it be used for undergraduate dissertations?
Yes. Undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels are included.
Do students need a FileIt account?
No. They submit from the link; the form asks for their name and email.
Can supervisors approve inside the form?
The template is for the student's submission. You could add a supervisor approval page with a second signature in the designer.