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Thesis Writing

Thesis Topics

Interesting Thesis Topics & Ideas To Get Started

17 min read

Thesis Topics for Students

We’ll start with a comprehensive list of thesis ideas for students, then move on to topics for multiple fields.

Thesis Topics for College Students

Exploring the psychological effects of student loan debt on college graduates
The challenges and opportunities of globalization
The role of education and social mobility in reducing inequality
The impact of immigration on the economy and society
The potential of new technologies to improve healthcare outcomes
The impact of online learning on student engagement and achievement
What is the role of artificial intelligence in business decision-making?
High school bullying and its long-term effects on mental health and social adjustment
The challenges and opportunities of diversity and inclusion in education
The impact of early childhood education on long-term success

Senior Thesis Topics

The industrial revolution has increased the gap between the rich and the poor. How?
What are the effects of global warming on the world’s population?
Feminism is becoming as bad as racism. How?
The relationship between social media usage and perceptions of loneliness
The long-term effects of income inequality on economic growth
Placement by age vs. placement by academic ability. Which should be preferred?
How have viruses such as HIV-AIDS, affected the African economy?
What are the common sleep disorders and their treatments?
Using animals for sports and entertainment: Is it legal or illegal?
Discuss Trump’s “America First” trade and foreign policy.

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Bachelor Thesis Topics

The impact of E-Sports on traditional sports and the future of competitive gaming
The economics of renewable energy transition: Case study of Germany
The influence of music on cognitive performance and productivity in the workplace
The influence of social media on political movements and activism
The ethical implications of gene editing technologies: A case study on CRISPR-Cas9
Urban green spaces and their impact on mental health: A case study of Singapore
The relationship between smartphone use and sleep quality in young adults
Investigating the psychological factors influencing consumer brand loyalty
Cybersecurity threats and mitigation strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises
The impact of video games on cognitive skills and problem-solving abilities in children

Masters Thesis Topics

Discuss the relationship between literature and the political climate in the 18th century
Explain the relationship between rational thinking and religion
The Civil War is the greatest inspiration for art. Discuss the concept
Gun violence in the USA during the 2010s: A comparative analysis
Cyberbullying can lead to suicides - A case study of Australia
Campus shootings in the USA: Discuss the causes and risk factors
Labor markets in China: An in-depth analysis
What are the impacts of global warming on weather conditions in Iceland?
Explain the women's empowerment in Saudi Arabia in the 2000s
Write a detailed comparison of the anti-nuclear movements in Germany and Japan

MBA Thesis Topics

Discuss a case study of rural marketing projects.
What are the impacts of reducing the retirement age in America?
Mergers and acquisitions: Evaluating the factors contributing to success or failure
How can the banking sector influence the economic growth of India?
Analysis of global supply chain resilience in the post-pandemic business environment
Online marketing on social media platforms is useful for small companies. How?
Write a comparative study of organized trading in the USA and UK
How is technical knowledge essential to make wise financial decisions?
How can consumer purchases influence brand design?
Explore the positive and negative impacts of mobile banking

PhD Thesis Topics

What are the primary professors’ teaching patterns in China?
Discuss the social benefits of same-sex marriages
Discuss the legal issue of child labor in Third World countries.
What is the positive impact of music therapy on patients with brain injuries?
Explain the impacts of 9/11 on new policies against terrorism
Discuss the marketing strategies used in political campaigns
The US presence in Syria: Is it providing justice or violating the law?
Elaborate on the preventive measures to fight obesity among teenagers.
How to treat injuries in diabetic patients?
What are the political and economic effects of Brexit on the UK?

Thesis Topics for Multiple Fields

Here are some interesting and easy to write thesis topics from multiple fields of study.

Thesis Topics in Education

Special education policies in the USA: Are they effective or ineffective?
Why is studying abroad a legitimate excuse for traveling?
Strategies for supporting undergraduate students' transition to college life
Family involvement has a direct impact on a child's performance. Discuss how?
Why are students more likely to do the homework assigned by good-looking professors?
Role of Parental Involvement in early childhood education for academic readiness
Explain the development of emotional intelligence for modern education
Informal learning in rural areas through social networks. Is it possible?
Public school students interact at the same level as the other students. Is it true?
How can reality television disempower students to some extent?

Thesis Topics in Healthcare

How does increased physical activity promote healthy aging?
The impact of telemedicine on healthcare access and quality
Mental health stigma: Addressing barriers to seeking and receiving care
How do Supervised Machine Learning models help in Breast Cancer diagnosis?
Exploring the mental health implications of prolonged pandemic-related stress and isolation
Innovations in remote patient monitoring for chronic disease management
How can we improve the affordability of healthcare without sacrificing quality?
Strategies for addressing the global burden of non-communicable diseases
How can we use social media to promote health literacy and engagement?
How can we use genomics to improve disease prevention and treatment?

Thesis Topics for Computer Science

Quantum computing: The future of data processing and cryptography
How does the feedback system in personnel management work?
Describe the development of an automated workplace
How can data be analyzed by using robust AI algorithms?
Discuss the benefits of the development of a taxi service website
The dark web: Anonymity, security, and law enforcement challenges
Verification of webpage layouts. How is it beneficial?
What are the impacts of mobile computing on global development?
Big data analytics for predictive maintenance in IoT systems
How can AI-assisted surveillance systems decrease mass school shootings in the US?

Architecture Thesis Topics

How have religious buildings in the British Empire affected architecture?
Discuss the role of architects in combating the impacts of climate change
Why should we construct sustainable buildings for offices?
Discuss a case study of small houses to solve homelessness
Why should we develop public places in small cities?
How can architecture revitalize urban areas sustainably?
Are underwater hotels sustainable?
Discuss the transformation of urban design in the 21st century
How can we construct houses in developed countries with low income?
How can architectural design create healing environments in healthcare facilities?

Thesis Topics for Interior Design

Role of biophilic design in reducing stress and anxiety in workplaces
Designing interior spaces for people with dementia
The use of technology to create immersive and interactive interior experiences
Design of interior spaces for future generations
Impact of culture on prisons and other correctional facilities design
Use of universal design to create inclusive restaurants and cafés
Use of materials and finishes to create a sustainable and resilient built environment
What is the impact of interior design on human performance?
Creating inclusive and accessible interior spaces for people with disabilities
What is the future of interior design in the age of climate change?

Thesis Topics for Textile Designing

How to design textiles that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional?
Environmental impact of textile design and how to reduce it
How can textile design improve the performance of sportswear and activewear?
Design a textile collection that is accessible and affordable for people with disabilities
Develop a sustainable textile production process that reduces environmental impact
Investigate the impact of textile design on consumer behavior
Explore the use of sustainable materials in textile design
Challenges and opportunities of new technologies in textile design
Ethical implications of materials and production methods in textile design
How can textile design reduce fashion waste and promote circularity?

Psychology Thesis Topics

Why is emotional intelligence an important factor in professional satisfaction?
The notion of the self – Is it a myth or reality?
Evaluating the efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral
Therapy in managing anxiety
Self-efficacy and academic achievement: A longitudinal study of students
A good IQ level can have long-term benefits for children. Discuss how?
How are emotional disorders directly connected to social cognition?
Analyze the relationship between emotional and episodic memory
How can rational thinking allow us to make better decisions?
How common is depression among homosexual teenagers?
What are the psychological techniques to help obese teens?

Political Science Thesis Topics

Compare the foreign policies of the US and the UK
What were the causes of the American Revolution?
How is religion used as a political power?
What is the role of social movements in politics?
Discuss the consequences of the Civil War
Immigration policies and their impact on social cohesion and diversity
The impact of campaign finance reform on political corruption
What are the negotiation methods during wartime?
Explain the difference between political and armed conflicts
Give a detailed review of the Human Rights Act 1998

Thesis Topics for Law Students

The role of international law in addressing global cybersecurity threats
Human rights and refugee law: Analyzing the legal status of stateless individuals
Legal aspects of intellectual property rights in the fashion industry
Consumer protection laws in E-Commerce: Challenges and emerging trends
How can we ensure that plea bargaining is used fairly and ethically?
Examining the legal and ethical implications of genetic testing and genetic privacy
The evolution of copyright law in the digital era: Balancing innovation and protection
How has globalization changed the landscape of international law?
What is the future of International Law in a world of increasing nationalism?
The impact of race and ethnicity on criminal sentencing

International Relations Thesis Topics

What is the impact of Russia’s intervention in Syria?
Discuss the trade relations between India and Pakistan
Discuss the impacts of the US sanctions on Iran
Explain the reasons for OIC failure
What is the US foreign policy towards North Korea?
Critically analyze the human rights violations in Kashmir
What is the policy of the United States toward Russia?
Discuss lessons learned politically since 9/11
Political problems in Africa have been affected by colonial rule. How?
Discuss how is Israel playing the victim card in the war against Palestine

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History Thesis Topics

How has World War II saved the world?
What is the impact of Buddhism on the Chinese empire?
Discuss the struggles of the North American colonies for independence
Describe the role of the monarchy in the domestic policy of Great Britain
Discuss the impacts of the North Korean nuclear program in Northeast Asia
Evaluate the American and Britain relations during the Cold War Era
Discuss the global impacts of the Great Depression
Explain the Women's rights and woman suffrage: 1848-1920.
Enlist the Military Innovations between WWI & WWII
Discuss the feminist movement from 1845 to 1920

Criminal Justice Thesis Topics

What are the ways to deal with domestic violence?
How can we reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system?
How is electronic monitoring an abuse of privacy rights?
What can be done to prevent cyber crimes?
What are the common child abuse crimes committed?
How can body cameras reduce police violence?
Why are men more likely to get the death penalty?
How can drug courts help people with addictions?
Discuss the strategies used to stop criminal behavior
Discuss the effectiveness of capital punishment in deterring crime

Thesis Topics in English Literature

The influence of feminist theory on the work of Margaret Atwood
Discuss the effectiveness of verbal communication in displaying feelings
How do people communicate when there is no shared language?
Language travels through time. Discuss the concept
Elaborate on the advantages of learning a second language in graduate school
Discuss the effectiveness of non-verbal communication for displaying emotions.
Shakespearean adaptations in modern literature and film
Narrative techniques in experimental literature and their impact on storytelling
What are the benefits of learning two languages at once as a child?
How to best communicate: Verbally or non-verbally?

Thesis Topics in Mass Communication

Effects of user-generated content on news credibility and trust in online journalism
Impact of deep fake technology on media manipulation and trust in visual media
The role of media in promoting political polarization and extremism
The challenges of reporting on sensitive topics such as war, violence, and trauma
The ethics of using media to exploit or harm vulnerable populations
The influence of TikTok on youth culture and entertainment consumption
How does sports journalism respond to evolving media landscapes?
The role of social media influencers in shaping brand image and consumer behavior
The role of media in promoting corporate interests and agendas
What is the role of media in the surveillance state and the erosion of privacy?

Thesis Topics in Business Administration

How is digital transformation changing business models and strategies?
What role does venture capital play in funding and supporting startups?
The role of data analytics in decision-making and improving business outcomes
The challenges and opportunities of expanding into new markets
What factors influence call center industry employee retention?
Comparing leadership structures in manufacturing and retail sectors
How do varying leadership styles impact worker performance?
Challenges and opportunities of managing supply chains in a globalized economy
Is a Human Resources Officer still relevant in today's businesses?
What is the impact of internal communications on organizational objectives?

Thesis Topics in Physical Education

Role of physical education in preventing childhood obesity
Impact of physical activity on sleep quality and overall well-being
Influence of physical education on self-esteem and body image in adolescents
What strategies promote gender equity in physical education?
How can cultural competency be integrated into physical education programs?
How does virtual physical education impact student engagement?
What factors contribute to successful youth sports and athlete development?
How does assessment and feedback improve student learning in physical education?
How can older adults be encouraged to maintain active lifestyles?
Does physical education have a measurable impact on academic performance?

Civil Engineering Thesis Topics

Assessing the impact of climate change on infrastructure resilience
Optimizing traffic flow and transportation systems for urban mobility
Risk assessment and management in civil engineering projects
Green infrastructure and stormwater management in urban environments
Geotechnical engineering challenges in high-rise building construction
Resilient infrastructure for mitigating the impact of extreme weather events
Smart grids and energy-efficient infrastructure for future cities
The role of 3D printing in construction: Feasibility and applications
Augmented reality and virtual reality in civil engineering education and design
What are the risk factors involved in building skyscrapers?

Cyber Security Thesis Topics

How can network security deal with cyber crimes?
How can an informational system protect your data?
How can we prevent the growth of cyber hackers?
What are the different types of cyber crimes?
How can we make network security affordable for everyone?
Discuss the effectiveness of malware protection software.
How can we improve cybersecurity in wireless networks?
What are the ways to prevent cyber attacks in organizations?
How do people become cyber criminals?
What are the current trends in the field of cybercrime and security?

Sociology Thesis Topics

What are the consequences of adopting a child?
Discuss the concept of female empowerment in a conservative society
Organ transplantation in our society. Is it ethical?
Explain the diffusion and innovation in European culture
What are the challenges that most women face at workplaces?
How difficult is it to be a single parent in a society?
The impact of economic disparities on how people Live: A sociological study
Technology has changed the way we eat. How?
Violations of social norms can be a positive act. How?
What is the relationship between poverty and education?

Philosophy Thesis Topics

What is the nature of truth and reality in a post-modern world?
Is there any life after death?
Can a person be happy without friends and family?
Why is there a need to engage children in physical activities?
Will you have eternal satisfaction if you had all the wealth in the world?
How morality and religion are related to each other?
Why do people commit crimes when they’re at the brink of poverty?
How to develop a personal philosophy of life: Influences, values, and decision-making
Can free will exist in a deterministic universe, and what are its implications for agency and responsibility?
What is the nature of consciousness, and how does it relate to our perception of reality?

Economics Thesis Topics

Discuss the differences in commercial practices in rural and urban areas
Critically analyze regional divergence in Europe
Discuss the relationship between economic geography and the contemporary environment
What are the impacts of intellectual capital in growing markets?
Labor regulations are a way to solve the issue of unemployment. Discuss how?
Explain the factors that determine the market value of a business
What is the effect of labor force participation on the economy?
Discuss the impact of government expenditure on the economic growth of Australia
Discuss the impact of Brexit on small and middle businesses in the UK
Write a review of the aid and economic growth of developing economies

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Now that you have access to a wide range of thesis topics for multiple fields, you could use some tips to understand how you should pick a good thesis topic.

How to Choose a Good Thesis Topic?

Follow the easy tips given below to choose a good topic for your thesis.

steps-to-choose-a-good-thesis-topic-MyPerfectWords.com

The following is a detailed description of the tips for choosing thesis paper topics.

Know Your Target Audience : Understand your audience's preferences, opinions, and ideas, and always consider their feedback for better grades
Consider Your Strengths : Identify your skills and strengths, and focus on your areas of knowledge
Follow Your Interests : Select a topic that aligns with your passions and leverage your creativity for an engaging idea
Combine Different Ideas : Brainstorm multiple ideas based on your interests and knowledge to create a unique idea
Read and Find Gaps : Explore existing literature and research, to identify gaps or areas that require further investigation
Put Your Idea to the Test : Conduct small experiments or surveys to test your concept, and utilize data and human resources for a comprehensive analysis. Make sure to identify and address any flaws or weaknesses in your thesis idea.

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626 Dissertation Topics for Ph.D. and Thesis Ideas for Master Students

If you are about to go into the world of graduate school, then one of the first things you need to do is choose from all the possible dissertation topics available to you. This is no small task. You are likely to spend many years researching your Master’s or Ph.D. topic and writing the text. This means that choosing a dissertation topic should not be taken lightly.

No worries! Just read this article by our Custom Writing service, and you’ll find:

a collection of great thesis topics on finance, education, management, law, etc.
a range of tips on choosing a killing Ph.D. topic.
👍 Top 10 Dissertation Topics
🆚 Thesis vs Dissertation
🔝 Top 10 Thesis Topics
🎓 Thesis Topics List
✅ How to Choose a Topic

👍Top 10 Dissertation Topics

Ethical alternatives to animal testing.
What’s the future of the Dead Sea?
Does accent affect singing ability?
The importance of corporate values.
How does inflation affect small businesses?
Is homeschooling the future of education?
How does Tourette’s syndrome affect one’s daily life?
How to conduct market analysis for e-commerce.
Has globalization affected cultural appropriation?

🆚 Dissertation vs. Thesis: Is There a Difference?

People often consider a thesis and a dissertation to be the same thing. Yet, there is an important distinction between them. The key difference is that you need a thesis to complete a master’s degree, while a dissertation is necessary for obtaining a doctorate. Keep in mind that it’s vice versa in European higher education.

Here are some other differences:

	Thesis	Dissertation
	A thesis is usually shorter than a dissertation at approximately 100 pages.	A dissertation is usually 200-300 pages long.
	In a thesis, you build your work on an already existing idea.	In a dissertation, you need to present entirely original hypothesis.
	A thesis involves preliminary research.	A dissertation requires deeper original research.

Despite these differences, theses and dissertations have a lot in common:

You need them to complete a degree.
Both require certain levels of expertise and writing skills.
You defend an argument in both of them.
Plagiarism is prohibited in both theses and dissertations.

🔝 Top 10 Thesis Topics for 2024

The consequences of obesity.
The influence of social media .
Economic development and happiness.
Feminism in the United States.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Racism in schools and colleges.
Overeducation in the labor market.
DNA evidence in criminal justice.
Sales forecasting techniques.
Wage difference among athletes.

🎓 Thesis Topics & Ideas

Below, you’ll find a collection of excellent topics for a thesis. To simplify the task, it’s not a bad idea to use a topic chooser. We’ve also prepared a checklist that will help you make the right choice. If you agree with the following statements, you’ve chosen a good thesis topic:

You are interested in this subject. It will be easier for you to work on it if you like your area of research. Remember that you will have to spend long hours looking through various data. You need to stay motivated.
The topic is helpful in your career path. Choose a topic that you can apply to further research if you plan to pursue your career in the academic field. Choose something that you can use in your CV if you decided to work in the industry.
There is enough available research data. Don’t choose a topic that is too trivial or uncommon. It is essential to find enough relevant information. Consult your supervisor to understand if you can proceed with it.
The topic isn’t too broad or too narrow. Otherwise, it will be harder for you to find credible sources and relevant data.
You already have an understanding of it . Make a list of thesis topics that include the issues you have researched before. It will save you some time and allow you to evaluate your opportunities.
Your topic is unique. Make sure there are no other papers that explore exactly the same issue. The value of your work is your original contribution to the research. If somebody has already investigated the topic, there is not much sense in proceeding with it.

The picture shows the main characteristics of a good thesis topic.

Wondering where to find the most current topic for your research? We’ve collected them below.

Computer Science Thesis Topics

Computers surround us everywhere. From hospitals to home offices, it’s impossible to imagine life without them. A doctorate in computer science can allow you many career opportunities!

The latest developments in AI use for healthcare services . Healthcare in the US is expensive for its citizens. One way to reduce the cost is using computer algorithms. This technology research topic lets you explore how AI helps physicians with their tasks.
Computer security for public institutions. Several allegations about hackers stealing data from the US government emerged in recent years. With this dissertation idea, study public cybersecurity. Also, discuss ways to improve cybersecurity practices.
Visual recognition system architecture: real-time object detection. Discuss a system based on neural networks capable of detecting objects. Focus on the virtual environment. You can alter this trending topic in computer science for real-life settings.
Blockchain application outside financial technologies. Analyze and discuss the implications of using blockchain systems outside of the fintech sector. For example, study its use for public services and in government agencies. This topic allows exploring ways of applying established algorithms.
Machine learning and text structures. Discuss ways of visualizing text categorization. Focus on complex hierarchical structures of texts. This topic is suitable for postgraduates.
Encrypted search: security, performance, and usage. Discuss the use of encryptions to protect data. Say how we can improve it for effective information search.
Use of computers in education . Study how algorithms can improve learning. This topic can be altered for other fields. For example, choose AI in business or agriculture.
Graphics and visual computing: current state and the future. By now, CAD programs are an integral part of every engineer’s tool kit. Your thesis can analyze the potential of those programs. What would improve their performance? Is there a chance that they will become obsolete?
Multimedia databases parsing and indexing. Netflix and YouTube require technology to search across their multimedia databases. This dissertation can be a survey on best practices. Or, add a company name to the title and focus your research on it.
AI Marketing: the use of algorithms to improve advertising. In the previous list of research question examples, you can choose a narrow marketing theme. Then, discuss the implications of such algorithms.
Study computation of models for virtual environments .
Cybersecurity challenges for automated vehicles.
AI and vehicle automation: potential safety gaps.
Computer graphics: perspectives for medical imaging.
Research the use of computer algorithms for medical analysis.
Discuss the role of bioinformatics in healthcare improvement.
How is a computer-aided design used in creating automobile parts?
Review the best practices for System Level Testing of distributed systems.
Agile project management for software engineers.
Software development risks analysis for successful employment.
Study the security mechanisms for WLAN networks .
Malicious botnets and network worms: an overview.
What are the best practices in ICT systems development?
Web-based document management systems using XML.
Best algorithms for cluster generation.
Methods for improving Open Web Architecture.
Analyze software solutions for the increased energy efficiency.
Protection of systems against terror attacks: a case study and analysis.
New methods of risk management during software development.
Analyze how Web space requirements are changing.
Analyze how e-publishing is affecting libraries.
New methods for studying the behavior of malware, viruses, and worms with the use of secure programming and runtime environments.
Analyze redundancy and fault recovery in the 4G wireless network.
Analyze the implementation and analysis of the optimal algorithm vs the heuristic algorithm for the generation of clusters.
Analyze how full-text databases affect search engines.

Humanities and Art History Thesis Topics

Do you want to put your passion into words? Would you like to share your ideas with the world? Then pursuing a Ph.D. in the arts or humanities is the right path for you.

The history of cinema : past and present. With this history dissertation topic, focus on how cinema developed. Explore the period starting from the first short films by the Lumiere brothers. Finish the discussion with modern-day Hollywood examples.
Art or commerce: a case study of Hollywood films. Discuss the intersection between artistic expression and profit. This exciting arts topic focuses on modern cinema. You can use examples of art-house movies and modern commercially successful ones.
Hollywood vs. Bollywood . Compare the two distinct film production centers for this art thesis. Next, discuss how local cultures impact Hollywood and Bollywood movies’ direction, genres, and plots.
The use of visual tools in interior design . This dissertation topic is an intersection between arts and computer science. The focus is on how visualization tools help to create design projects.
Racism in the 21st-century literature. Focus on how the narratives about racism have changed. Include examples from poetry and prose of this era. Compare it to works published in the past.
The cultural aesthetic of Afrofuturism in literature. This dissertation idea allows you to explore the intersection of arts. Specifically, see how culture, philosophy of science, and history manifest in Afrofuturism.
The social value of ecopoetry. Analyze how literature that focuses on ecological problems. Discuss environmental consciousness and environmental issues.
Graphic novels: the best examples and implications for the development of literature. What does it mean when literary classics are converted into graphic novels? Incorporate the question if graphic novels can become part of the literary canon.
Theater of the Absurd in the 1950s and 1960s. Discuss this form of theatrical art. Examine how it emerged and why it became influential.
Post World War II art: cinema and literature. Use examples of films and literary works. Discuss major works of the post-WWII era and their themes.
Futurism and the Czech avant-garde : the artistic connection between Europe’s East and West.
Study the phenomenon of the hero archetype.
Assess dancing as a form of meditation.
Review the common elements of various African dances.
Folk dances across Western Europe.
Discuss regional dances and dance as a ritual.
Animation as a modern art form.
Research the art of glass-making and its prospects for the future.
Analyze the cultural impact of The Beatles beyond music.
Literature censorship in the US.
Examine the intersection of ecology and arts.
Heidelberg Project: is it a model for creating art in urban areas?
Study kinetic sculptures of the 20th century.
What characterizes social activism in 20 th -century rock music?
Jazz in the 21st century: a potential for revival.
The history of design in various periods of human existence (the ancient times, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, etc.).
Design as art.
Philosophy of design.
Separate branches of design ( interior design , car design, toy design, etc.).
Stylistic peculiarities of a certain designer.
Web design as a modern quintessence of design.
Social significance of design.
The birth of Communism as it relates to Stendhal.
The relationship between politics and literature in the 19 th century.
An analysis and case study of artists and art during times of war.
How contemporary art is related to American suffering.
Analyze of how racism relates to the family unit.

List of Science Topics for Your Thesis

A dissertation in science will probably require you to run numerous experiments. Many of them will probably go wrong. But the one that does work might be the next big breakthrough! Find a suitable research theme in the following list of topics:

Bacterial injections for the treatment of cancer tumors. Injecting bacteria into tumors is a fairly new approach to treating cancer. Review the mechanism of action and evaluate the potential of this method for curing cancer.
Computer imagining and AI for cancer detection. Examine how AI-assisted cancer screening improves accuracy. Include early detection implications and usage in hospitals.
Ethics of organ donations and transplantation. With this dissertation topic in science, examine the ethics of encouraging people to donate their organs. Include the implications for medical research and practice.
An epidemiological and molecular approach to cancer prevention. This topic idea suggests assessing the current understanding of how cancer develops as well as potential prevention strategies.
Ways of speeding up vaccine development and testing. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the process of vaccine development is relatively slow. It takes a long time to ensure proper testing. You may discuss these issues in your biochemistry dissertation.
The current state of research into ultra-fast rechargeable batteries. The topic of batteries and energy attracts lots of attention. With this topic, you can examine how to improve the design of aluminum-ion batteries. Include ways to decrease their charging time.
Nanotechnologies in drug delivery: electrospraying. Current research shows the great potential of nanotechnologies. In particular, the electrospraying technique makes nanoparticle delivery more efficient.
Prevalence of various Helicobacter Pylori virulence in a population. Conduct quantitative research and examine a sample of patients to determine the number infected with Helicobacter Pylori.
The relationship between gut microbiota and the person’s appetite. Your research can explore the theory that the gut microbiome has varied effects on the person’s body. Review the implications for obesity treatment for different gut microbiomes.
The age of antibiotics: is it over? Examine the use of antibiotics and the reasons for its decline. Discuss the evolving nature of bacteria that require remedies other than antibiotics. Include quantitative data in this dissertation for a specific type of disease.
CRISPR method for studying human DNA.
The study of human evolution: latest discoveries.
Denisovans from Siberia: a new type of hominid discovered.
Study the use of AI in archeology.
Conduct a study of the Neanderthal genome sequence.
What are the ways of improving solar cell efficiency?
The carbon footprint of modern production: how do companies damage the environment?
Research the use of cesium in solar panels.
The era of supercapacitors: are we ending the use of batteries?
Assess the efficiency of Robot Suits for people with permanent paralysis.
Microscale medial robots: potential applications.
Look into stem cell mobilization and its mechanisms.
Discuss the ethics of automated cars.
Space robotics: can we design robots capable of exploring space?
Evaluate the efficiency and potential of lithium-based rechargeable batteries.
Morality and ethics of stem cell research.
Is behavior controlled or affected by genetics and to what level.
A look at methods of improving risk factors post-stroke.
Analyze of Chinese herbal practice and its relevance to conventional medicine.
Analyze the effect schools have on childhood obesity.

New methods of using existing data to gather information that is useful.
An in-depth look at the factors affecting the decline of the immune system with age.
Analyze of the potential effect of nanotechnology on health and the environment.
Analyze of toxicity levels of inhaled nanoparticles.
The usefulness of nanotechnology in curing some types of cancer.
An analysis and case study of the treatment of patients who have experienced a loss of memory.
Analyze the use of DNA typing of remains to identify missing people and the victims of crime.
The response of immune deficiency diseases to the activation of T-cell subsets.
The influence and importance of IT in the field of biomedicine.

Architecture Thesis Topics

Architecture is more than just aesthetics. That’s become especially clear ever since the doctrine “form follows function” gained traction. Whether you’re into baroque or Bauhaus, there’s plenty to discover about architecture.

Religious architecture in the British Empire. Research the transformation of religious buildings and how it affected architecture in general.
Modernist architecture in the USSR at the beginning of the 20th century. Compare modernist architecture in the USSR with other countries.
Urban greening and its influence on buildings’ design. The dissertation proposal can include green roofs as the main point of research.
Brutalism and its history in New York. Provide historical research of brutalism in New York and discuss how it affects modern architecture.
Modern-day aboriginal settlements in Australia. Using examples from media and research, indicate how aboriginal settlements are perceived and handled today.
Transformation of the urban design in the 21st century. Using London, Hong-Kong, and New York as examples, provide an in-depth discussion of changes in the urban design.
The architectural history of Seattle. Conduct research and write a proposal that will compare different architectural styles seen in Seattle.
Integration of culture in environmental design. In this proposal, you can use large cities in Asia as primary examples of the synergy between culture and architecture.
The architecture of residential buildings during the second half of the 20th century. Choose one or several large cities (e.g., Berlin, Miami, Kyoto) as the basis for your research.
The history of Moscow Avant-Garde. Use both Soviet and modern Russian research on Avant-Garde to present the topic accurately.
Use of computer visuals in architecture.
Review the trends in modern furniture design.
Ecology and architecture: integration of green technologies.
Discuss the multiculturalism of contemporary urban architecture.
The history of architecture in urban areas of the US: the study of New York.
Modern city design case study.
Research ways of using wood in modern architecture.
Commercial architecture: aesthetics and usability.
Evaluate the design of municipal buildings in the US.
Creativity in postmodernist architecture.
How do we integrate smart home technology into architecture?
Small scale homes: a study of growing interest in small housing.
Discuss the use of lighting in building design.
Study innovations in structural design in the digital age.
What are the implications of inclusive architecture?
Sustainable architecture: recycling spaces and materials.
Renewable energy in home design.
Assess open concept homes for American families.
Conduct a study of family homes design.
Research architecture suitable for middle-class families.

Thesis Topics in English Literature & World Literature

Was your New Year’s Resolution to re-read the 100 most influential classical works? Then you might want to consider writing a thesis in advanced higher English. Check out these engaging prompts:

In-depth stylistic analysis of The Trial by Franz Kafka . Explain what stylistic devices Kafka used in his story.
The influence of The Hound of the Baskervilles on the development of modern detective stories. Prepare several comparisons of The Hound with modern detective stories to pinpoint its influence.
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum : women characters in Heinrich Böll’s fiction. Using the book mentioned in the topic, examine how the German writer depicted women in his prose.
Analysis of the terrorism portrayal in modern journalism: The New York Times case study. Pick several articles related to terrorism published in NYT and describe in detail how it is portrayed (keywords, images, etc.).
A formalist approach to Dostoevsky: analysis of The Brothers Karamazov . Provide the reader with an explanation of the formalist approach and use it to analyze the novel.
The depiction of sexual violence in young adult literature. Pick several YA novels published in the 2010s for your research.
The use of repetition in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot . Analyze how repetition is used for emphasis and other effects in the play.
Feminism and gender in Margaret Atwood’s Cats’ Eye . Review the book from a feminist point of view and discuss how gender issues are presented in the book.
How does Phillip K. Dick use intertextuality in The Man in the High Castle ? Find as many references to other literary and historical sources as you can and elaborate how Dick uses them and for what aims.
The influence of Steppenwolf on postmodern American literature: the contribution of Herman Hesse. Using Steppenwolf as the primary source, discuss what characteristics common for postmodern literature Hesse uses in this novel.
How does racism manifest itself in classical literature?
Discuss the oppression of women in The Handmaid’s Tale.
Gender roles in The Miniaturist and A Doll’s House : a comparison.
Moral ambiguity in David Harrower’s works.
Literary techniques in the Perks of Being a Wallflower.
The setting in The Murder in the Rue Morgue and its influence on the detective genre.
Review the tropes first introduced in The Moonstone.
Study the depictions of police’s work in Skinner’s Rule .
Assess the influence of Victorian Gothic horror on popular culture.
Social criticism in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Analyze cyberpunk elements in Gibson’s Neuromancer.
Themes of social equality in modern literature.
Research the views on Native American writers in Nature’s Poem.
Critique of contemporary children’s literature .
Gothic elements in Charlotte Bronte’s works.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula : a comparative analysis.
Terror in The Picture of Dorian Gray .
Examine the connection of mental health and society in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye .
Magical realism and romanticism in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
How does the cut-up technique contribute to the narration in William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch?

Criminal Justice Thesis Topics

Are you a forensic science student who prefers research to actual police work? In that case, a dissertation in criminology is a great idea. This way, you can work on preventing crime from the comfort of your desk.

Recidivism rates among underage Latino first-time offenders: a quantitative study. Research a group of first-time offenders of a particular age (e.g., 18 to 25 years old).
A comparative analysis of the incidents of gun violence in the USA during the 2010s. Choose several prominent examples and compare them to each other.
Troublesome statements: the role of witnesses in potentially false accusations. In this dissertation, you can write about the unreliability of statements, using documented examples.

The patterns of drug trafficking in Germany’s largest cities: a case study of Berlin and Hamburg. Analyze the changes in these patterns in the 2010s.
Money laundering and corruption in the United States in the 21st century. Using media reports, create dissertation research about corruption schemes.
Mental health and self-perception of second-time sex offenders. Determine if their self-perception changes.
School shootings in the USA: causes and risk factors. Using recent and historical data, analyze the cases of mass shootings.
The influence of cyberbullying on suicide rates among Australian adolescents (13-17 years old). You can base your dissertation report on various research on cyberbullying published in Australian scholarly journals.
Child abuse and its influence on serial killer’s perception of victims. Discuss interconnections between abuse and potential sadistic behavior.
The history of forensic interviewing in the USA. Present research and practices that contributed to its development.
Use of artificial intelligence for forensic investigations.
Criminal behavior at a young age and its implications for the future.
Drug use: pattern of recurring arrests among American youth.
Incarcerated parents: the impact on the child’s perception of crime.
Research the reforms of the US criminal justice system.
Propose strategies for improving the juvenile detention system.
Police officer’s abuse of power: analysis of reports.
Race and criminal justice: the case of War on Drugs.
What are the possible alternative forms of incarceration?
A study of public perception of modern serial killers.
Training of sniffer dogs.
The implications of eyewitness testimony.
Abuse in Hollywood: a case study of Harvey Weinstein.
Bias against African Americans during investigations.
A study of college violence.
Legal implications of medical marijuana legalization .
Ethics of criminal justice: the problem of confidentiality.
Review the challenges linked with domestic violence investigations.
Suggest ways of preventing crimes in schools.
Gender bias during crime examinations.

Geography Thesis Topics

If you enjoy unveiling Earth’s secrets, this section is for you. Here you’ll find geography dissertation ideas ranging from studies of movement to regional phenomena.

Species that became extinct in the 20th century: qualitative research. Address the human influence on various species.
Current issues in the exploration of Arctic. Discuss difficulties and specifics of such explorations.
A comparison of urban back gardens in the USA and the UK. You can compare their design and other features (for example, vegetation used for decoration).
The causes and outcomes of floodings in the USA in the 2010s. Address climate change as one of the leading causes.
Prevention of ecosystem changes with modern technology. Provide various examples of how technology is used to sustain ecosystems.
Changes in travel destinations in the 2000s: a comparison of the USA and Canada. Demonstrate what changes in preferences were documented in these countries and show what destinations were especially popular.
The perception of environmentally friendly technologies and their impact on the environment by citizens of large metropolitan areas: a case study of Miami. Explain how various projects based on environmentally friendly technologies are launched in Miami.
A negative impact of global warming on weather conditions in Iceland. Discuss how tourism in Iceland is affected by these changes.
The influence of industrialization on climate change. Address the causes of climate change, using industrialization and its consequences as a basis.
Compare Greenfield and Brownfield land use for construction projects.
Investigate the significance of red salmon for Kamchatka.
The social impact of climate change : a study of migration patterns.
The potential of community gardening in underprivileged neighborhoods.
Study the link between the strengths of hurricanes and climate change.
What can be done to stop gentrification in your community?
Evaluate coastal tourism, its effect, and implications.
The impact of reservoir locations on water quality.
How did industrialization affect the development of Chicago?
Study soil pollution levels in your community area.
Conduct an analysis of air quality in your city.
Eco-tourism, its history, and perspectives.
Differences in soil chemistry across several locations.
The impact of organic farming on water quality in your area.
Compare the sustainability of organically vs. conventionally farmed tomatoes.
Research air pollution levels and data on airborne illnesses in your area.
What’s the relationship between rock climbing and cliff vegetation?
Study the changes in soil fertility upon volcanic eruption.
How does the Chernobyl disaster continue to affect the surrounding area?
Determine the patterns of floods in a particular area of your choice.

Sociology Thesis Ideas

Sociology studies how humans live together. A dissertation is a great way to dive deeper into a particular subject. You can get as specific as your heart desires! Check out our sociology thesis topics:

Single parent stigma and its influence on family’s quality of life and parent-child relationships. Present examples from recent research that illustrate how the dynamics of these relationships change over time due to stigma.
Women empowerment in Saudi Arabia in 2000s: breakthroughs and challenges. Discuss how this empowerment affected legislation and women’s rights.
Long-term alcohol addiction and self-perception in young adults. With the help of research, demonstrate whether self-perception of these adults transforms significantly due to their addiction.
Adoption and its influence on parent-child relationships. Present and discuss challenges that such families face.
Comparison of traditions related to family dinners in the USA and the UK. What specific differences are there and how can they be explained?
Influence of the emo culture on suicide rates in high school students. Address the influence of such cultures on adolescents’ behavior.
The rates of secularization in elderly individuals living in urban and rural areas. Compare the rates and explain why they are different.
Influence of forced outing on transgender individuals and concomitant changes in their quality of life. Explain the effects of forced outing and why this impact is dangerous.
Comparison of anti-nuclear movements in Germany and Japan in the 21st century. Explain in detail what differences and similarities are prominent.
Performance rates of teenagers in schools in low-income neighborhoods: a case study of Boston schools. When writing your dissertation proposal, consider various factors (poverty, limited access to technology, etc.) that affect performance rates of these teenagers.
Black Lives Matter movement’s immediate impact on racism.
Research causes of minority bias in the US.
Affirmative action and its impact on the perception of varied racial groups.
The impact of religion on people’s attitudes towards race.
Review the challenges of the US LGBT community.
Bias towards transgender studies.
Social activism against gender discrimination in the 21st century.
The impact of social assistance in schools on a child’s future.
Research the changes in education after WWII.
Analyze scholarship policies in the US.
The impact of student debt on youth’s perception of education in the US.
Outcomes of public vs. private schools: a comparison.
Research the preservation of culture in American immigrant families.
Applying Marx’s conflict theory to social justice movements.
Assess changing trends in social norms in a country of your choice.
Attitudes towards prejudice among people of different social backgrounds.
Comparison of women’s rights in Western and Middle Eastern countries.
The impact of capitalism on one’s social values.
How does capitalism benefit society across multiple post-soviet countries?
Compare healthcare access in autocracies vs. democracies.

💡 Dissertation Topics for Ph.D. students

Below you’ll find a list of excellent dissertation ideas in different fields of study. They are more difficult than thesis topics and require more research. Jump to the section that interests you and find the topic that suits you best! But first:

What Makes a Good Ph.D. Topic?

Usually, universities would expect your dissertation to be original and relevant in the field of the research. Moreover, it would be worthwhile if it has the potential to make a change.

This checklist will help you see whether you’ve made the right choice. Your dissertation topic is good, if:

You have an opportunity to research it fully. You need to know that there is enough data and a theoretical basis. Do some prior research to understand if you will be able to answer all your dissertation questions.
You can fill the gaps in the existing knowledge. Your research matters if you can provide some new information that contributes to the field of your studies.
Your dissertation title is catchy. Try to make it worth the reader’s attention from the first glance.
You can evaluate how much time you need. It is vital to understand all the stages of your research and the challenges you might face to plan your work.
You know the subject well. You will need to explore your topic in-depth. It’s good to have some previous knowledge about it. Starting the research from the very basics will take more time and effort.
You have enough resources to investigate it. Both time and money matter in this case. You need to do high-quality research and meet your deadlines.

Dissertation Topics in Education

Learning is a lifelong experience, and the importance of schools cannot be overestimated. Research in this area is critical to improving education standards. Have a look at these topic ideas to get inspired:

Gamification as tools for enhancing learning abilities: theory and practice. Many studies have been conducted on different learning approaches. For young learners, engagement is as critical as the outcome. Therefore, this work focuses on gamification and its effect on children’s improvisation and learning.
Studying the connection between classroom quality and the learning outcome in kindergarten. Children are strongly affected by their environment, especially when it comes to learning. This dissertation topic example is all about looking into different classroom settings and their effect on kids’ learning outcomes.
Evaluating the process of implementation of inclusive education in the US. Professionals argue that inclusive education carries multiple benefits for all students (not just those with limited abilities.) However, it is quite a challenging process to implement all the changes.
Factors influencing the decision to transfer to the higher education abroad. In this work, you can focus on finding out the reasons for such a decision. Why do undergraduate students choose to leave their home country? What are the most important factors?
Online education vs. traditional face-to-face lessons for adult learners: compare and contrast. Online courses have their own benefits. However, would adult learners prefer them to in-person classrooms? How does it affect their learning and motivation?
How does working as a taxi driver and navigating change a person’s brain?
To what extent can reality television be disempowering for students?
The role of homework in the lives of immigrant adolescents.
The impact of teachers’ shocking behaviors in fostering students’ creativity.
The determinants of flossing behavior in college students .
The classification of drinking styles in the college-age population.
Integrating the computer into the curriculum: why you can’t simply plug it in.
The preconditions for serious music-making avocation in computer science students.
Adult graduate difficulties with learning new technologies.
The effect of academic performance on the health of students.
The impact of mathematic coaching on students’ self-esteem .
The influence of internet on the emotional maturity of students.
Academic achievements of students who decide to become teachers.
Is it true that students are more likely to do homework given by good-looking professors?
Informal learning in rural areas via social networks.
Educational blogging for professors: the social networks of educationists.
Does learning existentialism cause suicides?
Is it possible to reduce summer learning loss without students’ consent?
Can we reject classical math and do it at the same time? Yes, we can.
What are major career prospects with a degree in Liberal Arts?
Using electronic games in museums as an effective education tool.

Business Dissertation Topics

There are many things a business administrator should keep in mind. Finances, marketing, and development are just the tip of the iceberg. So, the choice of topics is practically endless. Check out this selection to narrow down the possibilities:

How are business strategies adjusted to the globalization process? Small businesses’ perspective. Globalization means huge and profitable opportunities. To seize them, all businesses and companies should make some changes in their strategies. Investigate what would be the best action plan for them.
Cultural changes and the effect of feedback in an international company: a case study. Choose a multinational company. Study the impact of feedback (both from the employees and customers) on its organizational culture changes. What reaction does it provoke in the company?
Human resource management approaches in international non-profit organizations. In this study, look into the strategies HR managers apply in non-profit organizations. One of their main responsibilities is to monitor the performance of the employees. However, at the international level it becomes more difficult.
Leadership and organizational culture in making decisions about business strategies. In this research, you study the influence of the organizational culture on leaders. In the case of trying to initiate changes in the business strategy, how is a leadership decision taken?
The role of “foreign direct investment” in companies in developing countries: a case study of a large business. For this paper, pick a suitable company first. Aim for large companies in developing countries. Then conduct research and find out what strategies they have for foreign direct investments.
COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on workplace management in small businesses . The COVID-19 pandemic caused many companies to readjust their HR policies. For instance, they allowed their staff to work from home. Research this phenomenon in your thesis.
Social entrepreneurship for large companies. If you want to make the world a better place, social entrepreneurship is a suitable method. We usually associate it with small start-ups. But what about large companies? With this topic, you can research how the concept works for big firms.
How innovation affects demand in technology-driven businesses. This MBA dissertation topic combines business studies and technology. Examine how companies create products for establishing markets.
Management strategies in times of COVID-19: a case study. The pandemic has forced companies to use Zoom , Skype, and messaging instead of regular meetings. Review how executives can apply traditional management models in the digital space.
The impact of burnout on employees. Interview staff members and determine how burnout affects performance. Include the name of a company or industry in your dissertation’s title.
Tourism management in the Middle East.
How do natural disasters impact the demand for essentials?
Compare and contrast Asian and American leadership styles.
How does fluctuation in the stock market impact business operations?
The art of delegation: how to do it effectively and when to avoid it.
How can one efficiently lead a company when unforeseen circumstances occur?
What factors determine employees’ work satisfaction?
Study the link between a company’s success and innovation.
What can business managers do to bridge the gap between generations?
Research the benefits of global and local brand management.
What causes changes in Chinese business culture?
Choose a small business and analyze its strategy.
Organizational changes : what factors impact transformation?
Internet banking : barriers to usage.
Create a business plan that is focused on a specific issue.
Conditions necessary for quality management in MNCs.
The role of E-commerce for food retailers.
Conduct a case study with the purpose to analyze one or several social phenomena.
Workplace ethics in small businesses.
The phenomenon of remote working and how it is affecting businesses.
Comparison of Generation X and the Millennial Generation.
Managing the Millennial Generation.
Current trends in consumer behavior in relation to advertising.
Analyze which countries margin financing is effective and why.
Analyze the macroeconomic factors affecting exchange rates.
An empirical analysis of the impact of organizational performance and leadership .

Law Dissertation Topics for Ph.D. Students

Legal science is not dull as one may think. It’s crucial to evaluate laws at any point in time. Do they fit the current norms? Does something or someone need more protection than before? If you want to garnish your legal education with a Ph.D., here are some topic suggestions:

Trust law: the circumstances when fully secret and half-secret trusts are necessary. Find out what are the principles that dictate the enforcement of the trusts. There are specific circumstances that determine whether creating trusts would be adequate and relevant. Make sure to take them into consideration.
Termination of employment in case of employees tested positive for HIV/AIDS. Your task would be to conduct research and see how HIV/AIDS employees are influenced in the workplace. The most common issues are discrimination and termination of employment.
The influence of the Global War on Terrorism on international criminal law. When the US launched the campaign against terrorism in 2001, international criminal law faced some changes. You can study the most significant changes that have been made.
The level of effectiveness of the US copyright law in relation to the rights of users. It’s an empirical research topic that would require collecting lots of data. Try to find some cases when the users were left cheated by copyright law. It would bring some diversity to the research and make it more interesting.
Study the effect that the US immigration policy has on education right now. Educational institutions are also required to adjust to changes connected with immigration. Different requirements and different curriculums are implemented to fit their needs. You are about to look into this issue.
Select a country and analyze its worker protection laws. Compare the rights and obligations of employees in two countries of your choice. What potential improvements can solidify employee rights?
Protection of minorities, legal precedents. Minority rights are becoming more and more relevant. This topic allows you to discuss how laws can be changed to reflect it.
Regulation of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies allow for anonymity. Besides, they are not regulated by any state. In your thesis, you can analyze cryptocurrency regulations.
Fake news : legal responsibility. Review how the United States legal system approaches disinformation. Focus on false publications on news resources. Another possible topic is improvements to defamation laws.
Freedom of expression : a case during a pandemic. This topic is about false information in times of COVID-19. Examine how a state can balance freedom of expression with the spread of false information. Focus on this disease and the fake news about it.
Legal practices for preventing possible future pandemics.
Research ways of online journalism protection.
International law vs. the right to self-determination: comparative case studies of de facto states.
Review the history of fiscal laws in America.
Limits to freedom of expression in the US legal system.
Enforcing regulations concerning domestic violence.
Study criminal responsibility for drug possession in the US.
Criminalization of violence against women.
Review the legal framework for addressing foreign involvement in elections.
What was the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Health standards for immigrant detention centers in the US.
Research the loopholes in the US immigration laws.
Birthright citizenship in the US: pros and cons.
1951 Refugee Convention: is it obsolete?
Illegal immigrants and their rights in the US justice system.
How criminal laws have been impacted around the world by the war on terror.
Choose a country and analyze their policies on discrimination.
Evaluate the protection given to minority shareholders as dictated by company law.
Provide a critical analysis of the law of omissions liability.
Investigate and analyze complaints filed in the criminal justice system.
A critical analysis of the reform of homicide laws.
The morality and impact of euthanasia and how Canada sets a precedent.
A detailed analysis of gender and race profiling of suspects in the criminal justice system.
Analyze the right to bear arms relative to the context in which the law was written into The Constitution.
Create case studies that represent a review of criminal negligence related to the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.

Psychology Dissertation Topics

The mysterious ways of the human mind offer many research opportunities. Psychology encompasses sub-fields such as behavior and cognition. Whatever your area of expertise, you’ll undoubtedly find something interesting in the list below.

The current effect of the “price ending” method on the consumers’ behavior . Nowadays, everybody knows the most popular trick that shops pull to make customers buy the products. However, does understanding it make it easier to resist it? Is this psychological trap still working?
Burnout at the executive positions in massive US corporations: is it possible to prevent? The phenomenon of burnout is the most common issue that employees face nowadays. But there are ways to detected it at an early stage. Could they be used to predict and prevent this problem?
Mindfulness practices and their influence on students’ learning abilities at the top universities (e.g., Harvard). Mindfulness is proved to be extremely useful in overcoming stress and anxiety issues. However, does it affect the learning outcome of the students who study at the best universities in the world?
The individual struggles with gender issues and their impact on global gender inequality. Everything always starts with a small thing. For this paper, study the relation between some individual cases and the global issue. How do personal struggles contribute to the worldwide movement for justice?
The positive influence of irrational beliefs on mental well-being. In psychology, irrational beliefs are a set of values and opinions that people believe in despite rational evidence against them. However, what positive effect can they bring?
Ways of raising awareness of mental health problems. Mental health has been discussed more openly in recent years. Review how this open discussion affects views on personal mental health. As another idea for a psychology dissertation topic, research a specific illness.
Student burnout and ways to prevent it. Focus on the problems students face and what strategies can reduce their stress.
Pandemic and mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many people to be in isolation from social contacts. Review the potential effects of this practice on people’s well-being. Discuss possible strategies for supporting mental health during possible future pandemics.
Weight, self-image, and mental health. A clinical psychology thesis can focus on the psychology behind excess weight. Discuss how weight affects a person’s perception of self. Assess implications for clinical psychologists who work with overweight patients.
Social media vs. reality: normalizing real people. Review current efforts of social media accounts in normalizing body image. Explain how this can reverse the damage that edited photos have on mental health.
How does gender bias affect mental health in America?
What factors affect women’s self-esteem in the workplace?
Specifics of transgender mental health.
Research the effect of immigration on mental well-being.
Study the psychology of racism and ways to combat it.
What distinguishes the mental health of minorities in the US?
Research the psychology of dissent in the Soviet Union.
The connection between stress and overeating: latest developments.
Assess the role of social support for losing weight.
What’s the role of prejudice in politics?
Assess the role of endurance in combating stress.
Developing hardiness: strategies and exercises.
What’s the effect of emotional resilience on mental health?
Helping teenagers overcome stress via relaxation techniques.
Look into the perception of anger and its effect on mental health.
Understanding the function of the prefrontal cortex in terms of how it is connected to other parts of the brain.
Understanding how the prefrontal cortex makes us human.
How emotional and anxiety disorders are connected to social cognition that is impaired.
Analyze the ability of an MRI to determine brain function.
Analyze the relationship between emotional and episodic memory.
A comparison of the plasticity of the child’s brain and the adult brain.
Analyze the continued relevance of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
An in-depth look at the social intuitionist model and how it relates to the emotion and reason involved in moral judgement.
How the evolution of the human brain can be understood in terms of children cognitive development.
A demonstration of the multi-dimensional nature of schizophrenia.
How rational thinking and impulse contribute to decision-making.
A systematic analysis and review of the psychology of religion.
How exposure to nature affects happiness.

Nursing Dissertation Topics

A nurse’s work is hard. Unfortunately, they rarely get the credit they deserve. With a Ph.D., you could become an advocate on the problem. Or you could concentrate on optimizing their work environments.

Exercise, changes in lifestyle , and self-tracking for diabetes prevention and management. Center your research on different lifestyle changes (exercise, reduced smoking and drinking) and explain how and why it prevents diabetes.
Influence of stigma related to HIV/AIDS on representatives of ethnic minorities: a case study of Native Americans. Using research, provide compelling evidence of how Native Americans are stigmatized and discriminated against.
Chronic illness management at home: recommended evidence-based practices. Using current nursing and other professional research, discuss how adults and seniors manage chronic and autoimmune diseases.
Depression and stress and their relation to preterm births in first-time mothers. Collect several articles about the issue and using their conclusions show how depression causes preterm births.
Burnout in nurses: factors that cause it and practical solutions for prevention. Present outcomes of burnout (decreased performance and concentration, subpar workplace environment) and illustrate how it affects hospitals on a more significant scale.
Public health: community-based measures to prevent morbid obesity. In this research, you can list various methods that include exercise and education and explain in detail how they prevent the spread of obesity.
Risk factors and injury rates in psychiatric nursing. Present statistics on different types of injuries in psychiatric institutions.
Cultural diversity and inclusion in nursing education. When researching diversity, make sure you are using examples of different minority groups’ perception of education.
Euthanasia legislation in the USA: ethical issues and debates. Provide a thoughtful discussion of ethical and legal issues surrounding euthanasia.
Organizational climate and its influence on perceived patient safety. Your study should focus on the importance of positive relationships between staff members, and its influence on the prevention of medical errors.
Dietary practices and their influence on the quality of life in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. SLE is a complex disease that requires a multidisciplinary approach. Describe nutritional research approaches to SLE.
Fluoride application training in dental nursing.
Describe the specifics of nursing care for patients with diabetes.
Assess gender disparity in nursing research.
Study nurse burnout prevalence in neonatal care in your community.
Nursing staff advising DASH diet: effects on patients’ blood pressure.
What are the challenges of asthma management for nurses?
Nursing for autistic patients: the best strategies.
Racial differences in nursing care: a case study.
Evaluate nurses’ role in pain management for patients with dementia.
Study the connection between nursing staff turnover and burnout.
How is the role of a nurse changing in the modern healthcare system?
Review nursing practices for managing elderly patients.
A holistic approach to obesity management in nursing.
Describe the specifics of nursing in rural areas.
Physical activity and mental health: a nursing case study.
Discuss nursing pain relief strategies for general care.
Determine the ethical implications of nursing malpractice.
Nurses consultations for spinal cord injuries.
Nursing in an urban setting: challenges and prospects.
What are the specifics of pain management in obstetrical nursing?

Marketing Dissertation Topics

Good marketing is what made you buy that product you didn’t know you needed. Marketing needs plenty of scientific research for it to be successful. You can contribute to this effort with one of the following topic ideas:

Compare and contrast the effectiveness of traditional and digital marketing in the last five years. Marketing moves towards digital campaigns more and more every year. Though, traditional marketing still exists, of course. Your task is to compare every aspect of these two types in the span of the previous five years.
The specifics of the relationship marketing and its influence on the loyalty rates among customers: a case study of fast-food chains. Take a few fast-food chains to conduct this research. Then analyze their relationship marketing strategies. There should be a correlation between the methods they use and the loyalty of their customers.
Direct marketing and artificial intelligence: how do companies use it? The industry of marketing couldn’t have missed the opportunity to use the latest technologies for their benefit. Artificial intelligence helps some companies gain a competitive advantage. Find out what those benefits are.
Collectivism and individualism : how does culture influence supermarkets? There are some apparent differences in cultures when it comes to shopping. Each shop owner has to implement a specific marketing strategy for targeting the customers. Work on aspects that make those strategies successful in different cultures.
The strategies that make personalized products sell effectively. Everybody loves customized products, but it seems like not everybody is willing to share their data to get it. Therefore, businesses are forced to work it out. This research looks into marketing tools and methods they use to sell personalized products.
Influence of online shopping apps on impulsive buying behavior . Using prominent examples such as Amazon and eBay, elaborate how apps affect customer’s decision to purchase an item through recommendations.
Product design and its impact on consumer’s purchase decision. When preparing this thesis topic, consider using examples of large corporations such as Apple or IKEA to prove your point.
Customer loyalty : the importance of satisfaction and loyalty programs. Conduct research using available surveys on satisfaction and draw conclusions from these statistics.
Ethnic differences and their impact on brand perception. This research can review the types of products that target White or Black Americans specifically.
Preferences for green products: analysis of the income’s influence on consumer decisions. Compare what households are more likely to prefer green products.
Shopping habits of Muslim consumers in the USA: qualitative research. Here, you will need to do research by engaging Muslim Americans in your study; you can use interviews or surveys for this topic.
Social media and its impact on the promotion of small business. Make sure your reader understands how social media can promote or negatively present small business through customers’ comments.
Does globalization make preferences of customers from different socioeconomic backgrounds similar? Interview people from lower, middle, and upper class and discuss the preferences of American households.
Social media usage by international companies: a case study of Electronic Arts. Study the influence of customers’ reviews and opinions on EA’s sales.
Consumers’ perception of transaction safety in online shopping applications. Discuss how consumers learn to differentiate between reliable and unreliable apps for payments .
Marketing high tech products: a case study.
Study changing marketing techniques during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The future of big data uses in marketing.
Conduct a comparative analysis of offline vs. online advertising .
Explore the relationship between marketing strategies and sales.
Holiday marketing strategies in the 21st century.
Is marketing tailed towards model devices effective?
Study the rise of influencer marketing.
Review the newest trends in digital advertising.
Brand management in 2020: an analysis.
Assess the effect of advertising on consumer behavior.
Targeted ads: are they efficient?
How did marketing change during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Assess brand management’s contribution to consumer loyalty.
Impact of social media marketing on brand perception.
Google Analytics insights for marketing campaigns.
Marketing for minority populations.
Youtube marketing: the effectiveness of videos for brand promotion.
How does partnering with influencers impact brand perception?
Social influencer marketing for SMEs.

History Dissertation Topics

History is written not only by the victors but also by history students. Your dissertation can shine a light on understudied cultures. Or perhaps you want to focus on how a specific event impacted the world. Find inspiration among the following dissertation questions and ideas:

The historical context of the creation of Guernica by Pablo Picasso . War wasn’t the only inspiration for Pablo Picasso during the process of making Guernica . In this paper, you would look into the environment of the artist and try to identify what else brought him to the creation of this masterpiece.
Bismarck and radical nationalism: what influenced the political state? For this research, you would study the underlying reasons for German Nazism before the beginning of World War II. What factors gave it a start when Otto von Bismarck was in charge?
The rise of Bollywood: historical context. This paper focuses on the success of Indian Bollywood movies in the 1930s. You would need to look into the events that made those movies famous in the whole world. Don’t forget to mention the social views of Bollywood movies.
The influence of secrecy in the technology intervention during World War II. You would study the role that the US Patent and Trademark Office played in the development of special war technology . Secrecy helped to keep it away from the public and enemies. How did it influence the war?
Italian prisons in the 19th century: how were they managed after Unification? This paper would require you to study documentation on the management system prison used in Italy at the beginning of the 19th century. You should try to find some practices that might have been socially harmful.
Gender perceptions in the Middle Age. When preparing the dissertation, use both historical and literary sources to show how gender was presented.
Secularization in the American South during the post-war period. Provide a detailed discussion of secular societies forming in the South after the 1940s.
Representation of Jewish history in contemporary art: a case study of Art Spiegelman’s Maus . Using the comic book as the primary basis, explain how Jewish culture and history are presented there.

Quote by Elie Wiesel: “In Jewish history there are no coincidences.”

The history of medieval warfare and its influence on Modern Era warfare . When constructing this thesis, make sure you are using both historical and current research to provide details.
American-British relations during the Cold War Era . Explain how the Cold War Era changes these relations and what has affected it the most.
Germany’s foreign relations during the 1980s. Present a detailed overview of different foreign relations (e.g., with the USA, the USSR, the UK) Germany had during this period.
The financial crisis in the USA in 2007-2009. Using research and media sources, explain to the reader how the crisis is still affecting the USA.
The development of Austrian identity after World War II. In this case, you can use both historical evidence and Austrian literature that provides personal opinions of writers and artists on the issue.
The impact of the Great Depression on the American involvement in the World War II. To show your understanding of historical processes, demonstrate how the Great Depression affected the USA’s perception of WWII.
How I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb: the development of nuclear warfare in the 20th century. Discuss the development of nuclear warfare in the USA and the USSR.
What was the role of China in the Cold War?
How did the Spanish Flu affect the pandemics that followed it?
Determine the influence of the stock market crash in 1929 on the World Wars.
First Battle of Marne’s impact on the outcomes of WWI.
Tool usage and creation: Aztecs vs. Mayas.
How did the enlightenment philosophy impact the development of the natural sciences?
The effects of Christianization in sub-Saharan Africa.
Assess the role of slavery in the US civil rights movement.
Study the history of LGBT rights establishment in the US.
What are the origins of slavery in Africa?
The Moon Landing and its impact on space exploration.
Explore the role of the Bible in Jewish history.
The US’ involvement in WWII.
The aftermath of WWII: major historical events.
Research the link between the Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush.
Cold War insights: lessons from the Suez Crisis.
Explore the role of democratization in the Soviet Union collapse.
Global cooperation in early modern Europe.
Study the legacy of the arms race.
How did the First Ladies influence life in the 20th century America?

Dissertation Topics in Management

Companies and employees alike benefit from well-thought-out management strategies. So, a thesis in management has the potential to improve work environments even further. Kickstart your research by choosing one of the following topics:

Ecotourism in Canada: issues and trends in small business. Explain issues that arise in ecotourism with climate change.
Management ethics: how social media affects employees’ privacy and organizational climate. Present examples of negative and positive influence.
Leadership styles: a comparison of democratic and autocratic leadership. Discuss what leadership style should be chosen to rule various companies, depending on their business plan.
Political risk and its influence on emergency management. Explain how political crises affect and shape emergency management.
Cultural diversity and its impact on employees’ satisfaction and commitment. Show what advantages and disadvantages there are in cultural diversity.
Economic growth and unemployment rates in Australia during the 1990s: a historical perspective. Explain the causes of economic growth and unemployment.
Challenges in human resources management working with millennials: qualitative research. Discuss what particular challenges HR managers face and how they can be addressed.
The significance of organizational routines in international corporations: a case study of Google. Conduct research on the importance of routine and its impact on performance.
Computer skills and management: the effectiveness of computerized management information system in rural areas. Describe how digital management can be effectively applied in companies working in rural areas.
The history of digital rights management in the USA. Present the changes in the field during the 1990s-2010s.
Analyze the best leadership styles for SMEs.
Examine the changes entrepreneurship underwent in the past decades.
How do leadership styles relate to work satisfaction?
Overview of business negotiation methods using technology.
Ways of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices.
Discuss the specifics of airline companies’ management.
Choose a theory of motivation in the workplace and make a case study on it.
Study change management in SMEs in times of a crisis.
Managing diverse workforce: a qualitative analysis.
Use of employee voice in US companies.
Research the relationship between the organization’s goals and a manager’s behavior.
What are the best current practices in public administration?
Applying strategic human capital principles in practice.
The study of female CEOs in a country of your choice.
Employees’ perception of change management : a quantitative analysis.
A study of employees’ resistance to change.
What’s the correlation between a CEO’s leadership traits and employee motivation ?
Workplace risk management : a study of psychosocial hazards.
Conduct a quantitative study of the gender pay gap for CEOs.
Research the relationship between management style and employee productivity .

Qualitative Dissertation: Ideas for Proposals

If you want your thesis to be more practical, you’ve come to the right section. Common approaches for qualitative dissertations include researching case studies, surveys, or ethnographies. Because of this, fieldwork will be an integral part of your doctorate journey.

A comparison of teaching techniques that targeted children with autism in the 20th and 21st centuries. Provide a detailed overview of techniques and explain how research affected them.
The development of cognitive-behavioral therapy and its effectiveness in patients with eating disorders. Present the history of CBT and use recent research to demonstrate its effectiveness.
Ageism and sexism in international organizations of the fashion industry. Describe how the fashion industry defines what it means to be “young and beautiful.”
Addressing sexual harassment at the workplace : the influence of organizational policies on targets’ decision to file a complaint. Explain what policies can support the target and what can prevent such decision.
Strategies to eliminate bias in self-evaluation reports of employees. Using research in HRM, outline the best strategies that are currently used to avoid bias.
Post-cancer therapy: issues and trends. Present and discuss various trends, the research behind them, and the effectiveness of different types of therapy.
A family history of abuse and its influence on drug use in adults. Explain how abuse can provoke addiction in the future.
The importance of trusting doctor-patient relationships on patient’s medication adherence and management of a healthy lifestyle. Describe how such relationships negatively or positively affect a patient’s decision to take medicine as prescribed.
Barriers to the acquisition of social support among young men and women veterans in the USA. Discuss mental and physical disorders as major barriers.
Single mothers’ perceptions of breastfeeding in public places: qualitative research. Conduct interviews to find out their opinion.
The impact of online learning on student’s academic performance.
A study of the youths’ perception of learning smartphone applications.
Research the issue of gender bias in college education.
Student’s perception of the mental health support and impact on campus.
Perceptions of charter school education in the 21 st century.
Discuss homeschooling and its effect on a child’s socialization.
What’s the impact of cyberbullying on teenagers’ mental health?
How inmates perceive alternative forms of incarceration.
Gun violence from the perspective of victims.
Research bias towards video games as an art form.
In what ways are minorities disadvantaged in America?
Evaluate cooking as a therapeutic exercise.
Assess the link between a principal’s leadership style and the school’s rating.
The effect of online counseling on patients’ mental health.
Perception of mental health stigma among students.
How does gig economy re-define work?
The implications of freelancing in the 2020s.
Opinions about a 6-day work week in your community.
Assess the process of adaptation to working from home.
Conduct a research study of views on the BLM movement outside the US.

Quantitative Dissertation Proposal Topics

Some scholars just love working with data. Are you one of them? Then you’ll probably enjoy quantitative research. If you’re into finding patterns and making predictions, here are some enticing topics:

A study of a major city’s livability index. Choose a city and assess whether it’s well-designed or not.
A quantitative study of biofilms in technology. Discuss methods of using biofilms in technology. Include a list of recent advances and new tools.
A quantitative study of teachers’ perception of online learning. This topic prompts you to use an evaluation scale.
An assessment of a link between product reviews and intention to purchase. Study the effect online reviews have on potential customers.
Immigration and its connection to crime statistics. Analyze data on immigration to the US and the number of violent crimes. Determine the relationship between the two phenomena.
The relationship between obesity and occupation. Assess the BMIs of participants of different professions. Then, test the results for a correlation and discuss its implications.
A relationship between nurses’ knowledge of diabetes management and patient satisfaction. Assess the nurses’ knowledge about diabetes and compare the results with patient satisfaction scores. Thus, you can determine if expertise translates into better care.
A study of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMEs financial operations. With this qualitative dissertation proposal in business and management, choose a small company. Analyze its financial data pre- and post-pandemic. Include a discussion of financial management during pandemics.
A study of millennials’ pet ownership. Determine the percentage of millennials who have pets. Compare these patterns with previous generations.
Economic growth and urbanization. Compare the empirical data about the state of economics and the number of people living in cities.
Determine how urbanization affects bacterial community compositions.
The economic impact of immigration on SMEs.
Study the rates of crimes in the US in relation to nonviolent crimes.
How do various teaching styles affect learning?
Compare overconfidence in CEOs of SMEs and corporations.
How does inclusive language influence social behavior?
Assess consumers’ satisfaction with online banking in your area.
Evaluate crude oil price prediction methods.
Is there a link between smartphone use and mental illness?
Correlation between eyewitness identification and memory.
What are the attitudes towards AI development among women?
Determine the rates of cybercrimes since the 1990s.
A study of the police brutality cases across the US in the last decade.
Correlation between education level and employment.
The presence of sleep disorders in mental illnesses.
Assess the attitudes towards medical care in the US.
Determine the correlation between eating disorders and physical illness.
Study the rates of cyberbullying among minority students.
How various religious groups influence politics : a game-theoretical approach.
Does regular exercise decrease symptoms of depression in adults?

Dissertation Topics in Educational Leadership

Educational leadership is a science focused on helping students to achieve their academic goals. It includes the motivation of staff and learners, improvement of educational programs, and creation of a healthy, productive environment in institutions. Want to dedicate your research to it? Take a look at these topic samples:

Fatigue among American medical students. Medical students often need to memorize and analyze big portions of information. That is why many of them don’t sleep enough, get tired quickly, and find it hard to concentrate. What can be done about it?
How did the COVID-19 pandemic and distance learning affect students’ motivation? Online education has multiple benefits and drawbacks. Some students might find it easier to get access to various textbooks online. Others want to return to campus. What is their motivation?
Creating better learning conditions on campus: the challenges in 2022. With the increasing speed of technological progress, it is hard to catch up with the latest innovations. Explore them in your dissertation. For instance, you can focus on facilities for students with special needs.
How can we enhance discipline among first-year students on campus? For some younger students, it is hard to get used to living on their own. They need to accept new responsibilities, find time to take care of themselves, and organize their lives. How can we help them?
Development of soft skills among undergraduate students. For future employers, soft skills are as important as hard skills. That is why colleges need to pay attention to soft skills such as time management, communication, and creativity.
The efficiency of workshops for enhancing students’ creativity.
Do nutrition habits influence the studying process?
The importance of mental health care in high school.
What leadership styles are the most efficient in college communities?
Does the implementation of early childhood education lead to further academic success?
What is the role of school counseling among teenagers?
What psychological factors make students drop out of college?
Developing leadership qualities among MBA students.
How to help college athletes to cope with psychological and physical pressure.
Ways of reducing anxiety levels among criminology students.
Helping students to choose their majors and find a career path.
How to enhance communication between higher education administration and students?
Motivating students to succeed after graduation .
Why do we need psychology classes in high school?
How can we prevent the bullying of Latin American students in middle and high school?

✅ How to Choose a Thesis Topic: Main Steps

In case you have no idea where to start from, here is a quick guideline on how to choose a Ph.D. thesis topic:

	Check every tiny detail. Sometimes the only restrictions would be time and word count. Some universities might restrict your topic choice within your field of study.
	In case you don’t have to stick to a specific area, feel free to play around and find what you like. However, it is better if it’s something you’re familiar with. Starting your dissertation from scratch is not the best idea.
	It will give you a boost of inspiration. Don’t forget to take notes! You might come across some unsolved issues that can interest you.
	Adjust your topic so that it would be specific enough. However, be careful and don’t overdo it! Otherwise, you won’t have enough data to work with.
	Consider the methods of data collection, as well as approaches for analyzing it. It’s not unusual to combine different types, so don’t worry if you can’t decide on just one.
	What change can your work bring into this world? Perhaps it can contribute to the academic field or is practical enough to help with real-life issues. Or, maybe, it carries a social relevance and can change our society for the better.
	Before deciding on the topic, make sure it meets your requirements. It means that you should be 100% sure you have enough time, resources, and knowledge to finish the research on the chosen topic.
	Seeking some advice from your supervisor is always a good idea. You can discuss your ideas together. After that, go ahead and start the writing process!

We hope this article helped you to choose a suitable topic for your dissertation. We wish you good luck with your research!

Learn more on this topic:

Dissertation Critique: Examples, How-to Guide
The Ultimate Guide to Writing an Outstanding Dissertation
How to Write an Abstract: Brief Steps and Structure Example

✏️ Dissertation FAQ

While working on a dissertation, you might deal with several types of research. The main research types are primary, qualitative, quantitative, and legal. In any case, it’s the way in which a researcher studies the subject using a particular methodology.

First of all, make sure that you are personally fascinated by the subject. This is essential for any thesis, be it master’s or an undergraduate dissertation. Besides, make sure the topic is feasible and hasn’t been studies much.

A good dissertation title is the one that represents the subject under study. To state which aspect is being studied is also important. The title should include neither a hypothesis nor a conclusion: think about it as “spoilers”—nobody likes them.

Just like any paper, a great dissertation is the one that is well-organized. The topic of the paper should correspond to the title. The text should have a cohesive structure with a definite introduction, argumentative main part, and a logical conclusion.

🔗 References

Dissertation Topics 1961-Present: Rudgers University
Completed Thesis and Dissertation Topics: University of Florida
Current Legal Topics: Library of Congress
The Right Dissertation Topic: Academics.com
Days and Nights at the Museum…there’s a Dissertation for that!: Proquest.com
Dissertation Titles: University of Michigan
How to Pick a Master’s Thesis Topic: Medium.com
How to Come Up With a Thesis Topic: Gradschools.com
How to Choose Your Thesis Topic: Central European University
How Do I Choose a Thesis Topic?: Grad School Hub
Senior Thesis Topics: Hamilton College
Arizona Research Topics: Arizona State Library
Dissertation Proposal: Bartleby.com
Dissertation Guide Essay
How to Start Your Dissertation: 10 Top Tips: Studential.com
How to Write a Dissertation or Bedtime Reading for People Who do not Have Time to Sleep: Purdue University
A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing a Ph.D. Dissertation: ThoughtCo
Dissertations Guide from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Developing a Thesis Statement: University of Wisconsin Madison
Thesis/Dissertation Writing and Editing, Formatting, and Defending: Massey University
Business Management Research Topics: Top Universities
Law Topics: Law.com
Psychology Topics: APA
Marketing Topics: Marketing Profs
Topics: History.com
Computer Science: Encyclopedia Britannica
Humanities: Research Topics Ideas: University of Michigan-Flint
Art Topics: Art UK
Topics: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Nurses Topics: Medscape
Architecture: Research Topics: University of Washington
Topics in Geography: Research Gate
New Topics in Sociology: University of Toronto
Business Management Topics: The University of Maine
Qualitative Case Study: Science.gov
All Topics: Science News
Criminology: Science Direct
Topics in Literature: Sheridan College: Libguides
Advanced Computer Science Topics: The University of Texas at Austin
Application of Computer Techniques in Medicine: NIH
Important Leadership and Management Topics: WHO
Quantitative Research: University of Southern California
Action Research: Brown University
10 Traits of Successful School Leaders: University of San Diego
HIST 280 Topics: Texas A&M University
The Relationship Between Burnout, Depression, and Anxiety: Frontiers In
College of Nursing: University of Missouri–St. Louis
All Topics: Educause
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Reference management. Clean and simple.

How to come up with a topic for your thesis

Finding a thesis topic

The easiest method to choose a thesis topic, how to choose a thesis topic that will get you a job, ask your supervisor for help, found my thesis topic, now what, further tips on finding a thesis topic, frequently asked questions about coming up with a topic for your thesis, related articles.

Depending on the level of your studies, you will be required to come up with a topic for your thesis by yourself or to choose from a list of broad topics. In either case, you will need to:

Choose a specific scope
Narrow it down as much as you can.
Find a topic by considering specific debates or discussions that interest you.
Choose a topic based on phenomenon, point of view, and context.
Consider the relevance of your topic in relation to job market realities.
Ask your supervisor for help and guidance, as needed.

Tip: Balance your own interests with what can help you grow in your field..

In any case, you can start by asking yourself if you’ve attended any lecture where you were particularly interested in a certain subject and go from there. The following questions might help you shine a light on personal topics of interest:

What aspect of your studies holds a particular interest for you?
Was something mentioned in a discussion that you found intriguing?
Did you read about a theory or idea that spoke to you?

Ideas for a thesis can stem from many sources, so let your mind wander and see if anything tickles your curiosity. A thesis is a chance for you to spend some quality time with a certain aspect of your studies, so you better think of a topic that not only appeals to you but will also help you grow in your field.

Tip: Use phenomenon, point of view, and context to help you choose a balanced thesis topic.

We can all agree that choosing a topic for a thesis or any paper is one, if not the most, difficult steps in writing. However, according to Sahlman's How to Write a Master Thesis Fast , choosing a topic for your thesis is rather easy if you focus on the three following areas:

Point of view

Focus on a specific phenomenon as the center of your thesis. For example, "queer rights" or "climate change". Next, you choose a point of view. From what perspective do you see the phenomenon? For instance, “American culture” or “legally/ financially”. Finally, you narrow it down to a particular context, such as “from 2000 to 2010” or “small German enterprises in 2017”.

By combining the examples of these three areas, we come up with two potential thesis topics:

The development of queer rights in American culture from 2000 to 2010

Emerging climate change regulations of small German enterprises in 2017

The topic doesn't need to be perfect at first. The idea is to brainstorm with the topics that most interest you in the beginning and slowly come up with with a compelling topic you can brag about at friends’ dinner parties. Here is a list of the top 100 research paper topics for some inspiration.

Tip: Think about how your potential topic can make an intervention into your field of study.

If you will be writing extensively about a specific topic it does not only have to meet the requirements of the academia but it should also expand your professional horizons. According to the article how to pick a masters thesis topic , you should be thinking beyond the completion of your degree.

The author states "use your time as a student to make yourself as attractive to employers as possible." In order to achieve this, make sure that at least one of the three components (phenomenon, point of view and context) is of interest in your desired professional field.

For example, the thesis topics mentioned above would be of great help to people interested in working in the field of human rights and climate change. By choosing a thesis topic related to your professional future, your chances of landing your desired job will be higher, as you could bring fresh and valuable knowledge to your field.

Tip: Ask your supervisor for advice early in the process.

If your topic is still not fully shaped, then take advantage of the greater wisdom of your supervisor and ask for guidance. Arm yourself with enough possible topics and pay your supervisor a visit. Explain what’s your specific point of view and/or context of interest and, luckily, they will steer you in the right direction.

It is certainly not enough to find a topic for your thesis. You also need to make sure that it is a relevant topic and that you will be able to develop it.

5 Tips for selecting a thesis topic
How to come up with a thesis topic
How to pick a Masters thesis topic

Choosing a topic for your thesis is easy if you focus on the three following areas:

Focus on a specific phenomenon as the center of your thesis. From what perspective do you see the phenomenon? Finally, narrow it down to a particular context . By combining these three areas, you can come up with several possible thesis topics.

Here is a list of the top 100 research paper topics for some inspiration.

The amount of time you need to choose a thesis topic depends on you. If you use the method we explained above, it can take very short time. If you doubt yourself too much, you might end up spending many days choosing a topic.

Here's a YouTube tutorial on How To Choose A Research Topic For A Dissertation Or Thesis (7 Step Method + Examples) by the Grad Coach.

The first person to ask for help if you have trouble finding a thesis topic is your supervisor. Take advantage of their greater wisdom and ask for guidance. Explain them your interests, and, luckily, they will steer you in the right direction.

How to give a good scientific presentation

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How to write a masters dissertation or thesis: top tips.

It is completely normal to find the idea of writing a masters thesis or dissertation slightly daunting, even for students who have written one before at undergraduate level. Though, don’t feel put off by the idea. You’ll have plenty of time to complete it, and plenty of support from your supervisor and peers.

One of the main challenges that students face is putting their ideas and findings into words. Writing is a skill in itself, but with the right advice, you’ll find it much easier to get into the flow of writing your masters thesis or dissertation.

We’ve put together a step-by-step guide on how to write a dissertation or thesis for your masters degree, with top tips to consider at each stage in the process.

1. Understand your dissertation or thesis topic

There are slight differences between theses and dissertations , although both require a high standard of writing skill and knowledge in your topic. They are also formatted very similarly.

At first, writing a masters thesis can feel like running a 100m race – the course feels very quick and like there is not as much time for thinking! However, you’ll usually have a summer semester dedicated to completing your dissertation – giving plenty of time and space to write a strong academic piece.

By comparison, writing a PhD thesis can feel like running a marathon, working on the same topic for 3-4 years can be laborious. But in many ways, the approach to both of these tasks is quite similar.

Before writing your masters dissertation, get to know your research topic inside out. Not only will understanding your topic help you conduct better research, it will also help you write better dissertation content.

Also consider the main purpose of your dissertation. You are writing to put forward a theory or unique research angle – so make your purpose clear in your writing.

Top writing tip: when researching your topic, look out for specific terms and writing patterns used by other academics. It is likely that there will be a lot of jargon and important themes across research papers in your chosen dissertation topic.

2. Structure your dissertation or thesis

Writing a thesis is a unique experience and there is no general consensus on what the best way to structure it is.

As a postgraduate student , you’ll probably decide what kind of structure suits your research project best after consultation with your supervisor. You’ll also have a chance to look at previous masters students’ theses in your university library.

To some extent, all postgraduate dissertations are unique. Though they almost always consist of chapters. The number of chapters you cover will vary depending on the research.

A masters dissertation or thesis organised into chapters would typically look like this:

Section	Description
Title page	The opening page includes all relevant information about the project.
Abstract	A brief project summary including background, methodology and findings.
Contents	A list of chapters and figures from your project.
Chapter 1 – Background	A description of the rationale behind your project.
Chapter 2 – Literature Review	A summary and evaluation of the literature supporting your project.
Chapter 3 – Methodology	A description of the specific methodology used in your project.
Chapter 4-6 – Data analysis and Findings	An overview of the key findings and data from your research.
Chapter 7 - Discussion and Evaluation	A description of what the data means and what you can draw from the findings.
Chapter 8 - Conclusion	Main summary of your overall project and key findings.
Bibliography	A list of the references cited in your dissertation or thesis.
Appendices	Additional materials used in your research.

Write down your structure and use these as headings that you’ll write for later on.

Top writing tip : ease each chapter together with a paragraph that links the end of a chapter to the start of a new chapter. For example, you could say something along the lines of “in the next section, these findings are evaluated in more detail”. This makes it easier for the reader to understand each chapter and helps your writing flow better.

3. Write up your literature review

One of the best places to start when writing your masters dissertation is with the literature review. This involves researching and evaluating existing academic literature in order to identify any gaps for your own research.

Many students prefer to write the literature review chapter first, as this is where several of the underpinning theories and concepts exist. This section helps set the stage for the rest of your dissertation, and will help inform the writing of your other dissertation chapters.

What to include in your literature review

The literature review chapter is more than just a summary of existing research, it is an evaluation of how this research has informed your own unique research.

Demonstrate how the different pieces of research fit together. Are there overlapping theories? Are there disagreements between researchers?

Highlight the gap in the research. This is key, as a dissertation is mostly about developing your own unique research. Is there an unexplored avenue of research? Has existing research failed to disprove a particular theory?

Back up your methodology. Demonstrate why your methodology is appropriate by discussing where it has been used successfully in other research.

4. Write up your research

For instance, a more theoretical-based research topic might encompass more writing from a philosophical perspective. Qualitative data might require a lot more evaluation and discussion than quantitative research.

Methodology chapter

The methodology chapter is all about how you carried out your research and which specific techniques you used to gather data. You should write about broader methodological approaches (e.g. qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods), and then go into more detail about your chosen data collection strategy.

Data collection strategies include things like interviews, questionnaires, surveys, content analyses, discourse analyses and many more.

Data analysis and findings chapters

The data analysis or findings chapter should cover what you actually discovered during your research project. It should be detailed, specific and objective (don’t worry, you’ll have time for evaluation later on in your dissertation)

Write up your findings in a way that is easy to understand. For example, if you have a lot of numerical data, this could be easier to digest in tables.

This will make it easier for you to dive into some deeper analysis in later chapters. Remember, the reader will refer back to your data analysis section to cross-reference your later evaluations against your actual findings – so presenting your data in a simple manner is beneficial.

Think about how you can segment your data into categories. For instance, it can be useful to segment interview transcripts by interviewee.

Top writing tip : write up notes on how you might phrase a certain part of the research. This will help bring the best out of your writing. There is nothing worse than when you think of the perfect way to phrase something and then you completely forget it.

5. Discuss and evaluate

Once you’ve presented your findings, it’s time to evaluate and discuss them.

It might feel difficult to differentiate between your findings and discussion sections, because you are essentially talking about the same data. The easiest way to remember the difference is that your findings simply present the data, whereas your discussion tells the story of this data.

Your evaluation breaks the story down, explaining the key findings, what went well and what didn’t go so well.

In your discussion chapter, you’ll have chance to expand on the results from your findings section. For example, explain what certain numbers mean and draw relationships between different pieces of data.

Top writing tip: don’t be afraid to point out the shortcomings of your research. You will receive higher marks for writing objectively. For example, if you didn’t receive as many interview responses as expected, evaluate how this has impacted your research and findings. Don’t let your ego get in the way!

6. Write your introduction

Your introduction sets the scene for the rest of your masters dissertation. You might be wondering why writing an introduction isn't at the start of our step-by-step list, and that’s because many students write this chapter last.

Here’s what your introduction chapter should cover:

Problem statement

Research question

Significance of your research

This tells the reader what you’ll be researching as well as its importance. You’ll have a good idea of what to include here from your original dissertation proposal , though it’s fairly common for research to change once it gets started.

Writing or at least revisiting this section last can be really helpful, since you’ll have a more well-rounded view of what your research actually covers once it has been completed and written up.

Masters dissertation writing tips

When to start writing your thesis or dissertation.

When you should start writing your masters thesis or dissertation depends on the scope of the research project and the duration of your course. In some cases, your research project may be relatively short and you may not be able to write much of your thesis before completing the project.

But regardless of the nature of your research project and of the scope of your course, you should start writing your thesis or at least some of its sections as early as possible, and there are a number of good reasons for this:

Academic writing is about practice, not talent. The first steps of writing your dissertation will help you get into the swing of your project. Write early to help you prepare in good time.

Write things as you do them. This is a good way to keep your dissertation full of fresh ideas and ensure that you don’t forget valuable information.

The first draft is never perfect. Give yourself time to edit and improve your dissertation. It’s likely that you’ll need to make at least one or two more drafts before your final submission.

Writing early on will help you stay motivated when writing all subsequent drafts.

Thinking and writing are very connected. As you write, new ideas and concepts will come to mind. So writing early on is a great way to generate new ideas.

How to improve your writing skills

The best way of improving your dissertation or thesis writing skills is to:

Finish the first draft of your masters thesis as early as possible and send it to your supervisor for revision. Your supervisor will correct your draft and point out any writing errors. This process will be repeated a few times which will help you recognise and correct writing mistakes yourself as time progresses.

If you are not a native English speaker, it may be useful to ask your English friends to read a part of your thesis and warn you about any recurring writing mistakes. Read our section on English language support for more advice.

Most universities have writing centres that offer writing courses and other kinds of support for postgraduate students. Attending these courses may help you improve your writing and meet other postgraduate students with whom you will be able to discuss what constitutes a well-written thesis.

Read academic articles and search for writing resources on the internet. This will help you adopt an academic writing style, which will eventually become effortless with practice.

Keep track of your bibliography

The easiest way to keep the track of all the articles you have read for your research is to create a database where you can summarise each article/chapter into a few most important bullet points to help you remember their content.

Another useful tool for doing this effectively is to learn how to use specific reference management software (RMS) such as EndNote. RMS is relatively simple to use and saves a lot of time when it comes to organising your bibliography. This may come in very handy, especially if your reference section is suspiciously missing two hours before you need to submit your dissertation!

Avoid accidental plagiarism

Plagiarism may cost you your postgraduate degree and it is important that you consciously avoid it when writing your thesis or dissertation.

Occasionally, postgraduate students commit plagiarism unintentionally. This can happen when sections are copy and pasted from journal articles they are citing instead of simply rephrasing them. Whenever you are presenting information from another academic source, make sure you reference the source and avoid writing the statement exactly as it is written in the original paper.

What kind of format should your thesis have?

Read your university’s guidelines before you actually start writing your thesis so you don’t have to waste time changing the format further down the line. However in general, most universities will require you to use 1.5-2 line spacing, font size 12 for text, and to print your thesis on A4 paper. These formatting guidelines may not necessarily result in the most aesthetically appealing thesis, however beauty is not always practical, and a nice looking thesis can be a more tiring reading experience for your postgrad examiner .

When should I submit my thesis?

The length of time it takes to complete your MSc or MA thesis will vary from student to student. This is because people work at different speeds, projects vary in difficulty, and some projects encounter more problems than others.

Obviously, you should submit your MSc thesis or MA thesis when it is finished! Every university will say in its regulations that it is the student who must decide when it is ready to submit.

However, your supervisor will advise you whether your work is ready and you should take their advice on this. If your supervisor says that your work is not ready, then it is probably unwise to submit it. Usually your supervisor will read your final thesis or dissertation draft and will let you know what’s required before submitting your final draft.

Set yourself a target for completion. This will help you stay on track and avoid falling behind. You may also only have funding for the year, so it is important to ensure you submit your dissertation before the deadline – and also ensure you don’t miss out on your graduation ceremony !

To set your target date, work backwards from the final completion and submission date, and aim to have your final draft completed at least three months before that final date.

Don’t leave your submission until the last minute – submit your work in good time before the final deadline. Consider what else you’ll have going on around that time. Are you moving back home? Do you have a holiday? Do you have other plans?

If you need to have finished by the end of June to be able to go to a graduation ceremony in July, then you should leave a suitable amount of time for this. You can build this into your dissertation project planning at the start of your research.

It is important to remember that handing in your thesis or dissertation is not the end of your masters program . There will be a period of time of one to three months between the time you submit and your final day. Some courses may even require a viva to discuss your research project, though this is more common at PhD level .

If you have passed, you will need to make arrangements for the thesis to be properly bound and resubmitted, which will take a week or two. You may also have minor corrections to make to the work, which could take up to a month or so. This means that you need to allow a period of at least three months between submitting your thesis and the time when your program will be completely finished. Of course, it is also possible you may be asked after the viva to do more work on your thesis and resubmit it before the examiners will agree to award the degree – so there may be an even longer time period before you have finished.

How do I submit the MA or MSc dissertation?

Most universities will have a clear procedure for submitting a masters dissertation. Some universities require your ‘intention to submit’. This notifies them that you are ready to submit and allows the university to appoint an external examiner.

This normally has to be completed at least three months before the date on which you think you will be ready to submit.

When your MA or MSc dissertation is ready, you will have to print several copies and have them bound. The number of copies varies between universities, but the university usually requires three – one for each of the examiners and one for your supervisor.

However, you will need one more copy – for yourself! These copies must be softbound, not hardbound. The theses you see on the library shelves will be bound in an impressive hardback cover, but you can only get your work bound like this once you have passed.

You should submit your dissertation or thesis for examination in soft paper or card covers, and your university will give you detailed guidance on how it should be bound. They will also recommend places where you can get the work done.

The next stage is to hand in your work, in the way and to the place that is indicated in your university’s regulations. All you can do then is sit and wait for the examination – but submitting your thesis is often a time of great relief and celebration!

Some universities only require a digital submission, where you upload your dissertation as a file through their online submission system.

What Is The Difference Between A Dissertation & A Thesis

How To Get The Most Out Of Your Writing At Postgraduate Level

Dos & Don'ts Of Academic Writing

Dispelling Dissertation Drama

Writing A Dissertation Proposal

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How To Write A Dissertation Or Thesis

8 straightforward steps to craft an a-grade dissertation.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) Expert Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2020

Writing a dissertation or thesis is not a simple task. It takes time, energy and a lot of will power to get you across the finish line. It’s not easy – but it doesn’t necessarily need to be a painful process. If you understand the big-picture process of how to write a dissertation or thesis, your research journey will be a lot smoother.

In this post, I’m going to outline the big-picture process of how to write a high-quality dissertation or thesis, without losing your mind along the way. If you’re just starting your research, this post is perfect for you. Alternatively, if you’ve already submitted your proposal, this article which covers how to structure a dissertation might be more helpful.

How To Write A Dissertation: 8 Steps

Clearly understand what a dissertation (or thesis) is
Find a unique and valuable research topic
Craft a convincing research proposal
Write up a strong introduction chapter
Review the existing literature and compile a literature review
Design a rigorous research strategy and undertake your own research
Present the findings of your research
Draw a conclusion and discuss the implications

Step 1: Understand exactly what a dissertation is

This probably sounds like a no-brainer, but all too often, students come to us for help with their research and the underlying issue is that they don’t fully understand what a dissertation (or thesis) actually is.

So, what is a dissertation?

At its simplest, a dissertation or thesis is a formal piece of research , reflecting the standard research process . But what is the standard research process, you ask? The research process involves 4 key steps:

Ask a very specific, well-articulated question (s) (your research topic)
See what other researchers have said about it (if they’ve already answered it)
If they haven’t answered it adequately, undertake your own data collection and analysis in a scientifically rigorous fashion
Answer your original question(s), based on your analysis findings

A dissertation or thesis is a formal piece of research, reflecting the standard four step academic research process.

In short, the research process is simply about asking and answering questions in a systematic fashion . This probably sounds pretty obvious, but people often think they’ve done “research”, when in fact what they have done is:

Started with a vague, poorly articulated question
Not taken the time to see what research has already been done regarding the question
Collected data and opinions that support their gut and undertaken a flimsy analysis
Drawn a shaky conclusion, based on that analysis

If you want to see the perfect example of this in action, look out for the next Facebook post where someone claims they’ve done “research”… All too often, people consider reading a few blog posts to constitute research. Its no surprise then that what they end up with is an opinion piece, not research. Okay, okay – I’ll climb off my soapbox now.

The key takeaway here is that a dissertation (or thesis) is a formal piece of research, reflecting the research process. It’s not an opinion piece , nor a place to push your agenda or try to convince someone of your position. Writing a good dissertation involves asking a question and taking a systematic, rigorous approach to answering it.

If you understand this and are comfortable leaving your opinions or preconceived ideas at the door, you’re already off to a good start!

A dissertation is not an opinion piece, nor a place to push your agenda or try to convince someone of your position.

Step 2: Find a unique, valuable research topic

As we saw, the first step of the research process is to ask a specific, well-articulated question. In other words, you need to find a research topic that asks a specific question or set of questions (these are called research questions ). Sounds easy enough, right? All you’ve got to do is identify a question or two and you’ve got a winning research topic. Well, not quite…

A good dissertation or thesis topic has a few important attributes. Specifically, a solid research topic should be:

Let’s take a closer look at these:

Attribute #1: Clear

Your research topic needs to be crystal clear about what you’re planning to research, what you want to know, and within what context. There shouldn’t be any ambiguity or vagueness about what you’ll research.

Here’s an example of a clearly articulated research topic:

An analysis of consumer-based factors influencing organisational trust in British low-cost online equity brokerage firms.

As you can see in the example, its crystal clear what will be analysed (factors impacting organisational trust), amongst who (consumers) and in what context (British low-cost equity brokerage firms, based online).

Need a helping hand?

Attribute #2: Unique

Your research should be asking a question(s) that hasn’t been asked before, or that hasn’t been asked in a specific context (for example, in a specific country or industry).

For example, sticking organisational trust topic above, it’s quite likely that organisational trust factors in the UK have been investigated before, but the context (online low-cost equity brokerages) could make this research unique. Therefore, the context makes this research original.

One caveat when using context as the basis for originality – you need to have a good reason to suspect that your findings in this context might be different from the existing research – otherwise, there’s no reason to warrant researching it.

Attribute #3: Important

Simply asking a unique or original question is not enough – the question needs to create value. In other words, successfully answering your research questions should provide some value to the field of research or the industry. You can’t research something just to satisfy your curiosity. It needs to make some form of contribution either to research or industry.

For example, researching the factors influencing consumer trust would create value by enabling businesses to tailor their operations and marketing to leverage factors that promote trust. In other words, it would have a clear benefit to industry.

So, how do you go about finding a unique and valuable research topic? We explain that in detail in this video post – How To Find A Research Topic . Yeah, we’ve got you covered 😊

Step 3: Write a convincing research proposal

Once you’ve pinned down a high-quality research topic, the next step is to convince your university to let you research it. No matter how awesome you think your topic is, it still needs to get the rubber stamp before you can move forward with your research. The research proposal is the tool you’ll use for this job.

So, what’s in a research proposal?

The main “job” of a research proposal is to convince your university, advisor or committee that your research topic is worthy of approval. But convince them of what? Well, this varies from university to university, but generally, they want to see that:

You have a clearly articulated, unique and important topic (this might sound familiar…)
You’ve done some initial reading of the existing literature relevant to your topic (i.e. a literature review)
You have a provisional plan in terms of how you will collect data and analyse it (i.e. a methodology)

At the proposal stage, it’s (generally) not expected that you’ve extensively reviewed the existing literature , but you will need to show that you’ve done enough reading to identify a clear gap for original (unique) research. Similarly, they generally don’t expect that you have a rock-solid research methodology mapped out, but you should have an idea of whether you’ll be undertaking qualitative or quantitative analysis , and how you’ll collect your data (we’ll discuss this in more detail later).

Long story short – don’t stress about having every detail of your research meticulously thought out at the proposal stage – this will develop as you progress through your research. However, you do need to show that you’ve “done your homework” and that your research is worthy of approval .

So, how do you go about crafting a high-quality, convincing proposal? We cover that in detail in this video post – How To Write A Top-Class Research Proposal . We’ve also got a video walkthrough of two proposal examples here .

Step 4: Craft a strong introduction chapter

Once your proposal’s been approved, its time to get writing your actual dissertation or thesis! The good news is that if you put the time into crafting a high-quality proposal, you’ve already got a head start on your first three chapters – introduction, literature review and methodology – as you can use your proposal as the basis for these.

Handy sidenote – our free dissertation & thesis template is a great way to speed up your dissertation writing journey.

What’s the introduction chapter all about?

The purpose of the introduction chapter is to set the scene for your research (dare I say, to introduce it…) so that the reader understands what you’ll be researching and why it’s important. In other words, it covers the same ground as the research proposal in that it justifies your research topic.

What goes into the introduction chapter?

This can vary slightly between universities and degrees, but generally, the introduction chapter will include the following:

A brief background to the study, explaining the overall area of research
A problem statement , explaining what the problem is with the current state of research (in other words, where the knowledge gap exists)
Your research questions – in other words, the specific questions your study will seek to answer (based on the knowledge gap)
The significance of your study – in other words, why it’s important and how its findings will be useful in the world

As you can see, this all about explaining the “what” and the “why” of your research (as opposed to the “how”). So, your introduction chapter is basically the salesman of your study, “selling” your research to the first-time reader and (hopefully) getting them interested to read more.

How do I write the introduction chapter, you ask? We cover that in detail in this post .

The introduction chapter is where you set the scene for your research, detailing exactly what you’ll be researching and why it’s important.

Step 5: Undertake an in-depth literature review

As I mentioned earlier, you’ll need to do some initial review of the literature in Steps 2 and 3 to find your research gap and craft a convincing research proposal – but that’s just scratching the surface. Once you reach the literature review stage of your dissertation or thesis, you need to dig a lot deeper into the existing research and write up a comprehensive literature review chapter.

What’s the literature review all about?

There are two main stages in the literature review process:

Literature Review Step 1: Reading up

The first stage is for you to deep dive into the existing literature (journal articles, textbook chapters, industry reports, etc) to gain an in-depth understanding of the current state of research regarding your topic. While you don’t need to read every single article, you do need to ensure that you cover all literature that is related to your core research questions, and create a comprehensive catalogue of that literature , which you’ll use in the next step.

Reading and digesting all the relevant literature is a time consuming and intellectually demanding process. Many students underestimate just how much work goes into this step, so make sure that you allocate a good amount of time for this when planning out your research. Thankfully, there are ways to fast track the process – be sure to check out this article covering how to read journal articles quickly .

Literature Review Step 2: Writing up

Once you’ve worked through the literature and digested it all, you’ll need to write up your literature review chapter. Many students make the mistake of thinking that the literature review chapter is simply a summary of what other researchers have said. While this is partly true, a literature review is much more than just a summary. To pull off a good literature review chapter, you’ll need to achieve at least 3 things:

You need to synthesise the existing research , not just summarise it. In other words, you need to show how different pieces of theory fit together, what’s agreed on by researchers, what’s not.
You need to highlight a research gap that your research is going to fill. In other words, you’ve got to outline the problem so that your research topic can provide a solution.
You need to use the existing research to inform your methodology and approach to your own research design. For example, you might use questions or Likert scales from previous studies in your your own survey design .

As you can see, a good literature review is more than just a summary of the published research. It’s the foundation on which your own research is built, so it deserves a lot of love and attention. Take the time to craft a comprehensive literature review with a suitable structure .

But, how do I actually write the literature review chapter, you ask? We cover that in detail in this video post .

Step 6: Carry out your own research

Once you’ve completed your literature review and have a sound understanding of the existing research, its time to develop your own research (finally!). You’ll design this research specifically so that you can find the answers to your unique research question.

There are two steps here – designing your research strategy and executing on it:

1 – Design your research strategy

The first step is to design your research strategy and craft a methodology chapter . I won’t get into the technicalities of the methodology chapter here, but in simple terms, this chapter is about explaining the “how” of your research. If you recall, the introduction and literature review chapters discussed the “what” and the “why”, so it makes sense that the next point to cover is the “how” –that’s what the methodology chapter is all about.

In this section, you’ll need to make firm decisions about your research design. This includes things like:

Your research philosophy (e.g. positivism or interpretivism )
Your overall methodology (e.g. qualitative , quantitative or mixed methods)
Your data collection strategy (e.g. interviews , focus groups, surveys)
Your data analysis strategy (e.g. content analysis , correlation analysis, regression)

If these words have got your head spinning, don’t worry! We’ll explain these in plain language in other posts. It’s not essential that you understand the intricacies of research design (yet!). The key takeaway here is that you’ll need to make decisions about how you’ll design your own research, and you’ll need to describe (and justify) your decisions in your methodology chapter.

2 – Execute: Collect and analyse your data

Once you’ve worked out your research design, you’ll put it into action and start collecting your data. This might mean undertaking interviews, hosting an online survey or any other data collection method. Data collection can take quite a bit of time (especially if you host in-person interviews), so be sure to factor sufficient time into your project plan for this. Oftentimes, things don’t go 100% to plan (for example, you don’t get as many survey responses as you hoped for), so bake a little extra time into your budget here.

Once you’ve collected your data, you’ll need to do some data preparation before you can sink your teeth into the analysis. For example:

If you carry out interviews or focus groups, you’ll need to transcribe your audio data to text (i.e. a Word document).
If you collect quantitative survey data, you’ll need to clean up your data and get it into the right format for whichever analysis software you use (for example, SPSS, R or STATA).

Once you’ve completed your data prep, you’ll undertake your analysis, using the techniques that you described in your methodology. Depending on what you find in your analysis, you might also do some additional forms of analysis that you hadn’t planned for. For example, you might see something in the data that raises new questions or that requires clarification with further analysis.

The type(s) of analysis that you’ll use depend entirely on the nature of your research and your research questions. For example:

If your research if exploratory in nature, you’ll often use qualitative analysis techniques .
If your research is confirmatory in nature, you’ll often use quantitative analysis techniques
If your research involves a mix of both, you might use a mixed methods approach

Again, if these words have got your head spinning, don’t worry! We’ll explain these concepts and techniques in other posts. The key takeaway is simply that there’s no “one size fits all” for research design and methodology – it all depends on your topic, your research questions and your data. So, don’t be surprised if your study colleagues take a completely different approach to yours.

The research philosophy is at the core of the methodology chapter

Step 7: Present your findings

Once you’ve completed your analysis, it’s time to present your findings (finally!). In a dissertation or thesis, you’ll typically present your findings in two chapters – the results chapter and the discussion chapter .

What’s the difference between the results chapter and the discussion chapter?

While these two chapters are similar, the results chapter generally just presents the processed data neatly and clearly without interpretation, while the discussion chapter explains the story the data are telling – in other words, it provides your interpretation of the results.

For example, if you were researching the factors that influence consumer trust, you might have used a quantitative approach to identify the relationship between potential factors (e.g. perceived integrity and competence of the organisation) and consumer trust. In this case:

Your results chapter would just present the results of the statistical tests. For example, correlation results or differences between groups. In other words, the processed numbers.
Your discussion chapter would explain what the numbers mean in relation to your research question(s). For example, Factor 1 has a weak relationship with consumer trust, while Factor 2 has a strong relationship.

Depending on the university and degree, these two chapters (results and discussion) are sometimes merged into one , so be sure to check with your institution what their preference is. Regardless of the chapter structure, this section is about presenting the findings of your research in a clear, easy to understand fashion.

Importantly, your discussion here needs to link back to your research questions (which you outlined in the introduction or literature review chapter). In other words, it needs to answer the key questions you asked (or at least attempt to answer them).

For example, if we look at the sample research topic:

In this case, the discussion section would clearly outline which factors seem to have a noteworthy influence on organisational trust. By doing so, they are answering the overarching question and fulfilling the purpose of the research .

Your discussion here needs to link back to your research questions. It needs to answer the key questions you asked in your introduction.

For more information about the results chapter , check out this post for qualitative studies and this post for quantitative studies .

Step 8: The Final Step Draw a conclusion and discuss the implications

Last but not least, you’ll need to wrap up your research with the conclusion chapter . In this chapter, you’ll bring your research full circle by highlighting the key findings of your study and explaining what the implications of these findings are.

What exactly are key findings? The key findings are those findings which directly relate to your original research questions and overall research objectives (which you discussed in your introduction chapter). The implications, on the other hand, explain what your findings mean for industry, or for research in your area.

Sticking with the consumer trust topic example, the conclusion might look something like this:

Key findings

This study set out to identify which factors influence consumer-based trust in British low-cost online equity brokerage firms. The results suggest that the following factors have a large impact on consumer trust:

While the following factors have a very limited impact on consumer trust:

Notably, within the 25-30 age groups, Factors E had a noticeably larger impact, which may be explained by…

Implications

The findings having noteworthy implications for British low-cost online equity brokers. Specifically:

The large impact of Factors X and Y implies that brokers need to consider….

The limited impact of Factor E implies that brokers need to…

As you can see, the conclusion chapter is basically explaining the “what” (what your study found) and the “so what?” (what the findings mean for the industry or research). This brings the study full circle and closes off the document.

In the final chapter, you’ll bring your research full circle by highlighting the key findings of your study and the implications thereof.

Let’s recap – how to write a dissertation or thesis

You’re still with me? Impressive! I know that this post was a long one, but hopefully you’ve learnt a thing or two about how to write a dissertation or thesis, and are now better equipped to start your own research.

To recap, the 8 steps to writing a quality dissertation (or thesis) are as follows:

Understand what a dissertation (or thesis) is – a research project that follows the research process.
Find a unique (original) and important research topic
Craft a convincing dissertation or thesis research proposal
Write a clear, compelling introduction chapter
Undertake a thorough review of the existing research and write up a literature review
Undertake your own research
Present and interpret your findings

Once you’ve wrapped up the core chapters, all that’s typically left is the abstract , reference list and appendices. As always, be sure to check with your university if they have any additional requirements in terms of structure or content.

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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20 Comments

thankfull >>>this is very useful

Thank you, it was really helpful

unquestionably, this amazing simplified way of teaching. Really , I couldn’t find in the literature words that fully explicit my great thanks to you. However, I could only say thanks a-lot.

Great to hear that – thanks for the feedback. Good luck writing your dissertation/thesis.

This is the most comprehensive explanation of how to write a dissertation. Many thanks for sharing it free of charge.

Very rich presentation. Thank you

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could you please help me look at your thesis paper to enable me to do the portion that has to do with the specification

my topic is “the impact of domestic revenue mobilization.

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170 Original Thesis Topics and Ideas For Your Winning Paper

Throughout your college and graduate school career, you will be required to write hundreds of academic papers across myriad subjects. Choosing good thesis topics is just one of the major factors necessary to achieve academic excellence. This article does not tell you how to write a good thesis but focuses on the process of developing great senior thesis topics that are challenging yet don’t leave you feeling overwhelmed.

How to Develop and Choose Great Thesis Paper Topics?

Computer Science Thesis Topics

Psychology thesis topics, art history thesis topics, sociology thesis topics, economics thesis topics, psychology dissertation topics, architecture thesis topics, criminal justice thesis topics, philosophy thesis topics, history thesis topics, ms thesis topics, where you can find thesis writing help for your topics.

Our list of 170 free thesis statement topics is broken into 12 of the most popular subjects. These are only suggestions and you’re certainly encouraged to modify them as you deem appropriate. Keep in mind that good dissertation topics should aim to push the envelope of academic research while answering important scholarly questions within the field. Don’t feel constrained by what these thesis topics attempt to explore – what inspires your curiosity is the most important aspect of writing a thesis that warrants readership and appreciation.

How to Develop and Choose Great Thesis Topics?

Your thesis statement should be interesting.

You’ve likely heard over and over that the best master thesis topics should always be on something interesting – but does not take this to mean that it only applies to what a reader thinks is interesting. You should genuinely be curious about the topic you want to explore. This will invariably lead to more effective research, writing, and presentation of the chosen topic.

Make Sure You Can Find Enough Resources

Time is limited, and so too are resources. If your topic is too narrow you may not have access to all the resources you need to adequately answer the questions you seek. Ask the resource librarian for some dissertation topic examples to get a sense of the number of resources you will need to include in the bibliography and then triple that number. This is the average amount of research materials you will need to locate in your study.

Meet with Your Advisor to Discuss Options

Finally, you will need to meet with your academic advisor throughout the process of finishing your capstone project, so you will benefit from meeting with him or her as you consider your topics to discuss options. If, for instance, you are going over art history thesis topics , an advisor can point you to previous studies, research, resources, and more. You may find early that your topic may not be doable – and save yourself time by choosing altogether different.

Our List of Great Thesis Ideas On Any Subject

How have different methodologies changed the way comp-science is used in business?
How has the user interface changed the way society interacts with one another?
What are the advances in encryption and decryption we need to fight cybercrime?
In what ways have computer viruses altered international finance rules & regulations?
How do biometric systems affect the way data is recognized across financial industries?
Will artificial intelligence make human labor a thing of the past or will it only be a burden?
What are the best defense strategies companies should consider fighting cyber-attacks?
How will quantum computers change the way mainstream data is factored into primes?
A survey of how different technologies and algorithms can be used for parsing and indexing.
Technique to use when visualizing text categorization that has complex hierarchical structures and machine learning.
Different tools and techniques in the software required can be used to understand the UK.
How to have dependable and secure computing.
Definition and explanation of context-aware computing.
Top 5 challenges in database design and the information of system development?
What are the multiple dimensions or states of high-functioning schizophrenia in adults?
How effective is the DSM-IV in categorizing abnormal symptoms in young adults?
In what ways does a leader’s presence affect the way his sports teammates perform?
How does culture affect the way teaching programs are instituted around the world?
In what ways does chemotherapy affect the way patients get attention from family?
Is anger an emotion that can be controlled for the benefit of a person’s mental health?
What did the 9/11 attacks have on the general psychology of U.S. citizens toward immigrants?
How are LGBTQ teens likely to cope with pressures and how does it link to issues of depression?
Explain the social identity theory of Tajfel and Turner.
What are the REM phase and the continuous sleep disruption?
Defining how a brain functions when a person is in love.
How do the different forms of amnesia damage your brain activities?
What is the significance of a strong self-perception?
Is it possible for PTSD to lead to Alzheimer’s disease?
How do people respond to the world’s most famous art pieces in an age of social media?
In what ways is music considered to be a form of art when there are no actual tangible forms?
Are the building styles of the ancient world legitimate representations of artistic work?
Do you believe anyone will ever be able to have as much impact as the Renaissance greats?
In what ways has the value of art diminished in the last 25 years in terms of investment?
How does art affect the way humans develop creatively in terms of their communication?
What motivates people to invest in modern art despite there being such a high risk?
How does a modern artist make enough income in the days of technology and digital art?
Analyze the Monalisa painting and why it is popular.
What is the origin of the traditional Chinese and Japanese costumes?
What are the most popular pies of Mesopotamian art, and what made them popular?
How did Hinduism influence the early Indian Act?
Research on the construction of the Great Wall of China.
What is the origin of the Greek theatre?
How much influence do parents have on their children’s educational and social engagement?
In what ways do cross-cultural relationships change the way children think about the world?
What are the most important aspects of gender inequality at work and how is it fixed?
How much do food cultures link to anticipated health and welfare in American adults?
What is the relationship between ethnicity and the levels of completed education in children?
What are the biggest factors leading certain populations to alcohol or drug addiction?
How is media affecting the way youth view their images as a result of how they are represented?
In what ways has social media impacted the way America’s youth interacts with the world?
Impacts of Alcohol among the youths.
Adaption and the consequences of adopting a child.
Diffusion and innovation in European culture and what it means for the features of these countries.
How would people react if organ transplant gets completely banned?
What are the challenges that working women face in today’s society?
What are the impacts of life sentences, and should this be changed
What are the five major principles of global economics and how do they affect international law?
In what ways are developing countries in Asia affected by short and long-term econ policies?
How important is it for the average American investor to know about global economics?
In what ways should a person’s wealth be distributed to more philanthropic or charitable activities?
What do international economics offer the average American in terms of financial happiness?
How has the alcohol industry changed over the last century across different parts of Europe?
In what ways has big data mining affected the way global economics and financing have changed?
What are the main reasons why the Trump presidency has negatively affected international trade?
What is fiscal policy, and what should people know about it?
Define and explain three opportunity costs.
How do banks set the exchange rate?
What is the reason why some resources are rare?
What does economic forecasting entail?
What are the pros and cons of privatization?
What are the connections between employee satisfaction and how they perform at work?
How are women affected by misogynistic language in the workplace that emphasizes inequality?
In what ways does the formation of negative habits make it harder for people to learn new things?
What role does anxiety have in the way students score on standardized high school level tests?
How does jealousy determine how long or successful a marriage can be in today’s age of the web?
What effect does a person’s amount of time that is spent on social media impact his/her satisfaction?
Are humans becoming far more dependent on instant information and less likely to learn the truth?
What are some of the negative assumptions about women suffering from postpartum depression?
Some eating and personality disorder
What is the importance of communication in a relationship?
What are the social and psychological effects of virtue networks?
What role does a medium play in provoking aggression?
How does cognitive behavior therapy help in dealing with depressed adolescents?
How can depression and its risk factor be prevented?
In what ways did ancient architecture from Greece and Rome influence modern government buildings?
What impact did Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural style have on Los Angeles’ urban planning?
Why do historians believe the Egyptian Pyramids were created to their exact shape and scale?
How did Roman aqueducts impact the way communities evolved as a result of improved canals?
What dangers do the Venice canal systems face as a result of increasing temperatures and water levels?
How will architecture in major metropolitan areas change as a result of rising populations in the world?
Is architecture considered a science or an art and how does this affect the way we study it today?
What is parametric architecture and what other forms blend appropriately with it aesthetically?
Explain the construction of Time conception in the Architectural Realm.
Waterfront development- the process of beach convention and exhibition centers.
What is the design of ruled surfaces?
An analytic study of the design potential kinetic Architecture.
A survey of China from an archeologist’s point of view.
A look at Russian fairy-tale-style houses and huts.
How is jury selection affected by how politicians are perceived on social media?
Is it accurate to say that minorities receive a fair and unbiased trial in today’s political climate?
How do President Trump’s policies and comments targeting minorities affect their rights in court?
What challenges does cyber-crime present for lawmakers who have to put corporations on trial?
Should large corporations face larger crimes as a result of the amount of money they make publicly?
Why aren’t CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies held to the same criminal standards as the public?
Should human trafficking face larger penalties as a result of the dark web and ease of communication?
Does the internet perpetuate certain crimes as a result of its widespread and virtual anonymity?
The relationship between the police and people from different backgrounds.
What is the reliability of an eye-witness testimony?
What methods can be used to help prevent international drug trafficking?
Why does the crime rate increase during emergencies?
Why are men more likely to get death penalties?
In what ways does the drug court assist or hurt people with addiction?

Thesis Topics in Education

What are the biggest evolutionary changes to the major approaches in education throughout the world?
How have China’s educational methods changed in the last half-century to position them as world leaders?
Can educational programs in South America help those countries combat poverty in their communities?
Should core subjects be re-evaluated in light of the quickly changing needs of today’s modern world?
Should the United States make bigger investments in bringing tech tools to poorer school districts?
Can teachers continue to use traditional methods for grading when class size continues to increase?
Why do people lose the desire to learn new subjects in their adult years? How can this be addressed?
Should more parents be involved in schools’ educational policies and curriculum development?
Do graduate programs in education adequately prepare tomorrow’s teachers for the business world?
Are there any career development programs in Elementary schools?
What are the character development programs in elementary schools?
Should the use of the pass-fail grading be limited?
What is the impact of promoting parent volunteering in schools?
Teaching children with speech-language pathology.
How does the efficiency of classroom management help to reduce stress?
Is abortion a philosophical or political question? Should ethics be removed from this conversation?
Is it a must to lead an ethical life to achieve true human happiness in today’s competitive world?
What does it mean to support ethical farming practices in light of the world’s hunger problems?
Should parents have the ability to manipulate their children’s genetics and characteristics to an ideal?
How does genetic modification in animals affect our understanding of what we can do for humans?
In what ways do religious ethics and philosophy ethics contradict each other when it comes to crimes?
How does humanity’s history to commit evil acts affect the way we view our place in the world?
Is it morally ethical to love someone who is legally unattainable? (E.g., someone who is married).
Are contemporary philosophical theories inclusive of different societies or limiting to specific nations?
What can truly upset you, and in what ways can you deal with it?
Would you live your life more than once?
What do the beauty standards change often?
Are there situations where it is better to lie than tell the truth?
Some people think that love only lasts for three years. Is it true?
What is a perfect life? What prevents you from living it?
How has the rise and fall of famous and influential dictators changed throughout history?
How have the events leading to the 1980s conflicts in Afghanistan caused the turmoil we see today?
In what ways have border wars in South America led to increased asylum seekers fleeing those countries?
How did the North Atlantic Trade Agreement impact the way Europe has sought trade deals with China?
What impact did the Mormons have in shaping the American city landscape during the 19th century?
What role did Mormons have in further expelling Native Americans from their ancestral lands?
Why did the Southern States resist the freeing of slaves for so long? What economic factors were there?
What impact did pirates have on the development of Caribbean culture in Central America?
How have 21st-century marketing strategies affected how we value cultural history in the U.S.A?
Trends of migration through the years.
What is the history of immigration in the USA?
What causes the significant waves of migration in Syria?
How were women treated in the Soviet zone during WWII?
How did the fall of Hitler and the Nazis affect Germany?
The Spanish Inquisition- What is the truth behind its moral justification?
How do supercomputers and data mining affect political policy in today’s first-world governments?
In what ways have the roles of mediators changed in the world of globalized financial institutions?
How important is cultural awareness for large corporations? How is this different in small businesses?
Should politicians be allowed to maintain investments that can influence their political decisions?
Why are blind trusts necessary for anyone running for public office in today’s global economy?
What are the effects of bringing more technology into the home to automate day-to-day activities?
In what ways does automation keep people from controlling the same systems we want to be safe?
How does cyber activity affect how governments contribute to international economies?
How can we learn from past cultures to develop new societies where there is no poverty or hunger?
What was the correlation between political climate and literature during the eighteenth century?
What is the connection between religious conviction and rational thinking?
A comprehensive analysis of gun violence in the US.
Case study of Australia and how cyberbullying might result in suicides.
Civil war is the greatest inspiration for art. Discuss this concept.
Women empowerment in Saudi Arabia in the 2000s.

For more information on how to write a thesis or for more thesis ideas, check out what a professional writing site has to offer. On top of hundreds of free resources, you can pay to have a custom master’s thesis sample made from scratch or can have your work reviewed, edited, and proofread by an academic expert from our thesis writing services , whose job is to stay up-to-date on all educational requirements for capstone projects.

71 Best Education Dissertation Topic Ideas

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Learn about our Editorial Process

education dissertation topics ideas, explained below

It’s hard to choose and settle on a topic for your education dissertation. When I was choosing my topic, I was confused and uncertain. I wished I had a list like this that would help me out!

The topics below are best for undergraduate (B.A / B.Ed) or masters (M.A / M.Ed) students. Check out these 51 topic ideas, use them, and adapt them to create a topic that suits you.

The Lazy Man’s Top 10

before I dig in…

Here is a quick list of my top 9 favorite education dissertation topic ideas:

What skill development strategies can be observed in children’s play?
What evidence is there for the theory of multiple intelligences?
What are parents’ attitudes toward play-based learning in schools?
Is there a correlation between student stress levels and standardized exams?
What are the differences in teaching strategies between experienced and novice teachers?
What are the greatest challenges faced by teachers in their first 3 years in the profession?
What does the literature say about the differences between phonics and whole language learning?
What are the factors facilitating successful inclusion of students with behavioral disabilities?
What do teachers believe has been the effect of technology on students’ learning?

Read this First: 9 Tips for Choosing a Dissertation Topic

Education Dissertation Topic Ideas (List

1. dissertation ideas for studying early childhood education.

Structured and Unstructured Play: What are the perspectives of parents about the benefits of structured and unstructured play for children?
Transitioning to School: What do educators identify as the key challenges of transitioning from early childhood to compulsory schooling settings?
Children’s Book Representation: How do the 50 most popular children’s books of the 21 st Century promote gender norms? (For this one, consider also using the social graces concept to add a more analytical lens.)
Montessori Settings: What do teachers in Montessori educational settings perceive to be the benefits and limitations of a Montessori-style education?
Parents’ Anxieties: What are parents’ initial anxieties about sending their children to preschool?
Studying Promotional Literature: A semiotic analysis of the representation of the stages of play in early childhood learning center promotional literature.
Representation in News: How is the early childhood education and care (ECEC) profession represented in mainstream news?
Benefits of ECE: What do parent perceive to be the developmental benefits of early childhood education for their children?
Impact of Digital Technologies on Early Learning : Exploring how the use of tablets, educational apps, and digital storytelling influences cognitive and social development in preschool children.
Parental Involvement and Its Effects on Early Childhood Education : Examining the role of parental engagement in the educational outcomes and social development of preschool children.
Comparative Study of Outdoor Versus Indoor Play in Early Childhood Development : Assessing the impact of outdoor play environments versus traditional indoor classrooms on physical, emotional, and cognitive growth in young children.
Nutrition and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood : Investigating the correlation between nutritional intake and cognitive development in preschool-aged children.
Early Intervention Strategies for Children with Special Needs : Exploring effective early intervention techniques for children with developmental delays or disabilities in early childhood education settings.
The Role of Storytelling in Language Development : Analyzing how storytelling and narrative play contribute to language acquisition and literacy skills in early childhood.
Effects of Teacher-Child Ratio on Learning Outcomes : Evaluating the impact of teacher-to-child ratios in preschool settings on individual attention, learning outcomes, and overall classroom dynamics.
Exploring Play-Based Learning Versus Structured Curriculum in Early Education : Comparing the outcomes of play-based learning approaches to more structured, curriculum-based methods in early childhood education.
Social-Emotional Learning in Early Childhood Education : Investigating the integration and effectiveness of social-emotional learning programs in fostering emotional intelligence, empathy, and interpersonal skills in young children.
Cultural Diversity in Early Childhood Classrooms : Investigating how educators can integrate various cultural backgrounds and practices into their teaching to create an inclusive environment for children.

2. Dissertation Ideas for Studying Elementary Teaching

Piaget’s Stages: Are Piaget’s stages of development an accurate reflection of the abilities of children in the concrete stage of development?
Behavior Management Styles: What are teachers’ perspectives of authoritarian behavior management strategies ?
Behavior Management Strategies: What do teachers perceive as the most effective behavior management strategy for children aged 5 – 7?
Pros and Cons of Homework : What do parents perceive to be the benefits of no homework for children?
Autism in Classrooms: What are parents’ perceptions and concerns about integration of children with autism into mainstream classrooms?
Seating Arrangements: How do changes in seating arrangements from rows to table groups impact learning in a Grade 5 classroom?
Benefits of Play Breaks: According to educators, what are the benefits and limitations of regular play breaks for learning?
Phonics vs Whole Language Learning: What do teachers perceive to be the benefits and limitations of the phonics versus whole language learning approaches to literacy?
Development through Play: What skill development strategies can be observed in children’s play during recess breaks in schools?
Compulsory School Uniforms: What do educators in a school that has compulsory school uniforms see as the educational benefits or drawbacks of compulsory uniforms?
Sense of Belonging: What are the barriers and opportunities for promoting a ‘sense of belonging’ in primary school classrooms?
Technology Integration in Elementary Classrooms : Investigating the impact of integrating technology such as interactive whiteboards and educational software on student engagement and learning outcomes.
Differentiated Instruction Strategies : Evaluating the effectiveness of differentiated instruction in meeting the diverse learning needs of students in elementary school settings.
Parent-Teacher Communication : Analyzing the role of parent-teacher communication in student academic performance and behavioral development in elementary schools.
Impact of Bilingual Education : Exploring the cognitive, linguistic, and academic outcomes of bilingual education programs in elementary schools.
Teacher Perceptions of Standardized Testing : Investigating elementary school teachers’ views on the impact of standardized testing on teaching practices and student learning.
Social Skills Development Through Cooperative Learning : Examining the effectiveness of cooperative learning strategies in promoting social skills and teamwork among elementary school students.
Environmental Education in Elementary Curriculum : Analyzing the impact of incorporating environmental education into the elementary curriculum on students’ awareness and attitudes towards environmental issues.

Related: How to Write a Dissertation from Beginning to End

3. Dissertation Ideas for Studying Middle & High School Contexts

Homework vs Extracurricular Activities: What are students’ perceptions of the impact of homework on their after school extracurricular activities?
Nationalism in Curriculum Documents: How are nationalist ideologies reinforced and challenged in the current curriculum documents of [your jurisdiction]?
Preparation for Life: What are students’ perceptions of how well school prepares them for university / trades / real life?
Standardized Tests: What are students’ / teachers’/ parents’ perceptions of standardized tests in high school?
Mentorship: What do high school teachers in leadership positions perceive to be the best approaches to mentoring early career teachers?
Childhood Citizenship: Which models of childhood citizenship are evident in [your jurisdiction’s] curriculum?
Traits of Quality Teachers: What do parents perceive to be the traits of quality teachers in primary school vs. high school?
Students’ Perceptions of Teachers: What do adolescents see as the qualities of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ teachers?
Moral Values in Education: What do educators see as their role versus parents’ roles in promoting the moral values of children?
Migrant Challenges in the School System: What do parents of immigrant children see as the challenges their children face in schools in their new nation?

4. Educational Technology Dissertation Ideas

Use of Electronic Whiteboards: How prepared do pre-service teachers feel about teaching using Electronic White Boards?
Mobile Phones in the Classroom: What are parents’ perceptions of classroom mobile phone apps that are designed to increase parent-student interactions?
Impact of Technology on Learning: What are teachers’ perspectives of the impact of technology on student learning?
Gaming for Creative Writing: Can gaming help promote creative writing skills among boys aged 10-12?
Best Age for Introducing Technology: What age do parents perceive to be the best age for introducing children to technology?
Boys vs Girls Technology Usage: What are the differences between boys’ and girls’ technology usage habits during free time at school?
Online Learning Benefits and Challenges: What social, pedagogical and cognitive benefits and limitations do students face when learning online ?
Use of AI Large Language Models: How can Large Language Models like ChatGPT be beneficial for learning?

5. General Education and Teaching Dissertation Ideas

The Value of University: What do experienced educators perceive is the value of their university education?
Poverty and Education: What are teachers’ perceptions of the barriers and opportunities to learning for children in poverty?
Challenges faced by [Gender] Teachers: What challenges do male educators face in their first 5 years of teaching?
Anti-Bullying Policies: What are the main ways school leaders approach whole-school anti-bullying policy development?
Behavior Management for Developmental Delays: How do teachers differentiate their behavior management strategies for children with developmental delays?
Netiquette: What do teachers believe to be effective netiquette rules for online learning ?
Motivations for Taking a Promotion: What are the factors that impact teachers’ motivations for promotion into leadership positions in schools?
Reflective Practice: What do teachers perceive to be the role of reflection in their practice, and what are the most common reflective practice strategies among practitioners?
Theory Testing: What evidence is there for the theory of multiple intelligences?
Extroverts vs Introverts: How do Introverted and Extroverted Students Learn Differently?
Purpose of Schooling: What do parents perceive to be the purpose of schooling?
Experienced vs Novice Teachers: What differences are there in behavior management strategies for experienced versus novice teachers?
Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation: What do teachers believe are the benefits and challenges of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation strategies ?

6. Ideas that Involve Interviewing your Classmates!

A lot of my students like to use this idea because they can use a snowball sampling method rather than having to seek out teachers or schools to interview and study:

Concerns in Entering the Teaching Profession: What do pre-service teachers see as their biggest worries about entering the teaching profession?
Feeling Unprepared: What do pre-service teachers perceive to be the major factors that their degree does not prepare them for, before entering the workforce?
Benefits of a Dissertation Project: What do a cohort of teacher education students see as the benefits of conducting a final dissertation project prior to entering the profession? (see also: cohort effect )
Differences in Perspectives (Freshman vs Senior): What are the differences between freshman (first year) and senior (final year) students’ perspectives of the role of the classroom teacher in the 21 st Century?

Read Also: 25 Sociology Dissertation Ideas

What to do once you Choose your Topic for an Education Dissertation

Hopefully by now you have highlighted or written down 3 topics that caught your eye.

I recommend for your next step that you organize a meeting with your dissertation supervisor. Your supervisor will talk with you about your three ideas and give you advice on which to choose and why.

Each university has different requirements, so you’ll need to get input from your supervisor. Your supervisor is the person who can help you to navigate the special requirements of your particular program of study.

You’ll find that you and your supervisor will be able to tailor your chosen topic to you and your needs.

Good luck, and please do leave a comment below if you found this post useful!

I’m also always looking for more ideas to add to this list so if you came up with another idea, share it below.

Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 119 Bloom’s Taxonomy Examples
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ All 6 Levels of Understanding (on Bloom’s Taxonomy)
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Self-Actualization Examples (Maslow's Hierarchy)
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Forest Schools Philosophy & Curriculum, Explained!

1 thought on “71 Best Education Dissertation Topic Ideas”

Thank you for this! These open-ended examples helped me to broaden my topic some!

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Research area introduction How can research protect humanity's long-term potential from catastrophe?

Farmed animal welfare

Deep dive Animal agriculture causes suffering to billions of animals each year. How can we improve welfare standards as much as possible?

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Forecasting the long-term future

Deep dive To reliably improve the long-term future, we must address the challenge of predicting the long-term impact of our actions

Global health and wellbeing

Deep dive In 2021 about 9% of the global population was living in extreme poverty. How can we increase living standards and wellbeing in low- and lower-middle-income countries?

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Global priorities research

Deep dive There are many neglected, foundational uncertainties about what it means to improve the world and what actions we should take to do so

Governance of artificial intelligence

Deep dive AI could radically transform the world, for better or worse. How can AI governance mitigate the risks and increase the chance it contributes to humanity's flourishing?

Great power coordination

Deep dive How can we coordinate action between the Great Powers to address existential and global catastrophic risks?

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Historical persistence and contingency

Deep dive Improving predictions of the extent to which important features of the world today will persist into the future, and how contingent the future is on the actions we take in the present, could help inform attempts to create long-lasting positive change.

Discipline introduction Start here to learn how research in history could improve the world.

Human-aligned artificial intelligence

Deep dive Artificial intelligence will likely become an increasingly powerful force shaping humanity’s future, so research to align it with human values is vital.

Improving aquatic animal welfare

Deep dive How can we help the hundreds of billions of aquatic animals that are raised and killed for human consumption every year?

Improving health and wellbeing metrics

Deep dive Current health and wellbeing metrics have many shortcomings, leading to misallocation of resources. Developing the 'WELBY' could help.

Improving institutional decision-making

Deep dive Large institutions have vast resources and capacity to help solve global problems. How can we improve their decision-making processes?

Improving pandemic governance

Deep dive Pandemics pose a humanitarian crisis that could even threaten humanity’s future. How can governments prepare for future pandemics?

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Improving the measurement of animal welfare

Deep dive Wild animals make up the vast majority of sentient beings, but their welfare is highly neglected. One promising approach to understanding their quality of life is comparing rate of biological aging in different populations.

Improving voting methods

Deep dive Learning how voting systems have been changed in the past to understand how to improve voting systems used today

Insect welfare in farmed, wild, and research contexts

Deep dive Insect use and management occurs at a scale rarely seen across the animal taxa; despite this scale, their welfare has largely been neglected.

Longtermism

Deep dive Is improving the far future one of the key moral priorities of our time? If it is, how should this influence our actions?

Mechanistic interpretability

Deep dive Mechanistic interpretability could help us understand and control the inner workings of AI systems, ensuring that their decision-making aligns with human values and goals.

Medical interventions against dangerous pathogens

Deep dive To address future pandemics, we need medical interventions against pathogens to be faster to produce, effective against a broad range of threats, and cheaper and easier to produce at scale.

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Moral circle expansion

Deep dive How can we expand humanity's moral circle to create a more compassionate future?

Moral weight research

Deep dive Foundational research exploring animals’ experiences and moral standing could help prioritize animal welfare interventions

Most important historical trends

Deep dive A better understanding of historical trends and what they tell us about humanity's trajectory could inform efforts to improve and prepare for the future

Non-pharmaceutical pandemic interventions

Deep dive How does the transmission of dangerous pathogens occur and how can innovation in areas such as testing, PPE, distancing and contact tracing reduce transmission?

Nuclear war prevention and recovery

Deep dive Could nuclear winter pose an existential threat to humanity's future and in what scenarios? How can we decrease the risk of nuclear war and increase civilisational resilience?

Discipline introduction Start here to learn how research in philosophy and ethics could improve the world.

Preventing great power conflict

Deep dive Great power war could pose an existential risk, while a breakdown in cooperation could undermine vital coordination on many global problems. How can we reduce the risk of conflict?

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Preventing the release of dangerous pathogens

Deep dive How can we reduce the likelihood of intentional or accidental release of dangerous pathogens?

Prioritisation research

Progress studies

Deep dive Advances in science, technology, institutions and culture have caused huge improvements in standards of living. How can we increase the rate of progress?

Discipline introduction Start here to learn how research in psychology could improve the world.

Reducing physical pain

Deep dive Hundreds of millions of people live with chronic pain and other intensely painful conditions. What are the most urgent conditions where progress could be made?

Reducing risks from malevolent actors

Deep dive How can individuals with particularly dangerous personality traits be prevented from gaining power?

Resilient foods research

Deep dive How would we feed everyone in the event of a global catastrophe, such as the sun being blocked during a nuclear winter or significant disruption to electricity or industry?

Risks from volcanic eruptions

Deep dive Volcanic eruptions could lead to catastrophe by causing food shortages and disruption to vital global systems. How can we monitor and mitigate the risks?

Space governance

Deep dive Outer space is an increasingly valuable resource and may one day be permanently settled. How can its use be safe, sustainable and contribute to a flourishing future?

Understanding the impact of social movements

Deep dive Social movements can significantly improve the world. What factors determine the change a social movement achieves?

Wild animal welfare

Research area introduction Researching how to responsibly improve the wellbeing of wild animals.

Wildlife fertility control research

Deep dive Many wild animals suffer due to resource competition. Population management of some species via contraception could increase welfare and survival.

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How to Write a Master's Thesis: A Guide to Planning Your Thesis, Pursuing It, and Avoiding Pitfalls

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Part 1: Initial Considerations

Who needs to write a master’s thesis.

Thesis writing is one of the more daunting challenges of higher education. That being said, not all master's students have to write a thesis. For example, fields that place a stronger emphasis on applied knowledge, such as nursing, business, and education, tend to have projects and exams to test students on the skills and abilities associated with those fields. Conversely, in disciplines that require in-depth research or highly polished creative abilities, students are usually expected to prove their understanding and independence with a thesis.

What's Your Goal?

Do you want to write a thesis? The process is a long one, often spanning years. It's best to know exactly what you want before you begin. Many people are motivated by career goals. For example, hiring managers may see a master's degree as proof that the candidate is an expert within their field and can lead, motivate, and demonstrate initiative for themselves and others. Others dream of earning their doctorate, and they see a master's degree as a stepping stone toward their Ph.D .

No matter what your desired goal is, you should have one before you start your thesis. With your goal in mind, your work will have a purpose, which will allow you to measure your progress more easily.

Major Types of Theses

Once you've carefully researched or even enrolled in a master's program—a feat that involves its own planning and resources —you should know if you are expected to produce a quantitative (which occurs in many math and science programs), qualitative (which occurs in many humanities programs), or creative (which occurs in many creative writing, music, or fine arts programs) thesis.

Time and Energy Considerations

Advanced degrees are notoriously time and energy consuming. If you have a job, thesis writing will become your second job. If you have a family, they will need to know that your thesis will take a great deal of your attention, energy, and focus.

Your studies should not consume you, but they also should not take a back seat to everything else. You will be expected to attend classes, conduct research, source relevant literature, and schedule meetings with various people as you pursue your master's, so it's important to let those you care about know what's going on.

As a general note, most master's programs expect students to finish within a two-year period but are willing to grant extra time if requested, especially if that time is needed to deal with unexpected life events (more on those later).

Part 2: Form an Initial Thesis Question, and Find a Supervisor

When to begin forming your initial thesis question.

Some fields, such as history, may require you to have already formed your thesis question and to have used it to create a statement of intent (outlining the nature of your research) prior to applying to a master’s program. Others may require this information only after you've been accepted. Most of the time, you will be expected to come up with your topic yourself. However, in some disciplines, your supervisor may assign a general research topic to you.

Overall, requirements vary immensely from program to program, so it's best to confirm the exact requirements of your specific program.

What to Say to Your Supervisor

You will have a supervisor during your master's studies. Have you identified who that person will be? If yes, have you introduced yourself via email or phone and obtained information on the processes and procedures that are in place for your master's program? Once you've established contact, request an in-person meeting with him or her, and take a page of questions along with you. Your questions might include:

Is there a research subject you can recommend in my field?
I would like to pursue [target research subject] for my thesis. Can you help me narrow my focus?
Can you give me an example of a properly formatted thesis proposal for my program?

Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help (to a Degree)

Procedures and expectations vary from program to program, and your supervisor is there to help remove doubt and provide encouragement so you can follow the right path when you embark on writing your thesis. Since your supervisor has almost certainly worked with other graduate students (and was one at some point), take advantage of their experience, and ask questions to put your mind at ease about how to write a master’s thesis.

That being said, do not rely too heavily on your supervisor. As a graduate student, you are also expected to be able to work independently. Proving your independent initiative and capacity is part of what will earn you your master's degree.

Part 3: Revise Your Thesis

Read everything you can get your hands on.

Whether you have a question or need to create one, your next step is simple and applies to all kinds of theses: read.

Seek Out Knowledge or Research Gaps

Read everything you can that relates to the question or the field you are studying. The only way you will be able to determine where you can go is to see where everyone else has been. After you have read some published material, you will start to spot gaps in current research or notice things that could be developed further with an alternative approach. Things that are known but not understood or understood but not explained clearly or consistently are great potential thesis subjects. Addressing something already known from a new perspective or with a different style could also be a potentially valuable project. Whichever way you choose to do it, keep in mind that your project should make a valuable contribution to your field.

Talk with Experts in Your Field (and Don't Be Afraid to Revise Your Thesis)

To help narrow down your thesis topic, talk to your supervisor. Your supervisor will have an idea of what is current in your field and what can be left alone because others are already working on it. Additionally, the school you are attending will have programs and faculty with particular areas of interest within your chosen field.

On a similar note, don't be surprised if your thesis question changes as you study. Other students and researchers are out there, and as they publish, what you are working on can change. You might also discover that your question is too vague, not substantial enough, or even no longer relevant. Do not lose heart! Take what you know and adjust the question to address these concerns as they arise. The freedom to adapt is part of the power you hold as a graduate student.

Part 4: Select a Proposal Committee

What proposal committees are and why they're useful.

When you have a solid question or set of questions, draft a proposal.

You'll need an original stance and a clear justification for asking, and answering, your thesis question. To ensure this, a committee will review your thesis proposal. Thankfully, that committee will consist of people assigned by your supervisor or department head or handpicked by you. These people will be experts who understand your field of study and will do everything in their power to ensure that you are pursuing something worthwhile. And yes, it is okay to put your supervisor on your committee. Some programs even require that your supervisor be on your committee.

Just remember that the committee will expect you to schedule meetings with them, present your proposal, respond to any questions they might have for you, and ultimately present your findings and thesis when all the work is done. Choose those who are willing to support you, give constructive feedback, and help address issues with your proposal. And don't forget to give your proposal a good, thorough edit and proofread before you present it.

How to Prepare for Committee Meetings

Be ready for committee meetings with synopses of your material for committee members, answers for expected questions, and a calm attitude. To prepare for those meetings, sit in on proposal and thesis defenses so you can watch how other graduate students handle them and see what your committee might ask of you. You can even hold rehearsals with friends and fellow students acting as your committee to help you build confidence for your presentation.

Part 5: Write Your Thesis

What to do once your proposal is approved.

After you have written your thesis proposal and received feedback from your committee, the fun part starts: doing the work. This is where you will take your proposal and carry it out. If you drafted a qualitative or quantitative proposal, your experimentation or will begin here. If you wrote a creative proposal, you will now start working on your material. Your proposal should be strong enough to give you direction when you perform your experiments, conduct interviews, or craft your work. Take note that you will have to check in with your supervisor from time to time to give progress updates.

Thesis Writing: It's Important to Pace Yourself and Take Breaks

Do not expect the work to go quickly. You will need to pace yourself and make sure you record your progress meticulously. You can always discard information you don't need, but you cannot go back and grab a crucial fact that you can't quite remember. When in doubt, write it down. When drawing from a source, always create a citation for the information to save your future self time and stress. In the same sense, you may also find journaling to be a helpful process.

Additionally, take breaks and allow yourself to step away from your thesis, even if you're having fun (and especially if you're not). Ideally, your proposal should have milestones in it— points where you can stop and assess what you've already completed and what's left to do. When you reach a milestone, celebrate. Take a day off and relax. Better yet, give yourself a week's vacation! The rest will help you regain your focus and ensure that you function at your best.

How to Become More Comfortable with Presenting Your Work

Once you start reaching your milestones, you should be able to start sharing what you have. Just about everyone in a graduate program has experience giving a presentation at the front of the class, attending a seminar, or watching an interview. If you haven't (or even if you have), look for conferences and clubs that will give you the opportunity to learn about presenting your work and become comfortable with the idea of public speaking. The more you practice talking about what you are studying, the more comfortable you'll be with the information, which will make your committee defenses and other official meetings easier.

Published authors can be called upon to present at conferences, and if your thesis is strong, you may receive an email or a phone call asking if you would share your findings onstage.

Presenting at conferences is also a great way to boost your CV and network within your field. Make presenting part of your education, and it will become something you look forward to instead of fear.

What to Do If Your Relationship with Your Supervisor Sours

A small aside: If it isn't already obvious, you will be communicating extensively with others as you pursue your thesis. That also means that others will need to communicate with you, and if you've been noticing things getting quiet, you will need to be the one to speak up. Your supervisor should speak to you at least once a term and preferably once a week in the more active parts of your research and writing. If you give written work to your supervisor, you should have feedback within three weeks.

If your supervisor does not provide feedback, frequently misses appointments, or is consistently discouraging of your work, contact your graduate program advisor and ask for a new supervisor. The relationship with your supervisor is crucial to your success, especially if she or he is on your committee, and while your supervisor does not have to be friendly, there should at least be professional respect between you.

What to Do If a Crisis Strikes

If something happens in your life that disrupts everything (e.g., emotional strain, the birth of a child, or the death of a family member), ask for help. You are a human being, and personal lives can and do change without warning. Do not wait until you are falling apart before asking for help, either. Learn what resources exist for crises before you have one, so you can head off trauma before it hits. That being said, if you get blindsided, don't refuse help. Seek it out, and take the time you need to recover. Your degree is supposed to help you become a stronger and smarter person, not break you.

Part 6: Polish and Defend Your Master's Thesis

How to write a master’s thesis: the final stages.

After your work is done and everything is written down, you will have to give your thesis a good, thorough polishing. This is where you will have to organize the information, draft it into a paper format with an abstract, and abbreviate things to help meet your word-count limit. This is also where your final editing and proofreading passes will occur, after which you will face your final hurdle: presenting your thesis defense to your committee. If they approve your thesis, then congratulations! You are now a master of your chosen field.

Conclusion and Parting Thoughts

Remember that you do not (and should not) have to learn how to write a master’s thesis on your own. Thesis writing is collaborative, as is practically any kind of research.

While you will be expected to develop your thesis using your own initiative, pursue it with your own ambition, and complete it with your own abilities, you will also be expected to use all available resources to do so. The purpose of a master's thesis is to help you develop your own independent abilities, ensuring that you can drive your own career forward without constantly looking to others to provide direction. Leaders get master's degrees. That's why many business professionals in leadership roles have graduate degree initials after their last names. If you already have the skills necessary to motivate yourself, lead others, and drive change, you may only need your master's as an acknowledgement of your abilities. If you do not, but you apply yourself carefully and thoroughly to the pursuit of your thesis, you should come away from your studies with those skills in place.

A final thought regarding collaboration: all theses have a section for acknowledgements. Be sure to say thank you to those who helped you become a master. One day, someone might be doing the same for you.

Image source: Falkenpost/Pixabay.com

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Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer who is presenting an opening argument. You'll want to know very soon whether the lawyer believes the accused to be guilty or not guilty, and how the lawyer plans to convince you. Readers of academic essays are like jury members: before they have read too far, they want to know what the essay argues as well as how the writer plans to make the argument. After reading your thesis statement, the reader should think, "This essay is going to try to convince me of something. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm interested to see how I might be."

An effective thesis cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." A thesis is not a topic; nor is it a fact; nor is it an opinion. "Reasons for the fall of communism" is a topic. "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" is a fact known by educated people. "The fall of communism is the best thing that ever happened in Europe" is an opinion. (Superlatives like "the best" almost always lead to trouble. It's impossible to weigh every "thing" that ever happened in Europe. And what about the fall of Hitler? Couldn't that be "the best thing"?)

A good thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should "telegraph" how you plan to argue—that is, what particular support for your claim is going where in your essay.

Steps in Constructing a Thesis

First, analyze your primary sources. Look for tension, interest, ambiguity, controversy, and/or complication. Does the author contradict himself or herself? Is a point made and later reversed? What are the deeper implications of the author's argument? Figuring out the why to one or more of these questions, or to related questions, will put you on the path to developing a working thesis. (Without the why, you probably have only come up with an observation—that there are, for instance, many different metaphors in such-and-such a poem—which is not a thesis.)

Once you have a working thesis, write it down. There is nothing as frustrating as hitting on a great idea for a thesis, then forgetting it when you lose concentration. And by writing down your thesis you will be forced to think of it clearly, logically, and concisely. You probably will not be able to write out a final-draft version of your thesis the first time you try, but you'll get yourself on the right track by writing down what you have.

Keep your thesis prominent in your introduction. A good, standard place for your thesis statement is at the end of an introductory paragraph, especially in shorter (5-15 page) essays. Readers are used to finding theses there, so they automatically pay more attention when they read the last sentence of your introduction. Although this is not required in all academic essays, it is a good rule of thumb.

Anticipate the counterarguments. Once you have a working thesis, you should think about what might be said against it. This will help you to refine your thesis, and it will also make you think of the arguments that you'll need to refute later on in your essay. (Every argument has a counterargument. If yours doesn't, then it's not an argument—it may be a fact, or an opinion, but it is not an argument.)

This statement is on its way to being a thesis. However, it is too easy to imagine possible counterarguments. For example, a political observer might believe that Dukakis lost because he suffered from a "soft-on-crime" image. If you complicate your thesis by anticipating the counterargument, you'll strengthen your argument, as shown in the sentence below.

Some Caveats and Some Examples

A thesis is never a question. Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe?") is not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead in the water.

A thesis is never a list. "For political, economic, social and cultural reasons, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" does a good job of "telegraphing" the reader what to expect in the essay—a section about political reasons, a section about economic reasons, a section about social reasons, and a section about cultural reasons. However, political, economic, social and cultural reasons are pretty much the only possible reasons why communism could collapse. This sentence lacks tension and doesn't advance an argument. Everyone knows that politics, economics, and culture are important.

A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational. An ineffective thesis would be, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil." This is hard to argue (evil from whose perspective? what does evil mean?) and it is likely to mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading.

An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim. "While cultural forces contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of economies played the key role in driving its decline" is an effective thesis sentence that "telegraphs," so that the reader expects the essay to have a section about cultural forces and another about the disintegration of economies. This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the disintegration of economies played a more important role than cultural forces in defeating communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would react to this statement by thinking, "Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I want to read further to see how the author argues this claim."

A thesis should be as clear and specific as possible. Avoid overused, general terms and abstractions. For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns of the people" is more powerful than "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent."

Thesis SupportAll
Academic writing
Getting started tips

How to choose a thesis topic

Fear of failure
Perfectionism
Procrastination
Relationship with your supervisor
Stress Management
Time Management
Writer’s block
Thesis bookshelf

Criteria to help you decide

Choose a topic you like.

This may be the most important criteria. It is often not an easy decision and requires time you have to invest in order to decide on your topic. Your (quality of) life will be much better if the hours spend on your project are spent enjoyably. What’s more, the quality of your research, writing, and arguments will be much better if you feel a genuine passion for your work. Choose a topic you find both fascinating and significant.

Seek feedback

Discuss your ideas with peers and others, make your ideas explicit and seek feedback. Know that the thesis is a major project, but it isn’t your life’s research. Adequate feedback should help you narrow down your topic to realistic proportions.

Consider your future career

Select a topic that will be helpful in your career path. If your goal is an academic career, pick a topic that you can easily modify into journal articles and maybe lends itself well to future research. If you are going into industry, choose a topic that will make you more marketable.

Select a manageable topic

Use the expertise you have gained in you study and avoid exploring a completely new idea. Do your research and find a topic that fits into existing bodies of literature, but that builds upon theory and expands it. In doing so make sure this topic has not been done before. Finally; think carefully before you choose a controversial topic, think carefully about whether it might restrict your employment, tenure, or publishing opportunities.

Theoretical background

A simplified but very usable technique based on this theory consists of listing the advantages and disadvantages of each option. The list will result in a T-model in which you indicate all the positive points of an alternative on the left side and all the negative points on the right side. Subsequently, you value each aspect by grading it with a number. Eventually, you count the numbers together for the two lists and you will see directly whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Questions to ask yourself

What are my major interests?
What major personal experience relative to my discipline do I have?
What courses were most exciting?
What theories and concepts are interesting?
What do I want to avoid?
What data do I need?
What research methods do I like?
What are my career goals? (Articulate and answer your individual questions too.)

Otto Taborsky model

The following model by Otto Taborsky displays stages you should go through while choosing your thesis topic.

Realise you have to choose
Accept the uncertainty of the decision you will have to make
Freely explore
Make a decision
Execution of your decision

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Experiences of a London PhD student and beyond

Thesis Title: Examples and Suggestions from a PhD Grad

Graphic of a researcher writing, perhaps a thesis title

When you’re faced with writing up a thesis, choosing a title can often fall to the bottom of the priority list. After all, it’s only a few words. How hard can it be?!

In the grand scheme of things I agree that picking your thesis title shouldn’t warrant that much thought, however my own choice is one of the few regrets I have from my PhD . I therefore think there is value in spending some time considering the options available.

In this post I’ll guide you through how to write your own thesis title and share real-world examples. Although my focus is on the PhD thesis, I’ve also included plenty of thesis title examples for bachelor’s and master’s research projects too.

Hopefully by the end of the post you’ll feel ready to start crafting your own!

Why your thesis title is at least somewhat important

It sounds obvious but your thesis title is the first, and often only, interaction people will have with your thesis. For instance, hiring managers for jobs that you may wish to apply for in the future. Therefore you want to give a good sense of what your research involved from the title.

Many people will list the title of their thesis on their CV, at least for a while after graduating. All of the example titles I’ve shared below came from my repository of academic CVs . I’d say roughly 30% of all the academics on that page list their thesis title, which includes academics all the way up to full professor.

Your thesis title could therefore feature on your CV for your whole career, so it is probably worth a bit of thought!

My suggestions for choosing a good thesis title

Make it descriptive of the research so it’s immediately obvious what it is about! Most universities will publish student theses online ( here’s mine! ) and they’re indexed so can be found via Google Scholar etc. Therefore give your thesis a descriptive title so that interested researchers can find it in the future.
Don’t get lost in the detail . You want a descriptive title but avoid overly lengthy descriptions of experiments. Unless a certain analytical technique etc was central to your research, I’d suggest by default* to avoid having it in your title. Including certain techniques will make your title, and therefore research, look overly dated, which isn’t ideal for potential job applications after you graduate.
The title should tie together the chapters of your thesis. A well-phrased title can do a good job of summarising the overall story of your thesis. Think about each of your research chapters and ensure that the title makes sense for each of them.
Be strategic . Certain parts of your work you want to emphasise? Consider making them more prominent in your title. For instance, if you know you want to pivot to a slightly different research area or career path after your PhD, there may be alternative phrasings which describe your work just as well but could be better understood by those in the field you’re moving into. I utilised this a bit in my own title which we’ll come onto shortly.
Do your own thing. Having just laid out some suggestions, do make sure you’re personally happy with the title. You get a lot of freedom to choose your title, so use it however you fancy. For example, I’ve known people to use puns in their title, so if that’s what you’re into don’t feel overly constrained.

*This doesn’t always hold true and certainly don’t take my advice if 1) listing something in your title could be a strategic move 2) you love the technique so much that you’re desperate to include it!

Thesis title examples

To help give you some ideas, here are some example thesis titles from Bachelors, Masters and PhD graduates. These all came from the academic CVs listed in my repository here .

Bachelor’s thesis title examples

Hysteresis and Avalanches Paul Jager , 2014 – Medical Imaging – DKFZ Head of ML Research Group – direct link to Paul’s machine learning academic CV

The bioenergetics of a marine ciliate, Mesodinium rubrum Holly Moeller , 2008 – Ecology & Marine Biology – UC Santa Barbara Assistant Professor – direct link to Holly’s marine biology academic CV

Functional syntactic analysis of prepositional and causal constructions for a grammatical parser of Russian Ekaterina Kochmar , 2008 – Computer Science – University of Bath Lecturer Assistant Prof – direct link to Ekaterina’s computer science academic CV

Master’s thesis title examples

Creation of an autonomous impulse response measurement system for rooms and transducers with different methods Guy-Bart Stan , 2000 – Bioengineering – Imperial Professor – direct link to Guy-Bart’s bioengineering academic CV

Segmentation of Nerve Bundles and Ganglia in Spine MRI using Particle Filters Adrian Vasile Dalca , 2012 – Machine Learning for healthcare – Harvard Assistant Professor & MIT Research Scientist – direct link to Adrian’s machine learning academic CV

The detection of oil under ice by remote mode conversion of ultrasound Eric Yeatman , 1986 – Electronics – Imperial Professor and Head of Department – direct link to Eric’s electronics academic CV

Ensemble-Based Learning for Morphological Analysis of German Ekaterina Kochmar , 2010 – Computer Science – University of Bath Lecturer Assistant Prof – direct link to Ekaterina’s computer science academic CV

VARiD: A Variation Detection Framework for Color-Space and Letter-Space Platforms Adrian Vasile Dalca , 2010 – Machine Learning for healthcare – Harvard Assistant Professor & MIT Research Scientist – direct link to Adrian’s machine learning academic CV

Identification of a Writer’s Native Language by Error Analysis Ekaterina Kochmar , 2011 – Computer Science – University of Bath Lecturer Assistant Prof – direct link to Ekaterina’s computer science academic CV

On the economic optimality of marine reserves when fishing damages habitat Holly Moeller , 2010 – Ecology & Marine Biology – UC Santa Barbara Assistant Professor – direct link to Holly’s marine biology academic CV

Sensitivity Studies for the Time-Dependent CP Violation Measurement in B 0 → K S K S K S at the Belle II-Experiment Paul Jager , 2016 – Medical Imaging – DKFZ Head of ML Research Group – direct link to Paul’s machine learning academic CV

PhD thesis title examples

Spatio-temporal analysis of three-dimensional real-time ultrasound for quantification of ventricular function Esla Angelini – Medicine – Imperial Senior Data Scientist – direct link to Elsa’s medicine academic CV

The role and maintenance of diversity in a multi-partner mutualism: Trees and Ectomycorrhizal Fungi Holly Moeller , 2015 – Ecology & Marine Biology – UC Santa Barbara Assistant Professor – direct link to Holly’s marine biology academic CV

Bayesian Gaussian processes for sequential prediction, optimisation and quadrature Michael Osborne , 2010 – Machine Learning – Oxford Full Professor – direct link to Michael’s machine learning academic CV

Global analysis and synthesis of oscillations: a dissipativity approach Guy-Bart Stan , 2005 – Bioengineering – Imperial Professor – direct link to Guy-Bart’s bioengineering academic CV

Coarse-grained modelling of DNA and DNA self-assembly Thomas Ouldridge , 2011– Bioengineering – Imperial College London Senior Lecturer / Associate Prof – direct link to Thomas’ bioengineering academic CV

4D tomographic image reconstruction and parametric maps estimation: a model-based strategy for algorithm design using Bayesian inference in Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGM) Michele Scipioni , 2018– Biomedical Engineer – Harvard Postdoctoral Research Fellow – direct link to Michele’s biomedical engineer academic CV

Error Detection in Content Word Combinations Ekaterina Kochmar , 2016 – Computer Science – University of Bath Lecturer Assistant Prof – direct link to Ekaterina’s computer science academic CV

Genetic, Clinical and Population Priors for Brain Images Adrian Vasile Dalca , 2016 – Machine Learning for healthcare – Harvard Assistant Professor & MIT Research Scientist – direct link to Adrian’s machine learning academic CV

Challenges and Opportunities of End-to-End Learning in Medical Image Classification Paul Jager , 2020 – Medical Imaging – DKFZ Head of ML Research Group – direct link to Paul’s machine learning academic CV

K 2 NiF 4 materials as cathodes for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells Ainara Aguadero , 2006 – Materials Science – Imperial Reader – direct link to Ainara’s materials science academic CV

Applications of surface plasmons – microscopy and spatial light modulation Eric Yeatman , 1989 – Electronics – Imperial Professor and Head of Department – direct link to Eric’s electronics academic CV

Geometric Algorithms for Objects in Motion Sorelle Friedler , 2010 – Computer science – Haverford College Associate Professor – direct link to Sorelle’s computer science academic CV .

Geometrical models, constraints design, information extraction for pathological and healthy medical image Esla Angelini – Medicine – Imperial Senior Data Scientist – direct link to Elsa’s medicine academic CV

Why I regret my own choice of PhD thesis title

I should say from the outset that I assembled my thesis in quite a short space of time compared to most people. So I didn’t really spend particularly long on any one section, including the title.

However, my main supervisor even spelled out for me that once the title was submitted to the university it would be permanent. In other words: think wisely about your title.

What I started with

Initially I drafted the title as something like: Three dimensional correlative imaging for cartilage regeneration . Which I thought was nice, catchy and descriptive.

I decided to go for “correlative imaging” because, not only did it describe the experiments well, but it also sounded kind of technical and fitting of a potential pivot into AI. I’m pleased with that bit of the title.

What I ended up with

Before submitting the title to the university (required ahead of the viva), I asked my supervisors for their thoughts.

One of my well intentioned supervisors suggested that, given that my project didn’t involve verifying regenerative quality, I probably shouldn’t state cartilage regeneration . Instead, they suggested, I should state what I was experimenting on (the materials) rather than the overall goal of the research (aid cartilage regeneration efforts).

With this advice I dialled back my choice of wording and the thesis title I went with was:

Three dimensional correlative imaging for measurement of strain in cartilage and cartilage replacement materials

Reading it back now I’m reminder about how less I like it than my initial idea!

I put up basically no resistance to the supervisor’s choice, even though the title sounds so much more boring in my opinion. I just didn’t think much of it at the time. Furthermore, most of my PhD was actually in a technique which is four dimensional (looking at a series of 3D scans over time, hence 4D) which would have sounded way more sciency and fitting of a PhD.

What I wish I’d gone with

If I had the choice again, I’d have gone with:

Four-dimensional correlative imaging for cartilage regeneration

Which, would you believe it, is exactly what it states on my CV…

Does the thesis title really matter?

In all honesty, your choice of thesis title isn’t that important. If you come to regret it, as I do, it’s not the end of the world. There are much more important things in life to worry about.

If you decide at a later stage that you don’t like it you can always describe it in a way that you prefer. For instance, in my CV I describe my PhD as I’d have liked the title to be. I make no claim that it’s actually the title so consider it a bit of creative license.

Given that as your career progresses you may not even refer back to your thesis much, it’s really not worth stressing over. However, if you’re yet to finalise your thesis title I do still think it is worth a bit of thought and hopefully this article has provided some insights into how to choose a good thesis title.

My advice for developing a thesis title

Draft the title early. Drafting it early can help give clarity for the overall message of your research. For instance, while you’re assembling the rest of your thesis you can check that the title encompasses the research chapters you’re included, and likewise that the research experiments you’re including fall within what the title describes. Drafting it early also gives more time you to think it over. As with everything: having a first draft is really important to iterate on.
Look at some example titles . Such as those featured above!
If you’re not sure about your title, ask a few other people what they think . But remember that you have the final say!

I hope this post has been useful for those of you are finalising your thesis and need to decide on a thesis title. If you’ve enjoyed this article and would like to hear about future content (and gain access to my free resource library!) you can subscribe for free here:

Minor Corrections: How To Make Them and Succeed With Your PhD Thesis

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How to Choose a Master’s Dissertation (Thesis) Topic | Career Advice for Master’s Students to Improve Job Prospects

September 20, 2017
Career Guidance , Study Abroad

A Master’s program is not just a continuation of an undergraduate program. You are going to specialize in a particular subject field; hence it’s a process of acculturation. While an undergraduate degree provides you a range of potential jobs, a Master’s degree will put you on a specific track. So, it can certainly increase your job prospects in a niche domain. Within the Master’s program, the dissertation or thesis component is extremely important. It is what you have to show for your time in a master’s degree program; especially, if you don’t have any work experience. In this post, we will look into how to choose a Master’s Dissertation (or Thesis) topic .

How to Choose a Master’s Dissertation (Thesis) Topic

The thesis or project tell the employer what you can bring to the table. More often than not, you will be asked to describe your dissertation project during your job interview. Even in my case, my dissertation project played a vital role to land up to my first job.

So, how to choose a good dissertation topic? To be honest, there is no bad or wrong Master’s project per se. However, a strategic project selection could influence your career trajectory in many ways. A Master’s dissertation might not provide you the opportunity to conduct groundbreaking research. However, a Masters degree is an ideal opportunity to establish your domain expertise and showcase your technical and soft skills . Employers take a very close look at the dissertation topic, and so you should be considerate enough before choosing your project.

5 Quick Tips for Choosing a Master’s Dissertation or Thesis Project

Pick a topic that can be done quickly . It’s not a Ph.D. thesis; so you’re not going to have 4 – 5 years to do your research. Every topic expands as you start writing, so pick something concise. A Master’s thesis is a competency test and not a professional standard .

Evaluate the job market . Have a look what technical skills are being asked by the employers in your domain. You have to realize that though grades are important, employers hardly care about the grades; especially when you have done a Master’s degree. If your research is good enough and your grades aren’t too low, then you have nothing to worry about. It would be wise if you spend your time getting some quality work experience along with a Grade B, rather than earning grade A with no work experience.

You need to be passionate about the project . If you are not excited about the topic, then you might struggle to finish it off, and even fail in the viva. So, pick something that you like. After all, you will need to sell it when you interview for jobs or Ph.D. programs. When you demonstrate excitement about your dissertation thesis, you basically demonstrate your engagement and passion about the field of study. This will help during your interviews.

Ask around and take feedback . Talk to your potential supervisor, personal tutor, and course coordinator. During your thesis, you will work with a supervisor or adviser. Besides, you will also have a personal tutor and course co-ordinator around you. If you have problems coming up with a thesis topic , sit down with your advisor, personal tutor, and course director and talk about your interests. It could be also a good idea to visit the Careers Services, and speak to the career advisers and/or counselors. Their feedback will surely provide you some good topics that are best for you.

Identify your career trajectory . Choose a topic that creates a trajectory. You don’t need to necessarily take it, but you can keep your options open. It is not practical for everyone to find a topic that they will enjoy for 3 – 6 years. Besides, not everyone wants to do a Ph.D. However, it won’t hurt to have the option open. Even if you wish to opt for an MBA after few years of job, this can again help you with your MBA applications and admission process.

How I Chose My MSc Dissertation (Thesis) Topic

Now, I would take a walk down the memory lane to give you a rough idea about how I chose my dissertation topic. I attended Aston University in the UK for my MSc Pharmacology program (2008 – 2009). The dissertation was unarguably the major component of my Master’s program. My dissertation was not only carrying the maximum number of credit points, but it was also bound to influence the direction of my career after graduation. I knew that 3 – 4 months is not a decent time period for making any ground-breaking discovery. After all, it was my MSc dissertation and not a Ph.D. thesis. However, I needed something intellectually challenging. So, I was more focused on re-establishing the previous findings and hypothesis. My primary objective was to learn what questions to ask and how to conduct a research study. Secondly, I was keen on learning more about molecular pharmacology, and the cross-talk between neuroscience and cardiovascular medicine. Besides, I also needed to focus on learning some useful lab techniques that would make be employable. So, I was really thoughtful and strategic on choosing my dissertation topic. After considering three four options, I decided to do my dissertation on investigating “The Role of RAMP1 in Binding Adrenomedullin at the CGRP Receptor”.

The CGRP project fascinated me from the very beginning. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a 37 amino acid vasoactive neuro-peptide, derived from the alternative splicing of the primary transcript of the calcitonin gene (Amara et al., 1982). CGRP is released from the sensory fibers originating in the trigeminal ganglia (Goadsby & Edvinsson, 1993) or adventitial-medial border of arteries supplying the heart (Gulbenkian et al., 1993). CGRP has been reported to be widely found in the central and peripheral nervous systems, hypothalamus and cardiovascular system of humans and particularly in sensory nerve fibres. CGRP is a potent vasodilator with significant effects on arterioles and capillaries. Apart from significant roles in the nervous system, CGRP also controls cardiovascular functions. CGRP has also got major implications in migraine, nociception, bone formation, glucose uptake, blood pressure regulation, broncho-protection, neurogenic inflammation and tissue repair. But, the exact mechanism by which CGRP exerts its action was poorly understood. My project was supposed to be on understanding the receptor binding and the mechanism of action. Thus, I became very excited with the project background.

The fact that really made me excited was that the CGRP receptor, a family B GPCR, is a heterodimer between a conventional seven-TM (transmembrane) helix GPCR-like protein [known as calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CLR)] and a single TM protein, receptor activity-modifying protein 1 (RAMP-1). The RAMP-1 protein is required for CGRP (ligand) binding to the CLR receptor, and also facilitates the CLR expression at the cell surface. When CLR co-expresses with RAMP-2 or RAMP-3, it functions as the adrenomedullin (AM) receptor.

Image: Heterodimerisation of CLR and RAMP. (a) Molecular constitution of CGRP and AM receptors. (b) Glycosylation and trafficking stages of CGRP receptor. [Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience ]

Surprisingly, the CGRP receptor (RAMP1-CLR) was also found to bind AM with 10-fold less affinity than CGRP apart from binding CGRP. In 1999, it was proposed that the glycosylation level was likely to an important role in ligand selectivity. Later in 2001, it was suggested that RAMPs alter the glycosylation status of the receptor-complex (CGRP receptor). There were many other studies in the past that tried to solve this exact puzzle. But, the exact mechanism was ambiguous. So, the primary objective of my dissertation was to understand the role of RAMP-1 in binding AM at the CGRP receptor.

My supervisor had advised me to probe the residues 78 – 89 in the extracellular domain of RAMP1. He further explained that the project will involve chimera studies, cell culture, transfection, gel electrophoresis, cAMP assay, radioimmunoassay, handling of radio-nucleotides and basic exposure to molecular cloning. After understanding the project background and knowing about the potential lab techniques, I was sure that this would be the ideal dissertation topic for me.

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I have got a Molecular Pharmacology background with 5 years of research experience in the fields of Cardiovascular Medicine, Cancer Biology, Biomarkers, and Drug Discovery. I did my Masters from the UK (Aston University) and have worked at University of Oxford (UK), Utrecht University (Netherlands), University of New South Wales (Australia) and MeetUniversity (India). Currently, I am working with Stoodnt Inc. as a Career Adviser & Admission Counselor. I can be reached at [email protected]

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How to select a Master's thesis topic if your advisor won't suggest one?

If a master's degree candidate needs to select a thesis topic, but their advisor is unwilling to offer suggestions on the matter, how should one go about selecting a thesis?

How might one select an area to study?
How can one evaluate if if is a suitable topic?
Does the thesis need to focus on an area which is relatively unexplored by prior research?
research-topic

60 Step 1. Get a new advisor. – Dave Clarke Commented May 22, 2012 at 14:17
7 I find this question odd. Surely the first question is "What sort of research should I do?", not "How should I satisfy this administrative hurdle?" – JeffE Commented Aug 24, 2013 at 13:49

5 Answers 5

One approach is follows:

Find one or two good recent PhD theses in your chosen area. Read these thoroughly. As you read, write down every question that pops into your mind, write down every time the author states that something is left for future work or needs further investigation. This will have a dual effect. Firstly, you will get a good introduction to a particular research field. Secondly, you will have a bunch of questions that need to be investigated.

Prune trivial questions, non-sensible ones, etc.

Next, organize your questions thematically and see whether you can find a common thread to these questions, something that could form the basis of your research.

Remove any questions that do not fit will with the others.

Based on the remaining questions, formulate a couple of coherent questions that your research could address.

Write a plan to address these questions.

Work through plan.

Write thesis.

You'll be amazed at how much the choice of Master's thesis will influence your long-term interest in the field, prospects for jobs within and outside of academia. I'd suggest picking up some mainstream journals or magazines in your field and see what is currently trendy in the field, and what are bread and butter topics. Having a birds eye view of what's going on in the field allows you to be strategic about your topic, with the goal of planning a successful career.

Most likely, a successful career is one that will hook into an existing community of researchers in a topic, with a reliable source of funds that pay for conferences, departments, and students to populate them. A strategic topic is one that has the potential to make an impact in the field, and has the potential to cross-over into related disciplines, or even to have practical applications to real people (god forbid).

Finally, and most importantly, choose a topic that gets your blood flowing. Your master's topic could very easily become a PhD topic, which could then become a career focus. A lot of grad student burn-out is the result of students reaching their limit of interest in a topic, and thus deciding they've had enough.

As you survey mainstream and more specific literatures, be aware of what problems and topics get you excited. Choose something that you actually get excited about, that you can't stop thinking and talking about, and that you can even get other people excited about. That's the topic that will keep you going when you get stuck in the muck of research and don't know if you can keep going for another year.

I would look what are the domain of interest of my advisor, see what he dose, and pick a thesis on one of that domain (In case I can run in trouble he can help). But I will take care to be a topic that I can also find interesting.

I would recommend that you read into some area of your Master which your find interesting. After you have an outline of an idea, then see on your university website which of the professors might be a suitable supervisor.

2 or the reverse? Check the available supervisors to see what fits you well? If it was a PhD thesis, I wouldn't suggest this way but Masters it probably could work well. But yes, as Dave Clarke suggested in the comments, Step 1 is to get a new advisor. – user107 Commented May 22, 2012 at 18:06
I agree, for a PhD thesis it would be to important who is the supervisor and I guess you can make the same consideration for a master's thesis. – Bastiaan Quast Commented May 24, 2012 at 6:45

This is summary of what i got from a blog i read. The link will be provided below

1.Idea generation

Rather than look for one perfect idea, it is better to consider several. In the initial stages, you should be open to all ideas, even if they seem crazy. The ideas don’t need to be completely unique, you could start with one idea, then consider multiple variations on a theme. However you approach it, take some time to think of as many different topics as you can.

This stage is crucial, and can save you years of pain.

Before you finalise your thesis topic, you need to test potential ideas for viability. Is the project possible? How will you go about it? What do you need?

Ask yourself, what is the simplest first step that would need to be taken, and figure out if it is possible

3. Elimination and refinement

It’s OK to let go of ideas if they don’t work or are impractical (and much easier to do if you start with several possibilities). But others may just need a little refinement to become viable.

Check out this blog by James Hayton ( http://jameshaytonphd.com/how-to-choose-a-thesis-topic/ ).

1 Pursue the various ideas part way. Maybe you can solve them all (Yay!), or some turn out useless/too hard/boring half way through. Then you can prune them, and haven't painted yourself into a corner. – vonbrand Commented Aug 24, 2015 at 18:16

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Dissertation

How to Write a Dissertation or Thesis Proposal

Published on September 21, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on July 18, 2023.

When starting your thesis or dissertation process, one of the first requirements is a research proposal or a prospectus. It describes what or who you want to examine, delving into why, when, where, and how you will do so, stemming from your research question and a relevant topic .

The proposal or prospectus stage is crucial for the development of your research. It helps you choose a type of research to pursue, as well as whether to pursue qualitative or quantitative methods and what your research design will look like.

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What should your proposal contain, dissertation question examples, what should your proposal look like, dissertation prospectus examples, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about proposals.

Prior to jumping into the research for your thesis or dissertation, you first need to develop your research proposal and have it approved by your supervisor. It should outline all of the decisions you have taken about your project, from your dissertation topic to your hypotheses and research objectives .

Depending on your department’s requirements, there may be a defense component involved, where you present your research plan in prospectus format to your committee for their approval.

Your proposal should answer the following questions:

Why is your research necessary?
What is already known about your topic?
Where and when will your research be conducted?
Who should be studied?
How can the research best be done?

Ultimately, your proposal should persuade your supervisor or committee that your proposed project is worth pursuing.

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Strong research kicks off with a solid research question , and dissertations are no exception to this.

Dissertation research questions should be:

Focused on a single problem or issue
Researchable using primary and/or secondary sources
Feasible to answer within the timeframe and practical constraints
Specific enough to answer thoroughly
Complex enough to develop the answer over the space of a paper or thesis
Relevant to your field of study and/or society more broadly
What are the main factors enticing people under 30 in suburban areas to engage in the gig economy?
Which techniques prove most effective for 1st-grade teachers at local elementary schools in engaging students with special needs?
Which communication streams are the most effective for getting those aged 18-30 to the polls on Election Day?

An easy rule of thumb is that your proposal will usually resemble a (much) shorter version of your thesis or dissertation. While of course it won’t include the results section , discussion section , or conclusion , it serves as a “mini” version or roadmap for what you eventually seek to write.

Be sure to include:

A succinct introduction to your topic and problem statement
A brief literature review situating your topic within existing research
A basic outline of the research methods you think will best answer your research question
The perceived implications for future research
A reference list in the citation style of your choice

The length of your proposal varies quite a bit depending on your discipline and type of work you’re conducting. While a thesis proposal is often only 3-7 pages long, a prospectus for your dissertation is usually much longer, with more detailed analysis. Dissertation proposals can be up to 25-30 pages in length.

Writing a proposal or prospectus can be a challenge, but we’ve compiled some examples for you to get your started.

Example #1: “Geographic Representations of the Planet Mars, 1867-1907” by Maria Lane
Example #2: “Individuals and the State in Late Bronze Age Greece: Messenian Perspectives on Mycenaean Society” by Dimitri Nakassis
Example #3: “Manhood Up in the Air: A Study of Male Flight Attendants, Queerness, and Corporate Capitalism during the Cold War Era” by Phil Tiemeyer

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The research methods you use depend on the type of data you need to answer your research question .

If you want to measure something or test a hypothesis , use quantitative methods . If you want to explore ideas, thoughts and meanings, use qualitative methods .
If you want to analyze a large amount of readily-available data, use secondary data. If you want data specific to your purposes with control over how it is generated, collect primary data.
If you want to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables , use experimental methods. If you want to understand the characteristics of a research subject, use descriptive methods.

A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical first steps in your writing process. It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding what kind of research you’d like to undertake.

Generally, an outline contains information on the different sections included in your thesis or dissertation , such as:

Your anticipated title
Your abstract
Your chapters (sometimes subdivided into further topics like literature review , research methods , avenues for future research, etc.)

A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research aims, that you collect high-quality data, and that you use the right kind of analysis to answer your questions, utilizing credible sources . This allows you to draw valid , trustworthy conclusions.

The priorities of a research design can vary depending on the field, but you usually have to specify:

Your research questions and/or hypotheses
Your overall approach (e.g., qualitative or quantitative )
The type of design you’re using (e.g., a survey , experiment , or case study )
Your sampling methods or criteria for selecting subjects
Your data collection methods (e.g., questionnaires , observations)
Your data collection procedures (e.g., operationalization , timing and data management)
Your data analysis methods (e.g., statistical tests or thematic analysis )

A dissertation prospectus or proposal describes what or who you plan to research for your dissertation. It delves into why, when, where, and how you will do your research, as well as helps you choose a type of research to pursue. You should also determine whether you plan to pursue qualitative or quantitative methods and what your research design will look like.

It should outline all of the decisions you have taken about your project, from your dissertation topic to your hypotheses and research objectives , ready to be approved by your supervisor or committee.

Note that some departments require a defense component, where you present your prospectus to your committee orally.

Formulating a main research question can be a difficult task. Overall, your question should contribute to solving the problem that you have defined in your problem statement .

However, it should also fulfill criteria in three main areas:

Researchability
Feasibility and specificity
Relevance and originality

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George, T. (2023, July 18). How to Write a Dissertation or Thesis Proposal. Scribbr. Retrieved June 18, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/thesis-dissertation-proposal/

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How to structure your PhD thesis

Organising your PhD thesis in a logical order is one of the crucial stages of your writing process. Here is a list of the individual components to include

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Using non verbal cues to build rapport with students, emotionally challenging research and researcher well-being, augmenting the doctoral thesis in preparation for a viva, how hard can it be testing ai detection tools.

The task of writing a PhD thesis is top of mind for many aspiring scholars. After all, completing one is no small task. And while these pieces of writing often share a standard format, this can differ slightly based on the requirements of your institution or subject. So what elements make up a PhD thesis?

A doctoral thesis usually contains:

A title page
Declarations from the candidate and supervisor
A certificate from the candidate and supervisor
A plagiarism report
Acknowledgements
A table of contents
Abbreviations
An abstract

Chapters typically cover:

A general introduction
Literature review
Analysis of the gap in research with aims and objectives
Materials and methods
Summary and conclusion
References or bibliography.

You should also include a list of papers you have published and any relevant achievements at the end.

An explanation of each of the components of a PhD dissertation

Title page: a PhD thesis starts with a title page that contains the complete title of the research work, the submitting university, names of the candidate and supervisor, affiliation and month and year of submission.

Abstract: this serves as a concise synopsis of the dissertation, covering the research context, purpose of the study or research questions, methodology, findings and conclusions. This section is usually one to two pages in length.

Table of contents: this page lists the thesis content and respective page numbers.

General introduction and literature review: this component is usually 20 to 40 pages long. It presents the readers with the primary material and discusses relevant published data. It provides an overview of pertinent literature related to the thesis such as texts that critically assess the existing literature to identify the gap in research and explain the need behind the study.

Aims and objectives: this section of the thesis is typically one to two pages long and describes the aims and objectives of the study. Structure them as three to four bullet points describing specific points that you will investigate. Approach this by thinking about what readers should understand by the end of the thesis. Ensure you:

Give a clear explanation of the purpose and goals of your study
Outline each aim concisely
Explain how you will measure your objectives
Ensure there is a clear connection between each aim
Use verbs such as investigate, evaluate, explore, analyse and demonstrate.

Materials and methods: this section briefly explains how you have conducted the study and should include all the materials you used and procedures you implemented. For example, if your research involves working with chemicals, list the chemicals and instruments used, along with their catalogue numbers and manufacturers’ names. This section should also explicitly explain the methodology you used, step-by-step. Use the past tense while writing this section and do not describe any results or findings of the study yet.

Results: this section is sometimes called the “findings report” or “the experimental findings” (referring to data collection and analysis). Write the results concisely and in the past tense. Include text, figure and table infographics created with tools such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator and BioRender to visualise your data .

Discussion: this is a chance to discuss the results and compare the findings of your study with the initial hypothesis and existing knowledge. Focus on discussing interpretations, implications, limitations and recommendations here.

Resources on academic writing for higher education staff
Tips for writing a PhD dissertation: FAQs answered
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Summary and conclusion: this section should be shorter than the discussion and summarise your key findings. The summary and conclusion should be brief and engaging, allowing the reader to easily understand the major findings of the research work. Provide clear answers to the research questions, generate new knowledge and clarify the need for the study.

Future perspective: this section of the thesis (which is often combined with a summary or conclusion) talks about the study's limitations, if any, and indicates the directions for future studies based on your findings.

References or bibliography: the last section should include the list of articles, websites and other resources cited in the thesis.

Always remember that, depending on the department, university or field of study, you might have to follow specific guidelines on how to organise your PhD thesis. Ensure you consult your supervisor or academic department if you have any doubts.

Shama Prasada Kabekkodu is a professor and head of cell and molecular biology at Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter .

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250+ Thesis Topics for Masters & PhD Students (2024)
Masters Thesis Topics. Discuss the relationship between literature and the political climate in the 18th century; Explain the relationship between rational thinking and religion; The Civil War is the greatest inspiration for art. Discuss the concept; Gun violence in the USA during the 2010s: A comparative analysis
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Sociology Thesis Ideas . Sociology studies how humans live together. A dissertation is a great way to dive deeper into a particular subject. You can get as specific as your heart desires! Check out our sociology thesis topics: Single parent stigma and its influence on family's quality of life and parent-child relationships.
How to come up with a topic for your thesis
Content: Depending on the level of your studies, you will be required to come up with a topic for your thesis by yourself or to choose from a list of broad topics. In either case, you will need to: Choose a specific scope. Narrow it down as much as you can. Organize your papers in one place.
Prize-Winning Thesis and Dissertation Examples
Prize-Winning Thesis and Dissertation Examples. Published on September 9, 2022 by Tegan George.Revised on July 18, 2023. It can be difficult to know where to start when writing your thesis or dissertation.One way to come up with some ideas or maybe even combat writer's block is to check out previous work done by other students on a similar thesis or dissertation topic to yours.
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Step 3: Look for books and articles. Step 4: Find a niche. Step 5: Consider the type of research. Step 6: Determine the relevance. Step 7: Make sure it's plausible. Step 8: Get your topic approved. Other interesting articles. Frequently asked questions about dissertation topics.
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1000+ FREE Research Topics & Title Ideas. If you're at the start of your research journey and are trying to figure out which research topic you want to focus on, you've come to the right place. Select your area of interest below to view a comprehensive collection of potential research ideas. AI & Machine Learning. Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.
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A comprehensive list of research topics and ideas in education, along with a list of existing dissertations & theses covering education. ... If you're just starting out exploring education-related topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you've come to the right place. ... Master of arts in religious studies and 2) Master ...
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Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates. Published on June 7, 2022 by Tegan George.Revised on November 21, 2023. A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical early steps in your writing process.It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding the specifics of your dissertation topic and showcasing its relevance to ...
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Writing a masters dissertation or thesis is a sizable task. It takes a considerable amount of research, studying and writing. Usually, students need to write around 10,000 to 15,000 words. It is completely normal to find the idea of writing a masters thesis or dissertation slightly daunting, even for students who have written one before at ...
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Here's 51 education dissertation topics to choose from or modify for your own dissertation. It's hard to find a topic, so use this list to get started! ... He has supervised countless dissertation students and honors, masters, and PhD level. Education Dissertation Topic Ideas (List 1. Dissertation Ideas for Studying Early Childhood Education
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Historical persistence and contingency. Deep dive. Improving predictions of the extent to which important features of the world today will persist into the future, and how contingent the future is on the actions we take in the present, could help inform attempts to create long-lasting positive change.
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A good thesis topic is a general idea that is in need of development, verification or refutation. Your thesis topic should be of interest to you, your advisor, and the research community. If it is not, it may be difficult to stay motivated or to "sell" the idea. When searching for a topic, remember that your thesis should attempt to solve a ...
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Part 6: Polish and Defend Your Master's Thesis How to Write a Master's Thesis: The Final Stages. After your work is done and everything is written down, you will have to give your thesis a good, thorough polishing. This is where you will have to organize the information, draft it into a paper format with an abstract, and abbreviate things to ...
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What Is a Thesis?
Revised on April 16, 2024. A thesis is a type of research paper based on your original research. It is usually submitted as the final step of a master's program or a capstone to a bachelor's degree. Writing a thesis can be a daunting experience. Other than a dissertation, it is one of the longest pieces of writing students typically complete.
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start brainstorming topics. write down ideas and questions that interest you. narrow down your list to the top three or four topics. Choosing the right topic is an important part of writing a successful master's thesis. With these tips, you can find the perfect topic for your thesis and make the most of your research.
How to choose a thesis topic
Discuss your ideas with peers and others, make your ideas explicit and seek feedback. Know that the thesis is a major project, but it isn't your life's research. Adequate feedback should help you narrow down your topic to realistic proportions. Consider your future career. Select a topic that will be helpful in your career path.
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Master's thesis title examples. Creation of an autonomous impulse response measurement system for rooms and transducers with different methods. Guy-Bart Stan, 2000 - Bioengineering - Imperial Professor - direct link to Guy-Bart's bioengineering academic CV. Segmentation of Nerve Bundles and Ganglia in Spine MRI using Particle Filters.
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5 Quick Tips for Choosing a Master's Dissertation or Thesis Project. Pick a topic that can be done quickly. It's not a Ph.D. thesis; so you're not going to have 4 - 5 years to do your research. Every topic expands as you start writing, so pick something concise. A Master's thesis is a competency test and not a professional standard.
How to select a Master's thesis topic if your advisor won't suggest one
If it was a PhD thesis, I wouldn't suggest this way but Masters it probably could work well. But yes, as Dave Clarke suggested in the comments, Step 1 is to get a new advisor. I agree, for a PhD thesis it would be to important who is the supervisor and I guess you can make the same consideration for a master's thesis.
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Writing a proposal or prospectus can be a challenge, but we've compiled some examples for you to get your started. Example #1: "Geographic Representations of the Planet Mars, 1867-1907" by Maria Lane. Example #2: "Individuals and the State in Late Bronze Age Greece: Messenian Perspectives on Mycenaean Society" by Dimitri Nakassis.
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Graduate Writing - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University. Style Guide Overview MLA Guide APA Guide Chicago Guide OWL Exercises. Purdue OWL. Graduate Writing.
How to structure your PhD thesis
Approach this by thinking about what readers should understand by the end of the thesis. Ensure you: Give a clear explanation of the purpose and goals of your study. Outline each aim concisely. Explain how you will measure your objectives. Ensure there is a clear connection between each aim.
What Is a Master's Degree?
Master's thesis, capstone project, or internship. Types of master's degrees. Master's degrees fall under an array of categories, the most common being Master of Arts (MA) and Master of Science (MS) degrees. MA degrees typically focus on humanities subjects, while MS degrees tend to prepare you for technical fields. However, an overlap ...

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How to come up with a topic for your thesis

Finding a thesis topic

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1. Understand your dissertation or thesis topic

2. Structure your dissertation or thesis

3. Write up your literature review

What to include in your literature review

4. Write up your research

Methodology chapter

Data analysis and findings chapters

5. Discuss and evaluate

6. Write your introduction

Masters dissertation writing tips

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Keep track of your bibliography

Avoid accidental plagiarism

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