The School of Graduate Studies requires all PhD students to get approval for a dissertation proposal by the end of their third year. The Department asks that you aim to submit it by the end of year two or early in year three, in order to give you enough time to complete your degree inside five years.

Although the proposal may seem daunting at first, you should keep in mind that it is not the end product of your research, but simply the first step on the journey toward the completion of your dissertation project. No one expects you to know the results of your research; rather, the proposal is your signal to your committee that you have a clear idea of what you want to investigate and a plan of how to proceed.

You should work with your supervisor (or prospective supervisor) to clarify her/his expectations for the proposal, but in general a proposal should contain the following components:

1. The research question your dissertation will address.
2. How that question is situated in the relevant literature. (Situating your question involves a discussion of how it contributes to or builds on existing literature or responds to puzzles left unexplained or unexplored. There is no need to identify and read everything that has already been written on the topic.)
3. The research design. (You should discuss how the research will proceed and why the approach you are taking is appropriate to address the question you pose. This will vary depending on your topic, subfield, and approach. As appropriate, you should address issues such as your theoretical framework, text selection, approach to textual interpretation, case selection, hypotheses, and research methodology.)
4. A preliminary chapter breakdown.
5. A preliminary timetable for the completion of the research.

The entire proposal should be about 25 pages long.

Beyond these general guidelines, you should consult your supervisor to discuss plans for the proposal and the initial stages of your research. For example, you should clarify what level of detail is expected and whether to include a bibliography beyond the works cited in the proposal. Especially in political theory, many students find it helpful to construct an extensive bibliography of the relevant literature as a roadmap. This bibliography can be attached to the end of the proposal and need not be already read.

Once you actually embark on your dissertation research, it is very common to modify your project. The proposal does not need to be re-approved if this happens, unless the change is significant enough to result in change in composition of the thesis committee (and even then only if deemed necessary by the supervisor and the Graduate Director). The proposal is simply to get you started. The dissertation is where those modifications will appear.

If your research involves working with human subjects (e.g. interviews), you will need to apply for ethical review through the University of Toronto’s Office of Research Ethics. This process must be completed after your thesis proposal is completed. The Graduate Office does not treat the proposal requirement of your program as fully satisfied until ethics approval has been granted.