Research Proposal Guide for Successful Admission/Scholarship Applications

                                         

Writing a Research Proposal 

One major and essential requirement that you must provide when applying to Universities to study abroad, especially in Australia is a Research Proposal. This is most common especially if you are applying for a research degree program. Be aware, as a research student, this is the most captivating and competitive piece of document/ requirement that you must provide if you are to secure a studentship position for yourself or win a scholarship to get free tuition fees and stipends to fully support your studies and yourself while living abroad. 

Don't freak out yet! It is an easy task to accomplish. In this post, we will make it get easier for you. We will provide you with some of the essential guides you need to come up with your own research projects and build up a proposal for your admission and scholarship application. At the end of the post please find research proposal examples, free research proposal samples pdf, free online research proposal courses, research proposal examples for students from Australian Universities etc...

Let's start by answering this question, you must be wondering already about What is a Research Proposal actually? and how does that impact your admission or scholarship application? Especially if you are new to research. A Research Proposal is a principal document that attracts a potential supervisor. It is that document that will enable you to win the mind of the potential supervisors, the university and the faculty you are applying to.  In another word, a research proposal is a document just like the name implies, that proposes a research project, generally in the sciences or academia. Research proposals generally constitute a request for sponsorship of that research. 

Research Proposal is a comprehensive and carefully planned work that needs some fundamental research skills.  It aims to present your idea or question in the discipline area clearly. The document must establish why your idea is relevant and the identified gaps in your field and how your research intends to fill those gaps. It must equally include how you plan to go about with the research to achieve goals and objectives: What approach, methods etc will be used in your research.

The main reason you are writing a research proposal is generally that you intend to get a sponsorship which can be through acceptance and a recommendation for admission into that program or a scholarship by a potential supervisor. In this case before writing a research proposal, 

it's good to go through: 

• The profiles of your potential supervisor/supervisors
•  Make sure to have the same area of interest and expertise with them 
• Check if they already have relevant ongoing projects that might be of interest to you 
• Contact them with a well-addressed responsive email. Refer to this free guide on how to contact potential supervisors asking for studentship position

Research proposals in most cases are generally provided together with the other admission requirement documents during application submission. In some cases, you might have to give a hint about any project you have in mind to your supervisor during your first email exchange. Generally in Australia, the school or the supervisor will provide you with an Expression of Interest (EoI) form attached with a research proposal template for your research. It is a template, with a format, so all you need to do will be to fill in the information about your research projects.

Whether you are to come up with a resaerch project yourself or to write up a comprehensive and well captivating research proposal when applying for your admissions or scholarship program, the following questions must be considered first to serve as a guide to choosing and writing up a project:

1. How are research proposals evaluated? Refer to our previous post here to view the response  to this question, please
2. What is the purpose of a research proposal? What is the purpose of your research? refer to our previous post here to view the response to this question, please
3. What are the fundamental skills required to write a good research proposal?
4. What are the main components of a good research proposal? The structure of a research proposal

Answering the above questions is the ultimate solution from choosing the perfect subject/topic for your research projects to writing up the whole proposal. This will provide you with all the guidance you need to write up a well captivating research proposal for admission/scholarship application. You can not do this all by yourself, we usually recommend students to get assistance from their previous supervisors, mentors, tutors etc. and make use of the available resources by your side such as textbooks on research proposal guides. If you don't have one, no worries, you can find the best selling research proposal guides on amazon shipped to you at a very low cost.

Lots of them are available, we recommend you try the following below.

 Free Research Proposal Guides, Online Courses and Tools

1. Australian Universities Research proposal guidelines, examples and tips for admissions and scholarship applications

• University of Sydney: How to write a research proposal for a strong application
• The University of Western Australia's: How to Write a Research Proposal
• The University of Wollongong: Research Proposal guide
• The University of Western Australia's Research Proposal Guide 
• University of Technology Sydney's Research Proposal Guide 
• University of Queensland's Research Proposal Guide
• Melbourne University's Research Proposal Guide
• University of New South Wales' Research Proposal Guide
• Edith Cowan University's  Research Proposal Guide
• Flinders University's Research Proposals

Refer here for Sample Research Proposals  printable or download

2. Free online courses and tips  on how to write research proposals

Due to globalisation, it's possible and easy to obtain the best quality of education wherever we are. There is a lot of high-quality online platforms these days where we can easily find any course of choice and with a certificate either for free or at a very affordable price. We can equally learn from top institutions around the world in the comfort of our bedroom without leaving our countries. 

If having problems with developing or writing a research proposal, you don't know where to start etc... below are some free online courses you might want to look at:

• Discovering Your PhD Potential: Writing a Research Proposal from the University of Leicester. 5-week free online course(Update: as of June, this program currently has a subscription charge). The course has a goal to provide students with the skills, awareness and tools how to research and write a high-quality research proposal for postgraduate applications. The sole aim of the course is to be able to improve the quality of postgraduate students' applications. The course is only free for the duration of 5weeks and will need a monthly subscription therefore for those who wish to gain continuous access to the materials.  The whole course focuses on Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, but much of the content is relevant to all disciplines. So whatever your field of study is, this shall be a helpful course for you. Some topics covered include: Introduction to doctoral research, Funding your study, Defining the problem and writing a research question, writing a literature review, research design and methodology, How to construct your proposal...  Stay tuned, more free online courses are to be added!

Amazing news from Coursera!!! For a limited time, Coursera will be offering the first month of Coursera Plus Monthly for just $1. This monthly subscription gives learners full access to over 7,000 courses, including popular Professional Certificates from Google and Meta.  More details are below:

Offer: $1 for the first month of Coursera Plus Monthly

Dates: June 8-22, 2023

Limitations: Only available to new Coursera Plus subscribers (i.e. they must not have an active Coursera Plus subscription). Not redeemable in India. Please see the details here

3. Research Proposal/writing tools

Finally, as s a popular recommendation use proofreading, grammar and plagiarism checkers/software when writing a research proposal or any other piece of academic writing work. Whether English is your native language or not, we are all open to little English mistakes. These mistakes are not however little when it comes to academic writing. This is one of the downfalls for many students applying for university admissions and scholarships. There are so many of these grammar or plagiarism software programs out there. I usually recommend  Grammarly for proofreading, spelling mistakes, paragraphing as it is the most popularly used these days and it's free etc... 

This tool offers an online spell and grammar checking application that helps users find and correct English writing issues. You have never used Grammarly before? You are not left behind yet!! 

• Grammarly is the world's leading software suite for perfecting written English. 
• It checks for more than 250 types of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, enhances vocabulary usage, and suggests citations. 
• And above all, it's free!

People who use Grammarly are amazed at how easy it is to use, and they rave about the precision of mistake detection. This explains why the number of registered users for this award-winning tool has risen in the past years to millions around the world and in every sector (academic, professional career, English language learners to improve their written English etc.. ). It is used by more than 600 educational and corporate clients, including Princeton University, the University of South Florida, the University of Virginia, and many others. Find out more here about  Grammarly and try the tool from today in every process of your application; research proposals, admission essays, emails to professors, resumes etc...

Ready to apply for admissions and scholarships now? Don't forget to check the requirements into research degree before lodging an application. See some of our guides on how to apply for research degree programs abroad, how to contact or email potential supervisors when asking for positions. Equally, check the guide on how to make your applications successful.

Related Topics :

• How To Write A Captivating Research Proposal (Complete Guide) 
• Essential skills required for a good research proposal  
• Components Of a Good Research Proposal
• How to Successfully Contact a Potential PhD/Master Supervisor

Looking for more scholarship opportunities?

Check  related scholarship links below : 

• Undergraduate Scholarships
• Fully Funded Masters Scholarships
• Fully Funded Ph.D. Scholarships
• Top Scholarships infos and guides 
• List of Australian Universities with no application fee
• General Undergraduate scholarship requirements to study abroad(Australia)
• General Postgraduate Coursework degree program scholarship requirements
• A list of Fully Funded Government and Institution sponsored Scholarships 

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