Doctoral Progression FAQs

  1. How did your research question arise?
  2. What is original about your work?
  3. What inspired you to tackle this research problem and why is it worth researching?
  4. Questions on definitions of key terms used
  5. What specific data will you be collecting, why and how? Why this method/ data and not another?
  6. What will be the key contribution of your thesis to increased scientific knowledge?
  7. What are the most recent major developments in your area?
  8. How generalisable will your results be?
  9. What are the strongest and the weakest points of your work?
  10. What are the key skills you have learnt so far and where do you feel you need up skilling?
  11. From your experience of research so far, what are the key things you have learned about?
  12. Generally, what sections of your thesis do you think will be publishable?
  13. Future work – how could this work be moved forward?
  14. Which are the two most important papers in this area?
  15. What have you done that merits you progressing?
  16. Looking back, what might you have done differently up to this point?
  17. What has been the most challenging part of the first year?
  18. What are your plans for the next two years (4 years if part-time)?