Introduce your proposed area of study. It is not enough to say that the area of study is simply student debt. Explain what aspect of student debt you are investigating, whether it is national student debt, global debt, historic debt, projected debt, the impact of student debt on economies or differentials in amounts of debt between degree subjects, social classes or races.
State the aims of the research project. Your proposal is more likely to be accepted if it shows that your research will be useful in some way, so if your aim is to reduce student debt or to show students how to manage it better, make this clear.
Set out the main objectives of the research project. Again, if you can show that you intend to find out something new and useful, dissertation advisers will look favorably upon your proposal. For example, do you intend to find out why student debt is rising or why certain groups of students are prone to drop out of college because of debt?
List the methodologies you will be using and state why have you chosen these methods. If you are going to be using a case study approach, your methodologies may include observation of students' spending habits and the interviewing of students. Survey-based research gives you the choice of methods such as mail surveys, telephone interviews or online questionnaires.
Include the scope and limitations of the study. What is beyond the scope of your investigation and why? For example, you may not be able to survey all the students in a college because of cost or time constraints.
Describe the resources you will be using to add credibility and background information to your research. For an investigation on student debt you may use sources such as government reports, newspaper articles, college statistical records or individual students' personal accounts of their financial position. Explain where you will find these sources, be it online, in your local library, in colleges' administrative departments or in students' private journals.
Propose a timetable for the completion of each section of your project. Estimate time frames by working out how long it will take you to source information, devise survey questions, conduct interviews, observe students and so on.
Propose chapter headings. These can include "Introduction," "Literature Review" "Methodology," "Findings" and "Conclusion."
List any references you have used in writing your proposal. For instance, you may have cited certain journal articles on the history or geopolitics of student debt when you were introducing your proposed area of study.