TU MA Social Science Thesis Format: FOHSS Structure for Sociology, Rural Development and Population Studies

22 September 2026 · 9 min read

Sociology, anthropology, rural development, population studies and the other social science MA programmes at Tribhuvan University sit under the same Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences guideline as MA English, and share its chapter skeleton. What differs is what fills the middle of the document: instead of a close reading of a text, the presentation and analysis chapter carries fieldwork — survey data, interview transcripts, or ethnographic observation — coded and interpreted against the study's objectives.

The FOHSS chapter structure, applied to fieldwork

Chapter 1 — Introduction: background, statement of the problem, objectives, significance and the scope and limitation of the study.
Chapter 2 — Review of Literature: prior studies on the topic — Nepali research specifically, where it exists — the theoretical or conceptual framework, and the gap the study addresses.
Chapter 3 — Research Methodology: study area and design, population and sampling, data collection tools and procedure, and — for qualitative work — the coding approach, written out as explicitly as a quantitative study would state its statistical tests.
Chapter 4 — Presentation and Analysis: your data, structured around your objectives, with quantitative results interpreted rather than only tabulated, and qualitative material organised by theme with the coding frame visible in how it is presented.
Chapter 5 — Summary, Findings and Conclusion: what the study established, its implications, and — commonly expected in applied social science work — practical recommendations.
References, then Appendix — questionnaires, interview guides, and consent documentation where fieldwork with human participants was involved.

The single weakness examiners raise most often in this group is a methodology chapter that names a technique — "thematic analysis was used" — without showing the coding procedure that produced the themes in Chapter 4. If your method is qualitative, write out how you actually got from transcripts to themes; a reader should be able to see the coding frame, not just trust that one exists.

How long it needs to be

The FOHSS minimum of 60 pages excluding references applies here as it does across the faculty. For fieldwork-based theses that length is rarely the constraint — a properly presented Chapter 4 with tables, coded excerpts and their interpretation tends to run long on its own. The more common problem is the opposite: a Chapter 4 that presents tables or quotations with a single interpretive sentence under each, leaving the actual analytical work undone.

Fieldwork and ethics: build the approval time in

Where a study involves human participants — interviews, household surveys, participant observation with identifiable individuals — departmental or institutional clearance and informed consent are expected before data collection begins, and this runs on the same logic as the ethics-approval routes used across Nepali postgraduate research more broadly: it is a scheduled phase with its own start date, not paperwork completed after the fact. Community-level fieldwork also has a practical constraint the ethics form does not capture — travel to the field site, the season, and local availability of respondents — so plan the fieldwork window with the same seriousness as the ethics approval itself.

Referencing

APA is the referencing style social science departments in Nepal most commonly work in, matching the convention used across TU's management and health faculties. As with any format detail here, treat this as the strong working convention rather than an unbreakable rule specific to your own department, and confirm it against the notice your department has issued. Keep in-text citations and the reference list in exact correspondence throughout — a source that appears in one and not the other is the most common formatting correction raised on submission.

The viva and the clock that runs after your exams

As with other FOHSS programmes, a candidate is expected to complete the viva voce within 90 days of the fourth-semester result being published to be treated as a regular candidate. Fieldwork-based theses are the ones most likely to be still mid-analysis when results are announced, since data collection can run late for reasons outside your control — build a buffer into your own schedule rather than assuming the full 90 days is slack.

What gets a social science thesis sent back

A sample or field site chosen for convenience with no stated rationale connecting it to the research question.
Qualitative analysis presented as quotations with no visible coding or thematic structure behind them.
Findings in Chapter 5 that do not trace back to anything presented in Chapter 4.
Consent or ethics documentation missing from the appendix where the study involved human participants.
A literature review that summarises international studies without engaging with the Nepali research that exists on the same topic.
Inconsistent referencing between chapters, especially where a proposal drafted early used a different style from the final thesis.

Working on a sociology, rural development or population studies thesis and want your fieldwork methodology, coding or analysis chapter reviewed before submission? Assignment Nepal works with FOHSS candidates across TU's constituent and affiliated campuses — message us on WhatsApp at +977 9768768340.

Thesis subjects in Nepal — Where sociology, rural development and population studies sit among every faculty.
Master's thesis help — Feasibility, structure, method and draft review across TU, KU and PU.
TU MA English thesis format — The same FOHSS skeleton, built around close reading instead of fieldwork.
Designing a thesis questionnaire — The instrument most survey-based social science theses depend on.