TU Thesis Proposal Format: The Exact Section Order, Length and Layout
13 August 2026 · 8 min read
Students searching for the TU thesis proposal format are usually not asking how to think about research — they are asking what the document is supposed to look like. This guide covers the layout: which sections, in what order, at roughly what length, and the typing conventions departments check first. For the content side — narrowing the title, matching objectives to methodology and the mistakes supervisors reject — see our guide to writing a thesis proposal for TU and KU.
One caution before anything else: Tribhuvan University is a federation of faculties, institutes and central departments, and each publishes its own proposal guideline. The Faculty of Management, the Faculty of Education, the central science departments and the Institute of Engineering do not use identical templates. What follows is the common structure most TU formats share — always check the guideline issued by your own department or campus, because that document overrides any general advice.
The section order most TU formats use
Title page — university, faculty or department, programme, proposal title, "A Proposal Submitted to…", your name, symbol or registration number, supervisor's name, place and date.
Recommendation or approval page, where your department requires a signature at proposal stage.
Table of contents, and a list of tables and figures if you have any.
Chapter 1 — Introduction: background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives, research questions or hypotheses, significance, and limitations and delimitations.
Chapter 2 — Review of Literature: theoretical review, empirical review, research gap and conceptual framework.
Chapter 3 — Research Methodology: design, population and sample, sources of data, data collection instruments and procedure, and the data analysis plan.
Organisation of the study — a short paragraph describing the chapters of the final thesis.
Time schedule or work plan, and a budget where the department asks for one.
References, followed by appendices such as the draft questionnaire.
How long each part should be
Most TU proposals run between 15 and 25 pages of body text, though some departments cap them lower. A workable distribution: introduction around 4–6 pages, literature review 5–8 pages, methodology 4–6 pages, and the remainder for organisation of the study, work plan and references. If your literature review is longer than everything else combined, the proposal is unbalanced — reviewers read the methodology hardest.
Typing and layout conventions
Font — Times New Roman 12 point is the most widely specified; some departments accept Arial 11.
Line spacing — 1.5 or double for body text, single spacing inside tables, block quotations and the reference list.
Margins — typically 1.5 inches on the left to allow for binding, and 1 inch on the top, right and bottom.
Alignment — justified body text, with paragraphs either indented or separated by a blank line, used consistently throughout.
Page numbers — roman numerals for the preliminary pages, Arabic numerals starting from Chapter 1.
Headings — a consistent numbering scheme such as 1.1, 1.1.1, applied to a maximum of three levels.
Paper — A4, printed on one side unless your department states otherwise.
Tables, figures and referencing
Number tables and figures by chapter — Table 3.1 is the first table in Chapter 3 — and give every table a title above it and a source note below. Figures take a caption below. Each must be referred to by number in the text. For referencing, APA is the default across most TU management and education programmes, while engineering and some science departments use IEEE or a numbered style. Whichever you use, apply one style consistently and make sure every in-text citation appears in the reference list and vice versa.
What gets a proposal returned on format alone
A title page that does not match the department's prescribed wording or layout.
Mixed page numbering, or preliminary pages numbered in Arabic.
Heading levels that change style between chapters.
Tables without numbers, titles or sources.
A reference list in a different style from the in-text citations.
Missing appendices — most commonly the draft questionnaire or interview guide.
Get the template before you start typing
Ask your department for its current proposal guideline and, if possible, for a recently approved proposal from your programme to see the format applied in practice. Set up your margins, fonts, heading styles and page numbering in your word processor before you write, rather than reformatting 20 pages at the end. Automatic heading styles also generate your table of contents correctly, which removes one of the most common last-minute errors.
Want your proposal checked against your department's format — layout, numbering, tables and referencing — before you submit it? Assignment Nepal can review it — message us on WhatsApp at +977 9768768340.
Programme-specific guides that build on this format:
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