Finding examples of past dissertations

It is often helpful to see what “good” looks like, and every year, students contact the Library to ask how they can get hold of exemplar copies of past dissertations for their course. At one time, long ago, the Library received large collections of dissertations for most courses and housed them, first in print and later electronically, for later students to consult. Increasing restrictions imposed by corporate confidentiality and other challenges have marked a shift towards example dissertations instead being uploaded to Moodle.

Where can you find example dissertations?

For most courses, you can find one or more exemplar dissertations on Moodle. Precisely where they are uploaded is decided by your academic department.

A selection of student dissertations are held in our online edissertations database. You can most easily find them by browsing the course list on our electronic dissertations page. If your course is not listed, it means we don’t currently hold any dissertations for your course. If you find a dissertation you want to download and read in its entirety, you will need to log in to download the full text.

Looking for a particular dissertation?

Academic departments hold all the dissertations submitted for each course. They decide which to upload to Moodle (and where on Moodle to upload it), and which, if any, to contribute to the central Library eDissertations database. The Library eDissertations database is therefore not comprehensive, with departments choosing which example dissertations to contribute. If a particular dissertation has not been submitted to the Library, we regret we cannot provide any information about it.

If you have looked on Moodle and the Library eDissertations database and still cannot find a suitable exemplar dissertation for your course, please ask your academic department if they are able to share or loan a copy of a past dissertation with you.

Need further help?

As always, Library staff are here to help. Please chat with us if you cannot find anything you want. You can get in touch through 24/7 online chat, in person 11 am – 3 pm, Monday – Friday (except Bank Holidays), and by email and phone.