Dissertation Timeline Calculator
A free dissertation timeline calculator that plans backwards from your deadline, the way finishers do. The deadline never moves.
How this dissertation timeline calculator works
Forward planning lies; it starts where time feels plentiful. This dissertation timeline calculator plans backwards from your submission date, placing every big stone on a real date: ethics, data, analysis, the draft your supervisor needs two weeks to read, the edit, and submission day. Anything already late gets flagged START NOW, and the advice changes with how many days you truly have.
When should I start my dissertation?
Earlier than feels necessary. For a September deadline, ethics belongs in April or May and your full draft should reach your supervisor by mid July, because UK academics take leave in August. Enter your own deadline above and the calculator gives you exact dates.
How long does ethics approval take?
Commonly three to six weeks, sometimes longer when a committee asks for changes. It is one of the slowest stones, which is why this calculator schedules it first. Advice services such as Prospects cover the postgraduate process in more depth.
What if my deadline is very close?
The plan compresses to the days you have and tells you the truth about them. Three hundred words a day rescues more dissertations than midnight panic ever has.
Deadline breathing down your neck?
Talk to the DDE team