Thesis Acknowledgements: Examples and Writing Guide 2026
The acknowledgements section is the one part of your thesis where academic convention gives way to personal expression — and the one part most students treat as an afterthought. Written well, thesis acknowledgements examples show professionalism, genuine gratitude, and an awareness of the collaborative nature of even individually authored research. Written badly — or not at all — they represent a missed opportunity to formally recognise the people and institutions without whose support the work would not exist.
This guide covers everything you need to write your thesis acknowledgements: who to include, the expected order, appropriate tone, length guidelines, what to avoid, and worked examples for master’s dissertations and PhD theses.
Who to Thank — and in What Order
The conventional order for thesis acknowledgements moves from formal/professional to personal:
- Primary supervisor: Always first. Include their title and a specific mention of how they supported your work — guidance on methodology, critical reading of drafts, or moral support during difficult periods.
- Secondary supervisors, advisors, and committee members: Co-supervisors, thesis advisory committee members, or subject specialists who provided significant input.
- Funding bodies: Any scholarships, grants, or studentships that funded your research. Include the grant number if applicable (many funding bodies require this as a condition of their award).
- Institutions that provided access: Hospitals, schools, companies, archives, or laboratories that granted you access to data, participants, or facilities.
- Research participants: If your research involved human participants, a brief acknowledgement of their time and trust is standard practice and ethically appropriate.
- Colleagues, fellow researchers, librarians: Those who provided technical assistance, discussed your ideas, or helped with data collection or analysis.
- Personal supporters: Family, friends, and partners who provided emotional support, patience, and practical help during the research process. These come last in the formal-to-personal ordering convention.
Tone and Style
Acknowledgements occupy an unusual tonal space in academic writing — they are personal but not entirely informal, grateful but not gushing. The appropriate register is:
- Warm but professional: Express genuine appreciation without excessive superlatives. “I am grateful for Professor Smith’s incisive feedback” is better than “Professor Smith is the most wonderful supervisor who made this all possible.”
- Specific where possible: Generic thanks (“for all your support”) are less meaningful than specific acknowledgements (“for her patience in explaining mixed methods approaches”). Specificity demonstrates genuine reflection.
- Consistent tone throughout: If you begin formally (addressing your supervisor by title), maintain that register. If you shift to first-name basis for personal supporters, do so consciously and consistently.
- Free from irony or inside jokes: Acknowledgements are part of a permanent academic record. Humour that requires insider knowledge ages poorly and can read as unprofessional to future readers.
Length Guidelines
| Degree Level | Typical Length |
|---|---|
| Undergraduate dissertation | 50–150 words |
| Master’s thesis/dissertation | 150–300 words |
| PhD thesis | 300–500 words |
These are conventions, not rules — check your institution’s thesis guidelines for any specified word count or formatting requirements for acknowledgements.
Master’s Dissertation Acknowledgements Example
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Sarah Mitchell, for her expert guidance, constructive feedback, and consistent encouragement throughout this research. Her thoughtful comments at every stage significantly strengthened the quality of this dissertation.
I am also grateful to the staff at the City of Manchester Learning Partnership for facilitating access to the schools involved in this study, and to the pupils and teachers who generously gave their time to participate.
Thank you to my fellow MSc students for the discussions and peer support that helped me navigate the more challenging aspects of this project. Finally, I owe a particular debt of gratitude to my family for their patience and unwavering support throughout this degree.
PhD Thesis Acknowledgements Example
Acknowledgements
This thesis would not have been possible without the support and guidance of many individuals to whom I owe a profound debt of gratitude.
First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to my primary supervisor, Professor James Okafor, for his intellectual generosity, methodological rigour, and patience during the more uncertain phases of this research. His commitment to pushing my thinking further, combined with his genuine enthusiasm for the project, made this the most intellectually rewarding experience of my academic career. My sincere thanks also go to Dr. Priya Sharma, my secondary supervisor, whose expertise in qualitative methods shaped the analytical framework of Chapters 4 and 5 immeasurably.
I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), whose doctoral studentship (ES/R00000X/1) funded this research in full.
This project required access to sensitive organisational data, and I am grateful to the Human Resources departments of the three participating organisations for their trust and cooperation. I owe a particular thank you to the 34 participants who gave their time and shared their experiences with candour.
My colleagues in the Department of Sociology provided stimulating intellectual community throughout my studies. I am especially grateful to Dr. Ana Costa and Tom Brennan for their friendship and their willingness to read draft chapters.
Finally, to my parents, Miriam and David, and to my partner, Leila — your love, patience, and unwavering belief in this project sustained me through every difficult moment. This thesis is dedicated to you.
What to Avoid
- Thanking too many people vaguely: A list of fifteen names with identical generic thanks reads as thoughtless. Better to acknowledge fewer people with genuine specificity.
- Forgetting mandatory acknowledgements: Funding bodies often require specific acknowledgement language as a condition of their award. Failing to include a funding acknowledgement can breach your funding contract.
- Excessive personal disclosure: Acknowledgements that describe your mental health struggles, relationship difficulties, or personal hardships at length are not universally appropriate in a permanent academic document. Brief mentions are common and accepted; detailed confessionals are not.
- Thanking AI tools: In 2026, thanking AI writing tools (ChatGPT, etc.) in acknowledgements is an emerging practice that some institutions view as an implicit declaration of AI use in the research. Check your institution’s AI policy before including any such acknowledgement.
- Incorrect titles: Getting a supervisor’s academic title wrong (Dr. vs Prof., correct name spelling) reflects carelessness. Double-check every name and title.
Acknowledging Funding Bodies
If your research was funded by a grant, scholarship, or studentship, the acknowledgement must usually be specific. Many funding bodies provide required acknowledgement language:
- UKRI/Research Council: “This work was supported by [Research Council name] under grant [number].”
- Wellcome Trust: Wellcome has specific acknowledgement language requirements and requests inclusion of their grant reference number.
- University scholarships: Mention the scholarship name and institution: “I gratefully acknowledge the support of the [University Name] Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Scholarship.”
- Charity funding: Include the charity name and, where provided, the grant or award reference.
For guidance on the full thesis writing process, see our How to Choose a Thesis Topic guide, our Thesis Structure Guide, and our guide on writing a strong thesis conclusion. For help polishing the language of your acknowledgements and other chapters, Tesify Write provides academic grammar checking that works across all thesis sections.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are thesis acknowledgements mandatory?
Not universally — most universities list acknowledgements as optional in their formatting guidelines. However, if your research was externally funded, acknowledging the funding body is typically a contractual requirement of the grant. Professionally and ethically, acknowledging the people who supported your research is considered standard academic practice even when not formally required.
Where do acknowledgements appear in a thesis?
Thesis acknowledgements typically appear after the abstract and before the table of contents in the preliminary pages of the thesis. The exact placement varies by institution — always check your specific university’s thesis formatting guidelines, as some place acknowledgements after the table of contents or before the abstract.
Should I thank my participants in my thesis acknowledgements?
Yes — acknowledging research participants is ethically appropriate and academically standard practice. A brief, respectful acknowledgement of their time and contribution (without identifying individuals if the research guaranteed anonymity) belongs in your acknowledgements. If participants were from a specific organisation or institution, acknowledge the organisation’s cooperation as well.
Can acknowledgements be more than one page?
For a PhD thesis, acknowledgements that run to one page (approximately 400–500 words) are common and accepted. Going beyond one page is rare and generally considered excessive. Master’s dissertation acknowledgements are typically 150–300 words — half a page at most. If your acknowledgements are longer than this, consider whether you are repeating yourself or including information that belongs elsewhere in the thesis.
Polish Every Part of Your Thesis
Your acknowledgements deserve the same care as your research chapters. Tesify Write helps you check the grammar, tone, and clarity of every section — from acknowledgements to conclusions — with academic-register checking and a built-in plagiarism checker. Write your best thesis, one chapter at a time.
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