Internatonal Journal of Humanites Social Sciences and Educaton (IJHSSE) Common Mistakes Commited and Challenges Faced in Research Proposal Writng by University of Zambia Postgraduate Students Peter Chomba Manchishi, Daniel Ndhlovu and David Sani Mwanza School of Educaton, University of Zambia Keywords: Proposal, Mistakes, Challenges, Post Graduate Students, School of Education, University of Zambia, Directorate of Research and Graduate Studies. 1. INTRODUCTION Background Te University of Zambia (UNZA) has been ofering graduate programmes since the 1980’s. At the beginning, the programmes were mainly in the schools of Education and Humanities and Social Sciences. However, during the 1990’s all the schools in the University of Zambia started ofering graduate programmes. Currently, the largest number of students in concentrated in the schools of Humanities and Social Sciences, Education and Medicine. Te enrolment in 2013 for all the programmes stood at 1,178 students for masters programmes, 89 for PhD programmes and 11 postgraduate diploma. Before students proceed to collect data, they are required to have their research proposals approved. Krathwohl, (2005:1) stated that “Te goal of a research proposal is to present and justify a research idea you have and to present the practical ways in which you think this research should be conducted. Research proposals contain extensive literature reviews and must provide persuasive evidence that there is a need for the research study being proposed. In addition to providing rationale for the proposed research, a proposal describes detailed methodology for conducting the research consistent with requirements of the professional or academic feld and a statement on anticipated outcomes and/or benefts derived from the study”. Krathwohl (2005) added that a proposal should contain all the key elements involved in designing a complete research study, with sufcient information that allows readers to assess the validity and usefulness of the proposed study. Te only elements missing from a research proposal are the results of the study and the analysis of those results. Finally, an efective proposal is judged on the Abstract Proposal writng is an important part of postgraduate studies at the University of Zambia. The aim of this study was to establish the common mistakes commited and challenges faced by postgraduate students in the school of educaton at the University of Zambia. The study was purely qualitatve. A total of 100 respondents were randomly sampled 80 of which were masters students while 20 were lecturers. Data was collected through face to face interviews with lecturers and focus group discussions with masters’ students. To do so, interview guides and focus group discussion guides were used. Data was analysed qualitatvely through categorisaton of data into identfed themes according to research objectves. The fndings of the study showed that students’ mistakes in writng the proposal included: broad and unclear topics, failure to state the problem, failure to identfy the gap in the literature, using wrong methodology, misunderstanding research terminology, wrong referencing style and plagiarism. The challenges which students faced included: unavailability of lecturers for consultatons, negatve comments from supervisors, and limited tme in which to write the proposal, lack of materials and lack of co-ordinaton between DRGS, Assistant Dean- School of Educaton and the Lecturers/ supervisors. The paper concludes that there is need to review the way the methodology course (EDR) is taught in the school of educaton. Further, there is need for students, lecturers, and the ofce of the Assistant Dean responsible for postgraduate studies and the Directorate of Research and Graduate Studies to work cohesively for the good of postgraduate studies. Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2015, PP 126-138 ISSN 2349-0373 (Print) & ISSN 2349-0381 (Online) www.arcjournals.org ©ARC Page | 126