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- PhD and dissertation Gantt chart
PhD and dissertation Gantt chart template
Plan research, writing and reviews across a sample doctoral programme. Adapt the studies, approval stages and deadlines to your department.
- 6 phases
- 42 tasks
- 7 milestones
- 47 dependencies
- About 38 months
- Updated October 11, 2026
A sample doctoral plan, from proposal to final deposit
This template models a programme with an upgrade or confirmation review, two studies and a viva. It runs for about 38 months: submission is around month 34, followed by examination and corrections. Your programme's stages and deadlines may differ.
For a single study or a dissertation lasting less than a year, start with the research project plan. It covers one research project rather than the programme around it.
What happens in each year?
In this sample, year one covers the proposal, ethics and upgrade review. Research and writing overlap in years two and three, with a separate period after submission for the viva and corrections.
| Phase | Months | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Progress reviews | 6, 12, 24, 30 | The six-month review, the upgrade report and the upgrade or confirmation milestone at month 12, then annual reviews in years two and three. |
| Literature review and proposal | 1 to 9 | Scope agreed with the supervisors, a systematic search, sixteen weeks of reading, the review chapter drafted and the proposal written alongside it. Ends on Proposal agreed. |
| Ethics and preparation | 9 to 13 | The ethics application, the committee wait with the instruments built during it, approval, a pilot and the revised protocol. |
| Fieldwork or experiments | 13 to 26 | Study 1 recruited, collected and analysed, then Study 2 designed from what Study 1 found, collected and analysed, and the findings brought together. |
| Writing the thesis | 15 to 33 | Methods while Study 1 runs, each results chapter after its analysis, the discussion, the literature review updated, the introduction last, then the full draft, the supervisors' wait and the revisions. |
| Submission and viva | 34 to 38 | Formatting and the final proofread, submission at about month 34, the examiners' wait, viva preparation, the viva, corrections and the final deposit. |
Adapt the academic stages first
Choose Use template to create a copy starting on the coming Monday. Before using its dates, work through these changes with your supervisor:
- Set the programme deadlines. Move the upgrade, progress reviews and submission to your institution's dates. Check any separate deadline for corrections or final deposit.
- Allow for ethics review. Check application deadlines, committee dates and likely revision rounds. Set the wait to match your research and review process.
- Change the research structure. Replace the two studies with your experiments, fieldwork or archival work. Keep the relevant links from research to chapters.
- Check whether the plan fits. If it runs past submission, discuss scope, resources and timing with your supervisor before shortening a study or removing revision time.
- Plan around your available time. For part-time study, adjust work durations to your weekly capacity. Review dates and external waits need their own estimates rather than being doubled automatically.
Use gates where approval is required
Study 1 recruitment in the sample waits for both the revised pilot protocol and the upgrade milestone. That makes a delayed approval visible in the research schedule. Remove or change this dependency if your programme permits work to begin earlier.
The sample places the pilot before the upgrade review, assuming the necessary ethics approval is already in place. Check that assumption before copying the sequence.
The other progress reviews have no outgoing dependencies in this plan. If one is an approval gate in your programme, link it to the work that must wait.
Give external reviews their own time
Three Wait bars separate turnaround time from your own research effort:
- Ethics review: the sample allows two months. Instrument design and the data management plan overlap with that wait where appropriate.
- Supervisor feedback: the sample allows five weeks for the full draft. Agree the turnaround with your supervisors and account for their availability.
- Examination: the sample allows about ten weeks between submission and the viva, with preparation during the final part of that period.
Turn on Critical path to inspect the chain controlling the finish date. With Auto schedule on, extend a wait and review its effect on submission and the final deposit.
Write alongside the research
The sample starts the methods chapter during Study 1, around month 15. Draft what is known and revise it as the research develops. Each results chapter follows its analysis, while the discussion follows the combined findings.
A separate literature-update task brings the early review up to date before the full draft. The plan also reserves time for supervisor feedback, revisions and a final proofread.
Submission around month 34 leaves some room before the end of a three-year period. Treat that as a sample buffer, then check it against your actual registration and funding deadlines.
Choose a useful level of detail
The preview opens at Year zoom for the full programme. Use Quarter zoom for a review meeting and Month zoom for upcoming work. Fit view chooses a scale that shows the whole plan.
Keep chapters, studies and approval stages as the main rows. Collapse groups for a programme overview, then export a PDF for the review pack or an image for a progress report.
Breeze
Timen
