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Heriot-Watt University Dubai

Ph.D. Thesis & Master's Dissertation Formatting Guidelines

Official layout specifications, binding margins, and document formatting requirements.

Governing Body: Postgraduate Research Board & School of Engineering and Physical Sciences (Dubai, AE)

Degree Scope:🎓 Ph.D. / Doctoral📚 Master's / M.Tech. (central handbook)
Official Handbook:
Heriot-Watt University Guidelines on the Submission and Format of Theses (Dubai Campus)
View Official Handbook ↗
Paper Dimensions
A4 (210 mm × 297 mm)
Binding Margins
25 mm Left / 25 mm Right*
Standard Typography
Times New Roman (12pt)
Line Spacing
1.5x

1. Page Setup & Geometry

Page dimensions, binding margins, and print/digital alignments

A4
Top: 25 mm*
Binding: 25 mm*
[Header]Page 1
[Front matter]
Right: 25 mm*
Bottom: 25 mm*
Left (Binding Gutter)
25mm*
Right Margin
25mm*
Top Margin
25mm*
Bottom Margin
25mm*

2. Typography & Spacing Hierarchy

Font selections, heading styles, line spacing, and paragraph indentation

Times New Roman
Body Font
Times New Roman
Font Size
12pt
Line Spacing
1.5x
Paragraph Indent
0.5 in
Approved Typefaces:Times New RomanArialCalibri
Spacing Exceptions: Single-space quotations, footnotes, tables, figures, and reference list entries.

3. Technical & Archival Compliance

ETD ProQuest repository requirements, table spanning, and vector DPI rules

ETD / ProQuest Ready
Tables Layout

Table captions: above.

Figures & Graphics

Figure captions: below. Colour photography minimum 300 DPI.

Math & Formulae

Right-aligned equation numbers (chapter.seq). Preserves native MathML and Word equation blocks.

Archival Preservation

Library ETD guideline: PDF/A-1b (Note: ScholarSpec formats submission-ready Word .docx documents; export to PDF/A upon final committee approval).

4. Preliminary Pages Checklist & Order

Strict graduate school ordering, title page numbering suppression, and Roman pagination

Mandatory Sequence
  1. 1
    Title PageMandatory
    Pagination: suppressed counted
    Requirement: Must follow Heriot-Watt standard layout: Full title, qualification sought, author name, School, and Dubai Campus attribution.
  2. 2
    Declaration of AuthorshipMandatory
    Pagination: roman visible
    Requirement: Standard Heriot-Watt University Regulation 17 compliance declaration.
  3. 3
    Generative AI DeclarationMandatory
    Pagination: roman visible
    Requirement: Mandatory student declaration detailing any assistive AI tools utilized or confirming none were used.
  4. 4
    AbstractMandatory
    Pagination: roman visible
    Requirement: Not exceeding 300 words, outlining thesis contributions and conclusions.
  5. 5
    AcknowledgementsOptional / If Applicable
    Pagination: roman visible
  6. 6
    Table of ContentsMandatory
    Pagination: roman visible
  7. 7
    List of FiguresOptional / If Applicable
    Pagination: roman visible
  8. 8
    List of TablesOptional / If Applicable
    Pagination: roman visible
  9. 9
    List of Accompanying Materials & AbbreviationsOptional / If Applicable
    Pagination: roman visible

6. Academic Integrity, Similarity & AI Policy

Plagiarism threshold, similarity checking software, and Generative AI disclosure rules

Policy & Disclosure
Generative AI Policy
Disclosure Statement Required

Heriot-Watt Academic Integrity Policy requires explicit declaration of any generative AI tools used in preparing the thesis. Failure to declare constitutes academic misconduct.

8. Institutional & Departmental Policies

UK Degree Alignment (Edinburgh Campus) Guidelines:

Theses submitted at Heriot-Watt Dubai are subject to the same strict degree regulations and word count ceilings as the Edinburgh campus under Scottish/UK higher education quality frameworks.

Pure Institutional Repository Deposit Guidelines:

Final approved theses are deposited into Heriot-Watt's global PURE research portal.

Institutional Policy: 40 mm binding margin on the left is strictly checked by examiners.
Institutional Policy: A4 standard paper dimensions (210 x 297 mm) apply universally.

Notice a discrepancy in this 2026 handbook?

Help keep Heriot-Watt University Dubai formatting standards 100% verified for researchers.

Pre-Submission Baseline Assistant

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Don't spend days manually tweaking Microsoft Word margins, Roman numeral page breaks, and table headers. ScholarSpec prepares your raw draft to official Heriot-Watt University Dubai guidelines in seconds.

Format with this Template ➔
✓High-Confidence A4 Margin & Gutter Setup
✓Automated Roman & Arabic Pagination Structure
✓Multi-Page Table Spanning & Header Protection
✓24-Hour Secure Storage & Instant Deletion (Strict Academic Privacy)
*ScholarSpec is a pre-submission formatting assistant. Output is calibrated to official university graduate handbooks.
Editorial Tutorials & Standards

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* Provisional ScholarSpec layout used where the cited handbook does not specify this value. Confirm with your thesis office before submission.

  • A4 format (210 x 297 mm). 40 mm left binding margin, 20 mm top/right/bottom margins. Single-column format with 1.5 line spacing and justified text.
  • Page numbers centered at bottom approx. 10 mm above edge. Regulation 17 declaration required.
  • Corrected 2026-10-13 against primary sources: Both brief deadUrls confirmed still HTTP 404 (hw.ac.uk/students/studies/examinations/thesis.htm and the academic-integrity.htm page); replacements listed. The guidelines PDF is the University-wide postgraduate research thesis document; it does not mention Dubai or any Dubai-specific variation, and no separate Dubai thesis-format page was found, so applicability to the Dubai campus is inferred from it being the University's only published format guideline (hence medium). Document is dated Apr 2023 and refers to Regulations 2022-23; the live thesis-submission page (2026 deadlines) still links to it as step 2. Margins are not specified anywhere in the source. The guidelines 5.3.3 says sentences separated by two spaces and 'all text pages should be justified'.
  • Downgraded to partial 2026-10-13: the University-wide PGR guidelines (Apr 2023) state no margins and there is no Dubai-specific page.