PhD thesis acknowledgements: what to include, with examples

The acknowledgements in a PhD thesis are a short section, ideally about a page, where you thank the people and organisations who helped you. Start with your supervisors, then thank funders, colleagues and research participants, and finish with family and friends. At four of the six UK universities we checked, the acknowledgements sit after the abstract and before the table of contents.

The rules aren’t the same everywhere, though. Some universities make parts of this section compulsory, for example thanking your funder or declaring help from a proofreader or AI tool. Others want those declarations on a separate page.

Below, we explain who to thank and what six universities require, then how long and how personal to make it. We finish with a fill-in template and three example PhD thesis acknowledgements you can adapt.

What are acknowledgements in a thesis?

The acknowledgements are the part of your PhD thesis where you thank those who supported your research. That can be people, institutions or organisations. They sit among the preliminary pages: the pages before your first chapter, such as the title page, abstract and table of contents.

Because the acknowledgements come before your research, examiners read them before they reach your first chapter, and they help set the tone for the rest of the thesis. So keep them warm, but professional.

Is the section compulsory? Three of the six universities we checked say outright that acknowledgements are optional (Cambridge, UWE and Manchester’s Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health). Birmingham, though, requires them if you’ve had funding or editorial help from an editor or generative AI; if you haven’t, you may leave them out.

Two other preliminary pages are easy to confuse with acknowledgements:

A dedication is a single line or short paragraph dedicating the thesis to someone. The University of Birmingham lists it as optional, straight before the acknowledgements.
A declaration is a formal statement that the work is your own and that others’ contributions are credited. A line about others’ work being ‘duly acknowledged’ belongs here, not in your acknowledgements. The Open University’s suggested wording, for example, is: ‘Unless otherwise credited elsewhere in this thesis, this thesis is my own original work’. Four of the six universities we checked make a declaration compulsory: Cambridge, UCL, the Open University and Manchester’s Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health.

If you’re unsure what else goes into the finished document, our guide to what a PhD thesis is explains its structure.

Who should you thank in your PhD acknowledgements?

Thank the people who made a real difference to your research, moving from the most formal support to the most personal. It helps to split your PhD thesis acknowledgements into two groups: professional and personal.

Professional acknowledgements come first. They might include:

Your PhD supervisors, starting with your main supervisor
Your funder or sponsor, for example the research council behind your PhD studentship
Other academics who advised you, such as your thesis committee or a collaborator
Technicians, lab managers and research group members
Research participants, organisations that gave you access, and anyone who shared data
Proofreaders, if your university allows and asks you to mention them (see below)

At the Open University, professional help goes in a contributor-roles statement in the declarations instead (see the table below), so check where your university wants it before you list it.

Personal acknowledgements come next:

Your partner, family and close friends
People who inspired you or shaped your path into research
Anyone else whose support kept you going

Who you include within those groups is your choice, but take most care over the professional group. If you leave out someone who played an important part in your work, even by accident, it can read as a dismissal of their effort. And these are often the people you’ll work with again.

Common mistake: writing ‘Thanks to John’ when your reader has never met John. Use each professional’s title and full name the first time (Professor Jane Smith, Dr Ali Khan); first names are fine for friends, family and lab mates. Then say what they actually did: ‘for teaching me to run the mass spectrometer’, not just ‘for their help’. If you’re thanking several people from one group or lab, list them in alphabetical order unless one of them helped far more than the others.

What does your university require?

Check your own regulations: placement and the compulsory parts differ between universities. We checked the PhD thesis regulations of six UK universities: four put acknowledgements after the abstract and before the table of contents. Manchester’s faculty puts them after the contents and other compulsory pages, and Cambridge says only that they follow the compulsory pages. Some also make parts of the section compulsory.

University	Where acknowledgements go	What’s required
University of Birmingham	After the abstract (and optional dedication), before the contents listings	You must acknowledge any funding, and any third-party editor or generative AI used for editorial help; further thanks are up to you
University of Cambridge	After the compulsory pages (title page, preface with declaration, abstract)	Optional: ‘any acknowledgements that you wish to make’; collaboration and AI-generated content are declared in the preface
UCL	After the abstract and impact statement, before the table of contents	The declaration form covers others’ contributions, including AI use; the acknowledgements may also note who contributed to each chapter
University of Manchester, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health	After the compulsory pages (title page, contents, lists, abstract, declaration, copyright statement)	Optional
The Open University	Immediately after the abstract, before the table of contents	AI use goes in a declaration; professional help goes in a contributor-roles statement
UWE Bristol	After the abstract, before the contents page	‘Normal practice … but not mandatory’

Sources: each university’s thesis presentation regulations, checked 26 October 2026 (links in the text and in the Sources list below).

So if your university’s guidance gives an order, follow it exactly. For example, Cambridge’s thesis submission checklist warns that you may be asked to correct your thesis if you don’t follow the specified format.

Acknowledging your funder

If your PhD is funded, thank your funder by name, and give the grant number if you have one. Birmingham’s thesis formatting guidance says you must acknowledge any funding you have received. If you’re funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), you can follow the example in Imperial College London’s guidance for research council funded theses: ‘This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number xxxx].’

Ask your supervisor or funding office for the exact award name and number. A funder acknowledgement usually works best as a plain, separate sentence, near the start of your professional thanks.

Proofreaders and AI tools

Whether you declare a proofreader or AI tool in your acknowledgements or on a declaration page depends on your university. The universities we checked split two ways on where this goes:

In the acknowledgements: Birmingham says that where a third-party editor or generative AI has been used for editorial help, you must acknowledge it.
On the declaration page: the University of Leeds requires you to acknowledge a third-party proofreader, paid or not, on the declarations page, using a set statement. The Open University asks for a statement on any use of generative AI tools in its declarations, even if it’s to say you used none. UCL’s declaration form covers contributions including AI, and Cambridge’s preface declaration covers content generated by artificial intelligence.

At Leeds, failing to acknowledge a proofreader is one of the cases investigated under its academic misconduct procedures. So find out which page your university wants, and use its wording if it gives one.

How long should PhD thesis acknowledgements be?

Aim for about a page. Length mostly depends on how many people you want to thank: some thesis acknowledgements are a single paragraph, others run to several pages. A long list dilutes the thanks to the people who helped you most, so a page is usually enough.

Two of the six universities we checked say outright that acknowledgements don’t count towards the word limit. Birmingham says the preliminary pages shouldn’t be included in the thesis word count, and the Open University’s PhD word count leaves out the abstract and acknowledgements. Elsewhere, check your own university’s word-limit rules; our guide to how long a PhD thesis is explains typical limits.

How to write your PhD thesis acknowledgements

Write in the first person, in a warmer tone than the rest of your thesis, but keep it professional. It’s fine to say ‘I’ and to sound like yourself. Avoid in-jokes your examiners won’t understand, and anything you wouldn’t want a future employer to read.

A few habits make acknowledgements easier to write:

Write them last, once you know who helped with which chapter.
Be specific. One concrete detail (‘for reading every draft of Chapter 3’) says more than a string of adjectives.
Keep the order formal to personal, as above, unless your university says otherwise.
Don’t copy acknowledgements from another thesis. Borrow structure and phrases, not paragraphs.

If you’re stuck on how to phrase your thanks, start with one of these openings:

I am deeply grateful to…
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to…
I would like to offer my special thanks to…
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to…

Then finish it with what the person did:

…for their assistance at every stage of the research project.
…for their insightful comments and suggestions.
…for their contribution to (a chapter, method or dataset).
…for their unwavering support and belief in me.

Vary these as you go. Six sentences in a row starting ‘I would like to thank’ are the first thing a reader notices.

PhD thesis acknowledgement template

Fill in the parts in brackets and delete anything that doesn’t apply. The template follows the formal-to-personal order described above.

I would like to thank my supervisor, (title and full name), for (one specific thing they did) and for their support throughout this PhD. I am also grateful to my second supervisor, (title and full name), for (specific help).

This work was supported by (funder) (grant or studentship number).

I would like to thank (title and full name) for their help with (method, equipment or chapter), and the members of (research group or department), especially (names in alphabetical order), for (something specific).

I am grateful to the (number) people who took part in this research, and to (organisation) for (access or data).

Finally, thank you to (family members or friends) for (something specific), and to (partner) for (something specific).

If your university wants a proofreader or AI statement in the acknowledgements, add it as a separate sentence in the wording it gives. If it wants that statement on the declaration page, leave it out here.

PhD thesis acknowledgement examples

These three sample acknowledgements are written by us to show how the template can read. They aren’t from real theses, and the names are made up, so adapt the wording to your own story rather than copying it.

Example 1: a funded STEM PhD

First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Anna Lewis, for her patience, her sharp questions and for reading every draft of this thesis. I am also grateful to my second supervisor, Dr Tom Hughes, for his advice on the modelling in Chapters 4 and 5.

This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant number EP/XXXXXX/1).

I would like to thank Dr Priya Shah for training me on the confocal microscope, and the members of the Lewis group, especially Ben, Chloe and Marta, for their help in the lab and their company outside it. Finally, thank you to my parents for their encouragement, and to Sam for his support through the final year.

Example 2: a short version

I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Ruth Patel and Professor Michael Grant, for their guidance throughout this PhD. This research was funded by a studentship from (funder). I am grateful to everyone who took part in the interviews, and to my family for their support.

Example 3: a Master’s dissertation

I would like to thank my dissertation supervisor, Dr Kate Morris, for her helpful feedback and for keeping me on schedule. Thank you also to the staff of the university library, and to my housemates for listening to more about soil microbiology than they ever wanted to hear.

Acknowledgements for a Master’s or undergraduate dissertation follow the same principles as a PhD thesis acknowledgement, but they can be shorter. Your department’s handbook may say whether you can include them at all.

Your next step

Check your university’s thesis regulations first: they’ll tell you where the acknowledgements go and whether anything in them is compulsory. Then draft your PhD thesis acknowledgement last, once the chapters are finished, and ask your supervisor to read it. They may spot anyone you’ve missed.

If you’re also working on the other preliminary pages of your PhD thesis, these guides will help:

And if you’re still choosing a PhD, you can browse PhD opportunities on DiscoverPhDs.

Sources