Dissertation vs thesis

Why the internet gives you two answers

If you search this on Google, you will get two answers that are opposite to each other. Both sound very sure. One answer comes from Britain and the other from America.

In the United Kingdom, the long work at the end of a taught degree is called a dissertation. The document for a doctorate is called a thesis there. In the United States they use the words the other way round. A Master’s student in America writes a thesis, and a doctoral student writes a dissertation.

India mostly goes with the British usage. Most Indian universities say “PhD thesis”. Earlier, when the M.Phil. was still running, it ended with a dissertation. From those days many faculty and scholars here think a thesis means the bigger work. There is no rule for this, it is just a habit only, and you will find Indian documents breaking it many times.

What the UGC regulations actually say

The UGC PhD regulations of 2022 don’t choose between the two words. In clause 11(1), the scholar has to produce a “draft dissertation/thesis”. Clause 11(2) asks the scholar to give a presentation before submitting “the dissertation/thesis”. Then in clause 11(5) only “the Ph.D. thesis” is mentioned, along with how it will be examined. So at national level, both the word are used for the PhD document.

The 2022 regulations also stop one degree completely. As per clause 14, universities cannot offer the M.Phil. any more. Many senior faculty still picture the M.Phil. dissertation when they hear “dissertation”, but that degree is gone now.

The UGC plagiarism regulations of 2018 keep writing “thesis, dissertation” together from start to end. The undertaking given by the scholar, the penalties in clause 12.1 and the duty to send copies to INFLIBNET apply to both. Clause 6(g) mentions “all Masters, Research program’s dissertations and thesis”. Simply put, your Master’s dissertation comes under the same plagiarism rules as a PhD thesis. If your university has fixed a figure of its own, then that figure applies.

How South Indian universities name the Master’s document

Some universities in our five cities use these words like this, as of October 2026.

Bengaluru City University, MBA. The department guidelines carry the title “Guidelines for Dissertation/Master Thesis”. Inside the text also, it keeps changing between the two words.

Anna University, M.E. and M.Tech. The Regulations 2021 call it “project work”, and the final document is a “project report”. But the marks table have a column with the heading “Thesis Submission”. Clause 3.5 talks about the semester “in which project work / thesis / dissertation is done”. All three words are used there for one document.

KTU, M.Tech. KTU uses “Dissertation Phase I” and “Dissertation Phase II”. Its 2024 circular about the Phase II evaluation calls the same work a “project” in the title itself.

TNAU, M.Sc. (Ag.) and other Master’s degrees. The PG Rules and Regulations 2025 call the Master’s document a thesis and give it 30 credits. They also say the PhD protocol for thesis defence is followed for Master’s students (23.7). So at TNAU, a Master’s student is defending a thesis.

Your guide may call it a dissertation and the exam cell may call it a project report. Both are correct only. In your own document, just copy whatever name your university’s title page format is printing.

The differences that matter more than the name

The bigger difference comes from the level of the degree. Examiners ask different questions of the two, and you have to write keeping that in mind.

With a Master’s dissertation, the examiner mainly wants to know if the student can run a study properly. They will see if your research question is clear and if the method makes sense for that question. After that they check whether the data was collected honestly and whether the statistical tests are correct. In the end your findings have to answer the objectives you wrote in chapter one. Nobody expects a Master’s student to change the field. Suppose you repeat a known study in a new district or in a different company, and you do it well. That is a perfectly fine Master’s dissertation.

For a PhD thesis the examiners are asking something harder. They want to know what this work adds that was not known earlier. As per UGC 2022, two or more external examiners read the thesis, and at least one of them sits on the viva board along with your supervisor. They check whether the gap is real and the contribution is your own. Most of them will also check whether some part of the work is already published in journals, because that shows other reviewers have accepted it.

We have put the usual differences in a table here. Take the page counts and time periods as typical ranges only. Where your university gives different figures, go by the university figures.

How the writing changes between the two

Chapter names are almost the same in both. You will have introduction, review, method, results, discussion and conclusion. The change is in how much weight each chapter has to take.

In a Master’s dissertation, the literature review may be 10 to 20 pages. It can end with a small gap, for example “no study has looked at this in Coimbatore’s textile units”. In a PhD thesis the review must show you know the field well enough to say where research has got stuck. And the gap you point out has to hold up when two outside experts question you on it.

The method chapter also changes. A Master’s student can simply write “a structured questionnaire was used” and cite the scale. A PhD scholar has to defend each choice. That includes the sampling frame, and also why one test was selected over the other tests.

The discussion chapter is where the two differ the most. For Master’s level it is enough if you put your results next to earlier researches and say where they agree or not. A PhD scholar has to go further and explain what the findings change for theory, and what they change in practice. Along with that you must convince the examiner why your results can be trusted.

Which word should you use?

Take the word from your university’s title page format and use that same word in the full document. Suppose the template title page says “a dissertation submitted” for your MBA degree. Then the acknowledgement, abstract and chapters should also say “this dissertation”. In many drafts we get, one chapter says “this thesis” and in next chapter it becomes “this project”. To an examiner that looks careless.

For the declaration and the guide certificate also, follow the template. Copy the wording exactly as it is given. If the university calls it a project report and your certificate says “thesis”, the examiner will catch it, and some examiners send such copies back.

If yours is a Master’s document, you can read our guides on the MBA project report format and the M.Tech project thesis format. Both explain the layout in detail.