How do I find a mentor for my thesis or dissertation?

1:1 research mentoring for your thesis or dissertation: a discipline-matched expert guides your topic, proposal, methodology, and data analysis across a phased journey, while you research and write every word yourself.

Direct answer: Match with someone who has already supervised research in your discipline. A MAAS mentor guides you phase by phase, locking your topic and research question, shaping the proposal your university requires, then reviewing each chapter you write. You do the research and the writing; the mentor sets direction and challenges weak reasoning.

What is MAAS Academic Mentoring?

MAAS Academic Mentoring pairs you with a senior discipline-matched expert who guides your thesis or dissertation from first idea through proposal, chapters, and data analysis while you research and write every word yourself.

Finishing is not automatic, and the numbers explain why a guided process matters.

The chart draws on a baseline study of doctoral programmes at US universities, which found that only 57% of candidates completed within 10 years, with the rate swinging from 64% in Engineering down to 49% in Humanities, and science, engineering, and mathematics fields finishing at 59% against 53% for the social sciences and humanities combined (Sowell et al., 2008a). A companion analysis of the same cohorts found the gap between men and women widens in the middle years of the programme and only then narrows, though it does not close completely, sitting at 58% for men against 55% for women by the ten-year mark (Sowell et al., 2008b). Read side by side, the gap between fields is far wider than the gap between men and women. That baseline study was part of a larger effort that ran 7 years, backed by Pfizer Inc and the Ford Foundation, across 29 US and Canadian research universities (Sowell et al., 2008a).

The same Council of Graduate Schools project later surveyed 1,406 people who had completed a PhD across 18 universities, and mentoring and advising ranked second only to financial support among the factors graduates credited, ahead of family and peer support (Council of Graduate Schools, 2009). Academic mentoring exists to put that second-ranked factor in place on purpose, rather than leave it to whichever supervisor a candidate happens to be assigned.

Three roles stay distinct throughout. Your supervisor approves your topic, proposal, and final thesis. Your mentor guides, gives feedback, and reviews, but never writes the thesis for you. You remain the sole author of everything you submit.

This is Group B · Advisory. Outcomes owned by third parties, such as your supervisor's decision or your defense panel, sit outside MAAS's control, but MAAS commits to expert calibre and process quality at every phase.

The standard you are working toward is not MAAS's own. In the UK, for example, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), the quality body for UK higher education, publishes qualifications frameworks that describe a separate standard for each level of study. At the highest level, a doctoral degree requires the creation and interpretation of new knowledge, through original research, of a quality to satisfy peer review and merit publication (QAA, 2024). Your mentor coaches you to clear the bar for your own level. Your mentor does not clear it for you.

Who is academic mentoring for?

Academic mentoring suits anyone writing a thesis or dissertation over several months, from bachelor's students whose programme ends in a dissertation or honours thesis to master's, MBA, PhD, and DBA candidates. It fits best when you need to lock a topic and proposal, want hands-on methodology and data support, or are preparing for a viva.

• Bachelor's students in programmes with a final-year dissertation, plus master's, MBA, PhD, and DBA candidates writing a thesis, dissertation, or capstone over several months
• Students who need to lock a topic and a proposal their supervisor will approve, meeting the requirements of their university and their level of study, rather than receive a finished draft
• Researchers who want hands-on guidance on methodology and data, for example SPSS, R, public datasets, modelling, or coding interview data, not only general writing advice
• Candidates preparing, in time, for viva, defense, or comprehensive exams

Does any of this sound like where you are?

These are the situations candidates actually arrive with.

• Your proposal is finished, but you have reached the data analysis and do not know how to move.
• You have not started at all; you are waiting for your proposal to be approved and want to know the cost and, just as much, who would be alongside you.
• You want direction and detailed correction of your own writing, not a finished draft handed over.
• You are about to start a doctorate and already intend to publish internationally, so you want the thesis and the papers planned together.
• You are writing for a specific foreign institution and need someone who knows that school's template and standard.
• You are not sure which MAAS service fits your stage, so you have been putting off asking.

For doctoral candidates training inside Vietnam, the clock is set by regulation rather than by custom. Circular 18/2021/TT-BGDĐT, the doctoral regulation for admission rounds announced before 2027, fixes standard training at 3 to 4 years, or 36 to 48 months, with early completion allowed by up to 1 year, or 12 months, and extension capped at a hard ceiling of 6 years, or 72 months (Ministry of Education and Training, 2021). Full-time status requires registering 30 credits within a single academic year, and scientific research is a mandatory, graded component of the programme rather than an optional extra. Eligibility itself has more than one route: a candidate can qualify through a research-oriented master's thesis, a published paper, or 2 years, or 24 months, of work as a lecturer or researcher (Ministry of Education and Training, 2021). Supervision is also capped by rank: a full professor may guide up to 7 doctoral candidates at once, an associate professor or a doctor of science up to 5, and a supervisor holding only a standard doctorate up to 3 (Ministry of Education and Training, 2021), which is one reason a candidate's actual one-to-one time with their official supervisor tends to be thin before mentoring enters the picture at all. From admission rounds announced in 2027, Circular 53/2026/TT-BGDĐT replaces this regulation (Ministry of Education and Training, 2026).

None of this is unusual. Financial support aside, mentoring and advising is the single factor PhD completers most often single out when asked, after the fact, what actually got them across the line (Council of Graduate Schools, 2009).

This is not for you if you want the thesis written for you. Mentoring means you write every word and your mentor reviews it.

What do you get with academic mentoring?

With academic mentoring, you walk away from each phase with a concrete deliverable you authored yourself, guided by a discipline-matched expert who provides methodology coaching, hands-on data support, session recordings, and structured feedback on every draft.

• A discipline-matched expert who guides your project phase by phase
• Concrete deliverables you author at each phase: a locked topic and research question, a proposal or exposé on your university's template, a chapter outline, and analysed data
• Methodology coaching across quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods, and the discipline-specific approaches your field uses
• Hands-on data support where your study needs it: data-collection strategy, statistical analysis, and model building
• A guided literature search built the way Ridley (2012) recommends, organised by argument rather than by source, plus structured feedback on every draft you submit
• A recording of each session, with cameras off for privacy, sent to you afterwards to revisit at any time
• Support that continues into chapter writing (literature review, methodology, findings, discussion, and conclusion), with finalisation and viva rehearsal when you reach that stage, and every draft reviewed before it goes to your supervisor

Referencing follows whichever citation style your university, department, or supervisor requires, because theses have no single style that applies everywhere. Depending on the institution and the field, that may be Harvard, APA 7th edition (American Psychological Association, 2020), Vancouver, IEEE, MLA, Chicago, or OSCOLA, and your mentor shows you how to check in-text citations against the reference list the same way an examiner eventually will.

How it works

MAAS does not sell generic packages or ask you to commit to a long journey before you have seen it work. The whole service runs on a flexible Block Phase model: each stage is signed off on its own, you keep control of what you spend, and the next phase opens only once the previous phase's output is complete.

A note on session counts: the numbers above are reference figures based on real needs and the route your expert proposes, not fixed requirements. Viva and defense rehearsal sits outside the mentoring package and is scoped and quoted on its own.

What happens before, during, and after each session?

The biggest difference between amateur tutoring and structured academic mentoring at MAAS is the discipline of the process. Every session follows the same three-step cycle.

• Before the session: your project coordinator (APC) sends a preparation task sheet with specific templates. You submit your work and materials to the shared folder on time, and your expert studies them beforehand to prepare a plan for that particular session.
• During the session: a live one-to-one call, run to a clear time structure. Your expert presents and annotates a Live Worksheet to work through sticking points with you, clarify the method, and prepare questions to discuss with your supervisor. The whole session is recorded with cameras off to protect identities, so you can focus on the substance.
• After the session: the APC issues minutes summarising everything discussed, together with the recording, the annotated Live Worksheet, and your next set of practice tasks. You can revisit these materials at any time as you write.

How does MAAS scope your project before the kick-off?

Before your mentor is matched, MAAS confirms your academic level, country and institution, discipline, supervisor requirements, and university template against your actual documents rather than a summary, so the kick-off starts from an accurate picture.

• Academic level, country, institution, and the discipline your topic sits in
• Your university's thesis or dissertation template, and any structure it mandates
• Supporting documents, meaning the module handbook, reading list, and any sample your supervisor has approved
• Your submission timeline, and any interim milestones your supervisor already expects

Anything missing goes back to you before the kick-off is booked. Your mentor receives the academic information needed to work, including your discipline, your university's standard, and your supervisor's specific requirements. Personal contact details do not travel through this channel, and all administrative contact stays with the coordinator.

What questions shape your kick-off conversation?

At kick-off, MAAS works through the same questions worth asking yourself before a research project starts: what stage you're at, what your supervisor expects, and how you plan to handle data.

• Is your topic chosen, supervisor-approved and fixed, or is it still open to guidance?
• Is there a proposal or exposé, and has it been approved?
• Is there a schedule for sending work to your supervisor, and at which milestones?
• Does your university set a required structure and a word count per chapter?
• Is there an ethics form, and do you need help with it?
• Primary or secondary research, and what data-collection method?
• Which research methods do you plan to use for your project, and which analysis tools or approaches do you already know?
• Can you share your university's referencing guide and your supervisor's profile?
• Do you have a module handbook, reading list, or library access for the kind of systematic search Ridley (2012) recommends?

Viva or defense preparation is arranged as a later phase, once you reach it, and is scoped separately.

At doctoral level, length is not a measure of achievement. The QAA's characteristics statement for doctoral degrees notes that a mathematics thesis may be relatively short when the candidate has found an elegant formula for a long-standing problem, while a thesis in a more discursive subject may run to 100,000 words, and that such variations do not indicate different levels of achievement (QAA, 2020). Any specific word limit, where one exists, is set by your university, so your mentor calibrates against that rule rather than a generic number.

How does MAAS match your mentor to your project?

A mentor is chosen for the research, not for the calendar. MAAS looks at your exact subject area, a mentor whose academic level sits strictly above yours, the right country's academic system, and evidence of having guided research at that same level through to completion.

• Exact discipline match, not an adjacent one
• An academic level genuinely above yours: Vietnam's own regulation requires even a supervisor without a professorship to hold at least 1 year, or 12 months, of teaching or research experience since earning their own doctorate before supervising doctoral candidates (Ministry of Education and Training, 2021)
• Country and academic system (for example the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, or elsewhere in Europe), which shapes how an argument is expected to be built
• Whether they can hold a research conversation over months, returning to the same argument as it develops (Ives & Rowley, 2005)
• Ongoing measurement on guidance quality, reliability, and client satisfaction, never on volume produced

Two strands of published research back this approach. An Australian study that interviewed 21 PhD candidates and their supervisors between 1995 and 1998 found that candidates who were involved in choosing their supervisor, and whose topic matched the supervisor's own expertise, made better progress and reported higher satisfaction than those who were simply assigned one (Ives & Rowley, 2005). Separately, a relationship model published in the journal Higher Education maps supervisory behaviour across 2 dimensions, influence and closeness, and identifies 8 distinct styles, from directive leadership to informal friendliness, each shaping how a candidate experiences guidance differently (Mainhard et al., 2009). MAAS applies the same logic when it matches your mentor, choosing for the exact research area rather than for whoever happens to be free that week.

Read the full vetting standard and the dissertation scoping checklist on how MAAS works.

Before the kick-off, you see your mentor's capability profile in anonymised form, covering their degree, experience, and field, and you confirm you are happy to proceed before the two of you start. The mentor's personally identifying details are not part of that profile.

What is the reschedule policy?

All booking and rescheduling goes through your MAAS project coordinator, not through your mentor, so your calendar and your mentor's stay on the same board. If you need to change a session, tell the coordinator as early as you can. A change requested within 24 hours of the session may incur an extension fee under the policy in force, and the coordinator tells you so before rebooking.

• Your project coordinator is the single point of contact for booking and rescheduling
• The earlier you tell us, the easier it is to keep the current phase on schedule
• Rescheduling within 24 hours of the session may incur a fee
• Any fee and the rebooking option are always stated up front, never charged afterwards

What has mentoring actually looked like?

Two real engagements, anonymised. Neither student handed their thesis to someone else to write, and neither result is invented; where an engagement is still running, we say so.

A Master's supply-chain dissertation with an AI agent built into it (United Kingdom, in progress). The student came from a business background with no technical grounding, yet the work had to satisfy an engineering department. We matched a mentor with a background in software engineering. Against a tight proposal deadline the mentor found the logic errors and helped restructure the proposal into something an engineering panel would accept. The student now self-builds the model while the mentor troubleshoots the algorithm alongside them and keeps pressing the conceptual link between supply-chain theory and the method, so the dissertation argues a point rather than demonstrating a tool. Where it stands: the research proposal was completed and submitted on deadline.

A Master's thesis in supply chain management at a German university of applied sciences (in progress). The brief was exacting, roughly 70 to 80 pages, a mandatory original contribution rather than a literature summary, and an exposé on the school's template citing 50 to 60 academic sources before approval. After the free kick-off the mentor ran a feasibility pass over candidate topics and set a data strategy favouring public datasets, as the brief required, then helped formulate the formal research question and methodological framework. Every exposé draft the student wrote was reviewed against the school's standard before it reached the supervisor. Where it stands: the exposé is being finalised ahead of the formal writing window.

Read these in full, alongside the rest, on our success stories.

Who will actually work with you?

Your mentor is matched to your research area, not merely your faculty, the same logic an Australian study of supervisor allocation found made the difference to candidates' progress (Ives & Rowley, 2005). Supply-chain work goes to someone who has run supply-chain research, and a study with an AI component goes to someone who builds systems for a living. Mentors on this service hold a doctorate or a master's degree with supervisory experience, and were trained across the UK, Europe, Australia, the US and Vietnam, which is why a German exposé template and a British viva can both be handled properly.

See the anonymised expert roster on our experts page.

What decides your quote?

Mentoring is quoted per engagement, and four things move it.

• Where you are starting. A candidate with an approved topic needs fewer phases than someone still testing which topic has usable data behind it.
• How far you want to go. The journey is engaged phase by phase, so you can stop after the proposal or run through to submission.
• What your data demands. A study built on a public dataset and a study needing instrument design, collection and modelling are different amounts of expert time.
• Your discipline, because the pool of mentors who can supervise it varies.

In disciplines where Vietnam's own supervision caps run tightest, for instance where a standard doctorate holder may take on only 3 candidates at a time, the pool of available expert time for that discipline is naturally the smallest (Ministry of Education and Training, 2021).

The kick-off is free and is not counted. Viva and defense rehearsal sits outside the package and is scoped and quoted on its own.

No two briefs price the same, so MAAS quotes per case rather than publishing a flat rate. Send the brief and you get a figure back; you do not need to commit to anything to see one.

What does MAAS commit to?

MAAS commits to discipline-matched experts verified through a three-stage vetting process, on-time and structured guidance at every phase, full confidentiality of your materials and identity, and a recording of every session, all in service of the external reference points your university uses when setting the requirements for your level of study, such as the qualifications frameworks QAA publishes for UK degree-awarding bodies (QAA, 2024).

• Discipline-matched experts verified through the three-stage MAAS vetting process
• On-time attendance and structured, high-quality guidance at every phase
• Confidentiality of all materials and conversations, with your identity protected on every call
• A recording of every session, retained and shared for your reference

What does MAAS not commit to?

MAAS does not commit to specific grade outcomes on assignments or exams you take separately, nor to your supervisor's acceptance of any coached approach, since your supervisor always remains the ultimate decision-maker, a role the research literature treats as structurally distinct from a mentor's (Mainhard et al., 2009).

• Specific grade outcomes on assignments or exams you take separately
• Acceptance by your supervisor of any specific approach we coach, since your supervisor remains the decision-maker

Deep dive

For a longer narrative on how dissertation mentoring works at MAAS, including the supervisor-feedback translation workflow, the viva preparation cycle, and how scope is agreed chapter by chapter, see our Dissertation Mentoring resource hub.

Want a mentor in your discipline? Book a free 15-minute discovery call through support@maasedtech.com or +84 979 422 393 (WhatsApp).

Not ready to book a call? That is a normal place to be. Send the brief on WhatsApp or Messenger and ask for a figure, no call, no form, no commitment. If the answer is that MAAS is not right for your case, you will be told that too.

Frequently asked questions

Academic mentoring pairs you with a discipline-matched expert who guides your thesis through phased stages while you research and write every word yourself, which is the opposite delivery model from Academic Support's model-draft pipeline.

What does a mentoring engagement include?
A discipline-matched expert who guides your research project through clear phases: topic and research question, proposal or exposé, then outline and data analysis. Each phase produces a deliverable you author, your mentor reviews every draft, and you receive a recording of each session. You drive the work; the mentor advises.

How is mentoring different from Academic Support?
The delivery model is the opposite. Academic Support (Group A) follows an outline-to-draft-to-final pipeline and delivers a structured model draft. Mentoring (Group B) is phased advisory for thesis and dissertation research, from bachelor's to doctoral level: you research and write every word yourself while your expert guides the direction, reviews your drafts, and supports your methodology and data. One hands you a draft to learn from; the other coaches you to produce your own.

Will the mentor write my dissertation?
No. Your mentor coaches methodology, structure, and argument, and reviews what you write, but you remain the sole author of every chapter, since a degree at every level is awarded to the student who has demonstrated the abilities that level requires (QAA, 2024). Any example wording shared in a session is illustrative only and must be rewritten in your own words, in line with your university's rules.

Do you provide hands-on data analysis?
Yes, where your study calls for it. Mentoring covers data-collection strategy, statistical analysis in tools such as SPSS or R, and model building, for example a cost-effectiveness model with sensitivity analysis. Your mentor guides the method and helps you interpret the output; you run and own the analysis in your thesis.

Does mentoring continue through the whole dissertation, including writing and the viva?
Yes. Mentoring can run the full journey. After your topic, proposal, and data analysis, your expert guides each chapter you write (literature review, methodology, findings, discussion, and conclusion), then finalisation: referencing, formatting, and an originality self-check before submission, followed by viva or defense rehearsal. You write every chapter yourself; your mentor reviews each draft and coaches the critical evaluation and sustained argument that the standard for your level of study requires (QAA, 2024). Later stages are arranged as add-on phases as you reach them.

Can you change your mentor while your programme is under way?
You can change your mentor if it becomes clear that their teaching approach does not suit the way you learn.

Can I prepare for my viva with MAAS?
Yes. Viva and defense rehearsal with mock questions is part of the mentoring journey once you reach that stage.

Do you mentor Vietnamese international students studying in the UK?
Yes. MAAS runs remote one-on-one academic mentoring for Vietnamese and international students in the UK, in English and Vietnamese, matched to your discipline. We coach structure, critical argument, and academic English so you build the skill; you stay the author of your work.

Do you offer academic mentoring for international students in Singapore?
Yes. MAAS provides remote academic mentoring for international students in Singapore, working around NUS, NTU, and SMU proposal and thesis submission deadlines. Sessions run in English and Vietnamese; we coach structure, methodology, and academic English while you remain the author and submitter of your own work.

Is academic mentoring the same as an essay-writing service?
No. Mentoring coaches you on structure, argument, methodology, and academic English while you research and write your own work. A service that writes the assignment for you is an integrity risk and teaches you nothing, and MAAS does not do that.

References

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Council of Graduate Schools. (2009). Ph.D. completion and attrition: Findings from exit surveys of Ph.D. completers. https://cgsnet.org/publications/ph-d-completion-and-attrition-findings-from-exit-surveys-of-phd-completers

Ives, G., & Rowley, G. (2005). Supervisor selection or allocation and continuity of supervision: PhD students' progress and outcomes. Studies in Higher Education, 30(5), 535–555. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070500249161

Mainhard, T., van der Rijst, R., van Tartwijk, J., & Wubbels, T. (2009). A model for the supervisor–doctoral student relationship. Higher Education, 58(3), 359–373. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-009-9199-8

Ministry of Education and Training. (2021). Circular No. 18/2021/TT-BGDĐT on doctoral admission and training regulations. https://thuvienphapluat.vn/van-ban/Giao-duc/Thong-tu-18-2021-TT-BGDDT-Quy-che-tuyen-sinh-va-dao-tao-trinh-do-tien-si-480305.aspx

Ministry of Education and Training. (2026). Circular No. 53/2026/TT-BGDĐT on postgraduate admission and training regulations. https://congbao.chinhphu.vn/van-ban/thong-tu-so-53-2026-tt-bgddt-470098.htm

Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. (2020). Characteristics statement: Doctoral degree. https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/quality-code/doctoral-degree-characteristics-statement-2020.pdf

Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. (2024). The frameworks for higher education qualifications of UK degree-awarding bodies (2nd ed.). https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/quality-code/the-frameworks-for-higher-education-qualifications-of-uk-degree-awarding-bodies-2024.pdf

Ridley, D. (2012). The literature review: A step-by-step guide for students (2nd ed.). SAGE.

Sowell, R., Zhang, T., & Redd, K. (2008a). Ph.D. completion and attrition: Analysis of baseline program data from the Ph.D. Completion Project. Council of Graduate Schools.

Sowell, R., Zhang, T., Bell, N., & Redd, K. (2008b). Ph.D. completion and attrition: Analysis of baseline demographic data from the Ph.D. Completion Project. Council of Graduate Schools.