Finding successful past Cranfield theses

It’s always a good idea to look at examples of theses before you start work on your own.  You may find them valuable for reading previous research, and for looking at structure, style and methodology.

We suggest that you look at some that have been written by students on your course or your research area, or theses which have been supervised by your supervisor. This will give you a very good idea of what you should be aiming for!

Searching Master’s eTheses

1. Go to All Masters eTheses (which is a filtering option under “Everything” in the navigation bar of Library Search).
2. Either type subject keywords in the search box.
3. And/Or use the filters in the left-hand menu to refine your results.

You may notice that some theses are available in the Master’s Thesis Archive (MTA) and others in CERES. The MTA repository closed in 2025, after which selected Master’s theses were added to CERES.

As only a small number of Master’s theses are currently available in CERES, you may also wish to consider theses in the pre-2025 MTA collection, in which case we recommend you search for prize-winning theses.

Searching for prize-winning Master’s theses (pre-2025 MTA)

1. Go to All Masters eTheses (which is a filtering option under “Everything” in the navigation bar of Library Search)..
2. Enter “prize winner” in the search box.
3. Use the left-hand menu filters to narrow your results if required.

Because “prize winner” is not used as a search term in CERES, this search will not retrieve post-2025 Master’s theses held there. Be sure to search the CERES Master’s thesis collection too, using the instructions above, under ‘Searching Masters eTheses’.

Searching for PhD and DBA theses

1. Go to Theses Library Search (or pick Thesis from the ‘material type’ in the left hand menu, after you have conducted a search in Library Search). 
2. Select the appropriate Award Type from the left-hand menu (e.g. Doctoral thesis: PhD or DBA thesis).
3. Use additional filters to refine your search if required.
4. If you want to search by keyword, run the keyword search first, then apply your filters.

PhD and DBA theses can also be accessed directly through the CERES repository.

Using search filters in the left-hand menu in Library search

For all thesis searches, you can refine your results using the left-hand menu. Available filters include:

• Publication date range
• Award type (e.g. Master’s, Master’s by Research, PhD, DBA)
• Subject (where available)
• Supervisor name
• Course title

After selecting a filter, remember to click Include to apply it to your search.

You can also access online theses from Cranfield Defence and Security and the Shrivenham site via the Shrivenham Repository , though access is limited to CDS staff and students.

If you still have queries, please contact the library team.