UiTM Thesis Format Requirements 2026 | Margins, Turnitin & Submission

UiTM stopped requiring a hard-bound thesis. Final submission is now one PDF under 50 MB, emailed. If you are budgeting for maroon buckram and gold lettering, you may not need it at all.

This page sets out the UiTM thesis format requirements in force at Universiti Teknologi MARA, read from the Institute of Postgraduate Studies (IPSis)’s own documents rather than from a template passed between students. The margins below are drawn to scale, and the Word settings are listed so you can set them before you write another paragraph.

Binding margin3.8 cm

Line spacing1.5

SimilarityUnder 30%

Final submissionOne PDF, 50 MB

The UiTM thesis page, drawn to scale

Margins are where most format rejections start, because a wrong one is invisible on screen and obvious the moment someone measures it. Here is what a UiTM page actually looks like:

The binding edge takes 3.8 cm. Every other side takes 2.5 cm — except the top of a landscape page, which also takes 3.8 cm. That exception is the one people miss, and it only shows up on the pages holding your widest tables.

Set this up in Word before you write another page

Changing margins on a finished thesis moves every table, figure and page break you have already positioned. Doing it first costs five minutes; doing it last can cost a weekend.

UiTM · Word page setup

Paper size	A4 (21 × 29.7 cm)
Top margin	2.5 cm — but 3.8 cm on landscape pages
Bottom margin	2.5 cm
Left margin	3.8 cm
Right margin	2.5 cm
Font	Times New Roman, 12 pt
Line spacing	1.5, justified
Heading levels	Three maximum
Page numbers	Bottom centre; prelims start at ii

How long the thesis should be

Master’s20,000 – 50,000 for most research Master’s

PhDup to 100,000 for most faculties

These are word counts for the main chapters. References, appendices, tables and figures sit outside the count at every university on this list — which is worth knowing before you start cutting a chapter you did not need to cut.

The similarity limit

Where UiTM draws the line on Turnitin similarity.

30%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

The number everyone quotes is not in the format guideline. The 2026 format guideline sets no similarity percentage at all. It only says an Originality Report must be submitted. The 30% figure comes from a separate document — the IPSis Process and Procedures (2021) — and from the university plagiarism policy, which classifies a Turnitin report above 30% as the most severe tier. Both are official, neither is the format guideline. Confirm the current figure with your faculty before you rely on it.

Cover and binding

MASTER’S

Dark blue

PhD

Maroon

What catches UiTM students out

Landscape pages need a 3.8 cm top margin

Not 2.5 cm. Your widest tables are exactly where this bites, and it is easy to miss because the rest of the thesis looks fine.

Direct quotations must be italicised

This is a UiTM house rule, not APA. Section 6.2(ii) requires quotation marks and italics. Standard APA does neither.

Only three heading levels are permitted

If your structure runs to 4.2.1.3, it has to be reorganised, not reformatted.

Equations go inside a borderless two-column table

A one-row, two-column Word table with the borders removed: equation left, number right. Typing the number with tabs will not survive format check.

Preliminary pages begin at ii, not i

The title page is counted but not numbered.

You need publications before you submit

Master’s: one indexed publication as main or corresponding author. PhD: two, with at least one already published.

AI use must be declared

New in the 2026 edition. Section 6.3.

Before you submit

Read your own faculty’s supplementary notes as well as the university guideline. Several UiTM requirements are set at faculty level rather than centrally, and the faculty version wins. If anything on this page conflicts with what your supervisor or graduate office tells you, follow them — guidelines are revised more often than pages like this one are.

Source documents:

Related guides

Want this done for you? We format postgraduate theses to Universiti Teknologi MARA requirements — margins, headings, captions, table of contents, reference list, the lot — and return a document that passes format check first time. Message us on WhatsApp and tell us your deadline.