master of arts, Latin magister artium (M.A.)Contact or artium magister (A.M.), Contact degree and title conferred by colleges and universities to indicate the completion of a course of study in the humanities (such as philosophy, arts, or languages). Candidates are often required to take an exam and to complete a thesis or creative project. Programs usually take an additional two years of work after earning a bachelor’s degree.
The master of arts is in theory the holder of a license to teach. The term master was originally equivalent to doctor; in the faculty of arts the approved scholar was styled master, while in faculties of divinity, medicine, and law the scholar was termed doctor. Perhaps because of the need to become a master of arts before proceeding to other studies, the doctorate came to be esteemed as a higher title. In modern usage in most universities, except in Scotland, the gradation in the faculty of arts proceeds B.A., M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt. The automatic conferring of an M.A. Contact degree upon the holder of a B.A. seven years, or nearly seven years, after matriculation is practiced at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but elsewhere in England and in the United States the M.A. must be achieved through examination or by the completion of a piece of research. In modern times, intermediate degrees such as that of master have been abandoned in the universities of many countries.
master’s degree, academic degree intermediate between the bachelor’s degree and the doctor’s degree. The terms master and doctor were used interchangeably during the Middle Ages, but in Germany the doctorate came to be considered superior to the master’s and this system subsequently spread to the rest of the world.
The master of arts (magister artium or M.A.; Contact sometimes rendered artium magister or A.M.)Contact is in theory the holder of a license to teach. The term master was originally equivalent to doctor; in the faculty of arts the approved scholar was styled master, while in faculties of divinity, medicine, and law the scholar was termed doctor. Perhaps because of the need to become a master of arts before proceeding to other studies, the doctorate came to be esteemed as a higher title. In modern usage in most universities, except in Scotland, the gradation in the faculty of arts proceeds B.A., M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt.
The automatic conferring of an M.A. Contact degree upon the holder of B.A. seven years, or nearly seven years, after matriculation is practiced at Oxford and Cambridge, but elsewhere in England and in the U.S. the M.A. Contact must be achieved through examination or by the completion of a piece of research. In modern times intermediate degrees such as that of master have been abandoned in the universities of many countries.
The hierarchy of degrees dates back to the universities of 13th-century Europe, which had faculties organized into guilds. Members of the faculties were licensed to teach, and degrees were in effect the professional certifications that they had attained the guild status of a “master.” There was originally only one degree in European higher education, that of master or doctor. The baccalaureate, or bachelor’s degree, was originally simply a stage toward mastership and was awarded to a candidate who had studied the prescribed texts in the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) for three or four years and had successfully passed examinations held by his masters. The holder of the bachelor’s degree had thus completed the first stage of academic life and was enabled to proceed with a course of study for the degree of master or doctor. After completing those studies, he was examined by the chancellor’s board and by the faculty and, if successful, received a master’s or doctor’s degree, which admitted him into the teachers’ guild and was a certificate of fitness to teach at any university.