RESEARCH MASTER’S DEGREES
Master’s degrees awarded in academic fields are generally research degrees that require the completion of required graduate-level courses and seminars, passing comprehensive examinations in the major subfield of research and usually one or more minor subfields, and the preparation and defense of a master’s thesis under faculty supervision.
Occasionally, such degrees may be awarded without thesis by substituting a major project or set of papers for the thesis.
PROFESSIONAL MASTER’S DEGREES
Master’s degrees awarded in professional fields may be structured as research degrees (as in engineering, for example), or they may be structured specifically to prepare students to work in an applied professional field at an advanced level (as with the MBA). In the latter case, there is usually a specified set of course or seminar requirements, specific graded exercises, and a project or other requirement is substituted for the thesis. Professional internships may also be required in supervised work settings.
Professional Master's Initiative is a project of the Council of Graduate Schools to help institutions respond to local needs for master’s degree education in the professions.
Enhancing the Master's Degree in the Natural Sciences provides data and other information from a National Academy of Sciences project to study the decline of the master’s degree in science disciplines and how this could be reversed.
Retrieving the Master's Degree from the Dustbin of History is a report on the state of master’s programs in history by the American Historical Association’s Committee on the Master’s Degree.
Master’s degrees awarded in academic fields are generally research degrees that require the completion of required graduate-level courses and seminars, passing comprehensive examinations in the major subfield of research and usually one or more minor subfields, and the preparation and defense of a master’s thesis under faculty supervision.
Occasionally, such degrees may be awarded without thesis by substituting a major project or set of papers for the thesis.PROFESSIONAL MASTER’S DEGREES
Master’s degrees awarded in professional fields may be structured as research degrees (as in engineering, for example), or they may be structured specifically to prepare students to work in an applied professional field at an advanced level (as with the MBA). In the latter case, there is usually a specified set of course or seminar requirements, specific graded exercises, and a project or other requirement is substituted for the thesis. Professional internships may also be required in supervised work settings.
Professional Master's Initiative is a project of the Council of Graduate Schools to help institutions respond to local needs for master’s degree education in the professions.
Enhancing the Master's Degree in the Natural Sciences provides data and other information from a National Academy of Sciences project to study the decline of the master’s degree in science disciplines and how this could be reversed.
Retrieving the Master's Degree from the Dustbin of History is a report on the state of master’s programs in history by the American Historical Association’s Committee on the Master’s Degree.