Master of Arts (Scotland)

For other uses, see Master of Arts (disambiguation).

In some Scottish universities, a Master of Arts (MA; Scots: Maister o Arts,[1][2] Scottish Gaelic: Maighstir nan Ealan)[3][4] is the holder of a degree awarded to undergraduates, usually as a first degree. It follows either a three-year general or four-year Honours degree course in humanities or social sciences and is awarded by one of several institutions.

Chiefly, these are the ancient universities of Scotland — St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh. Other institutions which provide undergraduate programmes leading to an MA degree include the University of Dundee, because of its history as a constituent college of the University of St Andrews, or Heriot-Watt University at honours level only.[5]

The first two years of a Scottish Master of Arts course consist of ordinary Bachelor level courses; however, after these, students who are accepted to pursue the Honours route will complete more advanced subjects and write a dissertation in their fourth year.[6] Students who choose to do a "general" degree will complete their third year at a lower level of specialisation,[7] and receive a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree or MA without Honours.[8] For the postgraduate degree referred to in other places as "Master of Arts", Scottish universities usually award the degree of Master of Letters (MLitt) or Master of Science (MSc). Generally, non-ancient universities in Scotland (e.g. University of Strathclyde, The Robert Gordon University, Edinburgh Napier University, etc.), award arts degrees as Bachelor of Arts.

  1. ^ Mackie, Robert Laird; Lindsay, Maurice (30 January 1967). "A Book of Scottish Verse". Oxford U.P. – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Smith, Sydney Goodsir (30 January 1954). "Under the Eildon Tree: A Poem in XXIV Elegies". Serif Books – via Google Books.
  3. ^ "Teagasg, Sgoilearachd agus Cosnadh Beatha Oilthigh Shaw ann an 2020". World Scholarship Forum. 12 June 2020.
  4. ^ "Luchd-ealain air leth | HR Giger - Maighstir nan ealan dorcha".
  5. ^ "United Kingdom (Scotland) Bachelor". Eurydice. European Commission. Certification.
  6. ^ Davies, Graeme (4 February 2000). "Why I believe the Scottish MA should be preserved". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  7. ^ "The General Degree". University of St Andrews. Archived from the original on 26 October 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  8. ^ "Studying for a degree in Social Sciences". University of Glasgow. Retrieved 18 February 2015.