Master of Arts (Oxbridge and Dublin) - History and Rationale

History and Rationale

This system dates from the Middle Ages, when the study of the liberal arts took seven years. In the late mediaeval era students would attend university earlier than is now usual, and often as early as 14 or 15. The basic university education in the liberal arts comprised the Trivium (grammar, rhetoric and dialectic) and the Quadrivium (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music), and typically took seven years of full-time study.

In between matriculation and licence to teach which was awarded at the end of an undergraduate's studies (whereafter he was incepted as a Master of Arts), he took an intermediate degree known as the baccalaureate, or degree of Bachelor of Arts. The division into trivium and quadrivium did not always correspond with the division between the studies required for the BA and MA, but was adopted in Cambridge in the Tudor era and maintained long after it was abandoned elsewhere in Europe. In the University of Paris the baccalaureate was granted soon after responsions (the examination for matriculation), whereas in Oxford and Cambridge the bachelor's degree was postponed to a much later stage, and gradually developed a greater significance.

On inception and admission to the degree of Master of Arts, a student would become a full member of the university, and allowed to vote in discussions of the house of Convocation. The new MA would then be required to teach in the university for a specified number of years (during which time he was a 'regent' or 'regent master'). Upon completion of these duties, he would become a 'non-regent master' and allowed to either leave the university (often to become a clerk or enter the priesthood), or stay on and undertake further studies in one of the specialist or 'higher' faculties of Divinity, Canon or Civil Law and Medicine.

Later, it became possible to study in the higher faculties as a BA, though the higher degree could not be taken until the student had the required seniority to incept as an MA. While the requirements for the bachelor's degree increased, those for the master's degree gradually diminished. By the 18th century, the ancient system of disputations had degenerated into a mere formality, and it was possible to satisfy the prescribed terms of residence, which formerly included compulsory attendance at set lectures, by keeping one's name on the college books. Examinations along modern lines were introduced for the BA and MA degrees in Oxford by the first great statute to reform the examination system in 1800, but the MA examination was abolished by a second statute in 1807.

While the length of the undergraduate degree course has been shortened to three or four years in all subjects, all three universities still require roughly seven years to pass before the awarding of the MA. The shortening of the degree course reflects the fact that much of the teaching of the liberal arts was taken over by grammar schools, and undergraduates now enter university at a much older age (17 or 18). (It may be noted that the school-leaving certificate in France today is known as the baccalaureate.)

The University of London, in the mid-19th century, broke away from the ancient model by considering the MA to be a higher degree distinct from the initial degree. However, in instituting a course of further study beyond the initial baccalaureate, London can be seen to have reverted to the ancient model. Almost all newer universities followed London's lead with the result that the Oxbridge model is now the anomaly. Some followed the Oxbridge model for some years (some allowed progressions in the same faculty such as BSc to MSc, etc.) but changed to the London system afterwards.