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Master of Letters

A Master of Letters degree (MLitt or LittM; Latin Magister Litterarum or Litterarum Magister) is a postgraduate degree.

"MLitt" redirects here. For the government ministry, see Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Ireland[edit]

Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University offer MLitt degrees. Trinity has offered them the longest, owing largely to its tradition as Ireland's oldest university and anglican heritage. MLitts are on offer from the School of Law and the School of Humanities.School of Law[1]


The National University of Ireland offers MLitt degrees across the Human Sciences/Arts. Often students register initially for the MLitt programme before being 'promoted' to PhD studies. Different schools and institutes have different requirements for an MLitt. Generally a number of seminars in the relevant area need to be completed as well as the substantial dissertation researched and written over the period of 4 semesters (6 part-time).

in Madison, New Jersey, offers the Master of Letters as an interdisciplinary graduate degree in the Humanities through its "Arts & Letters" programme. The M.Litt. degree requires 30-33 credit hours and the option of submitting a three-credit 50- to 75-page thesis. It is an intermediate degree in the programme, which also offers a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) program—the only earned/non-honorary Doctor of Letters degree in the United States.[9]

Drew University

offers the degree for the advanced study of English and writing beyond the Master of Arts through its Bread Loaf School of English.

Middlebury College

awards a unique M.Litt. degree requiring two years of study for in-depth research in Shakespeare and Performance, which it offers as an intermediate degree in its three-year MFA program.

Mary Baldwin University

in Tennessee offers an M.Litt. degree in Family Life Education and Organizational Leadership.[10]

Omega Graduate School

offers a 72-credit hour M.Litt. in Classical Protestantism through its Davenant Hall. Its goal is "to retrieve the riches of classical Protestantism in order to renew and build up the contemporary church."[11]

The Davenant Institute

Most American universities do not award the Master of Letters degree. It is awarded by some schools in the United States.

offer the degree only by distance education through the School of Humanities, Psychology and Social Work, as a 50% coursework, 50% research course, taking two to three years part-time.

Central Queensland University

's M.Litt. is available to students who have previously completed an MA in a relevant discipline. Students can specialise in Creative Writing, English, Theology, History, Linguistics, Museum Studies, or Peace and Conflict Studies.

The University of Sydney

The M.Litt. is awarded by two universities in Australia:


The Australian National University, Monash University and the University of New England once offered the M.Litt., but have both discontinued the course. Monash, however, retained the Bachelor of Letters as a postgraduate arts degree.