MA Program

The Master’s (MA) program in the Department of History is a 24-month program and requires full-time residential study. The history master’s program includes regional and thematic courses, methods and historiography, and a research seminar, culminating in the writing of thesis.

Program Requirements – MA Degree


Master’s students must complete six courses for a total of 18 credits. Below are the required courses.

  • HIST 599 - The MA Research Seminar (3 credits):
    The MA research seminar introduces students to the problems, materials, and research methods in the discipline; candidates must demonstrate their ability to use documents and other sources, and to write and defend papers based on such research. Ideally, the seminar paper will be the nucleus of the MA thesis. This is a mandatory course for MA students taken in Year 2 of the MA program.
  • HIST 548D - Historiography (3 credits):
    The Historiography seminar involves an intense introduction to varieties of historical writing and the philosophic assumptions behind historical thinking. The Comparative History courses are designed to broaden student's knowledge and compensate for gaps created by specialization. This is a mandatory course for MA students taken in Year 1 of the MA program.
  • Area and Thematic Courses (12 credits):
    The History Department's readings courses introduce students to the main historiographical problems and secondary literature in their fields of specialization. Readings and topics courses require written work (approximately 3,000-4,000 words per course) from students as evidence of their growing mastery of secondary literature.

Possible Options in lieu of Area and Thematic Courses (Readings and Topics Courses)

  • HIST 525 - Professional Development For Historians (3 credits):
    This course (HIST 525) introduces students to professional skills and options for historians in both academic and non-academic careers.
  • HIST 547D - Directed Studies Course (3 credits):
    This course (HIST 547D) represents a one-on-one directed readings course with a professor.  Normally, these courses are done with a supervisor and their student if there are no suitable graduate courses available for the student.  When a professor (usually the supervisor) agrees to do a directed readings course with a student, the professor must contact the graduate programme assistant to set up the course and register the student into the course.
  • Graduate courses (3 credits) offered from outside of the History Department:
    With the permission of the Graduate Advisor, students may take up to 6 credits of graduate coursework from outside the History Department in lieu of readings and topics courses. Language courses may not be substituted for graduate readings courses.  Coursework should be consistent with the student’s program and approved by the supervisor, and if applicable, the graduate advisor.  Please consult your supervisor for possible graduate courses offered outside of the History Department, and then contact the graduate advisor for permission.  (Examples of non-history graduate seminars represent 500+ level courses from the STS department, Asian Studies, FNIS, etc.).
  • Graduate course (3 credits) through the Western Dean's Agreement (WDA):
    Students at participating Universities in Western Canada can attend partner institutions as visiting students without having to pay the host university's tuition fees through the Western Dean's Agreement. Courses taken by MA students under the Western Deans' Agreement are eligible to be transferred as credits to their degree programs.

To Request a Transfer of Credits for Courses taken through the Western Dean's Agreement:

  1. Read through the GPS guidelines for Transfer Credits:
    https://www.grad.ubc.ca/faculty-staff/policies-procedures/transfer-credit
  2. Order an official transcript (hardcopy or e-transcript) from the University where you completed the graduate course to the UBC History Graduate Program:

For Hardcopy Transcripts (Mailing Address):

UBC History Graduate Program
Room 1297 - 1873 East Mall
Vancouver, BC
Canada
V6T 1Z1

For Electronic Transcripts:

The issuing institution must send a link to a secure site to the History Graduate Program at hist.grad@ubc.ca.  The graduate program will download the transcript from the secure site. Important: an e-transcript is downloaded via a link to a secure site. It is NOT an email attachment of any kind, even if sent from an authority at the issuing institution.

  1. Contact the History Graduate Programme Assistant (hist.grad@ubc.ca) to assist you in preparing the "transfer credit form".

The MA thesis is the culmination of your work in the history graduate program. The preparation of this document involves isolating, defining and explaining a historical problem through the use of primary materials. The emphasis of the thesis is on the quality of the historical work, rather than exhaustive treatment of the subject.

Once a research topic is identified in consultation with the advisor, students should prepare a thesis prospectus indicating the nature of the problem they plan to investigate, the research methods, the literature relevant to the problem, and the availability of relevant materials. Students will need to select a second committee member who will provide advice and assistance throughout the remainder of the process.

The master’s thesis is about 40 pages (10,000 words) in length and in the genre of a scholarly article ready for submission to a peer-reviewed journal.

A thesis is evaluated and graded by the supervisor, committee member, and a third independent reader. A thesis may be accepted as presented, returned for revisions, or rejected. If there is a disagreement among the evaluators, the graduate advisor will mediate. A thesis earning a grade lower than 60 will be rejected. If the thesis is rejected, the student will be asked to withdraw from the MA program.

When a thesis has been approved, the Master's Thesis Approval and Program Completion form, signed by each of the student's committee members (Supervisor, committee member, third reader) must be submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

MA thesis evaluation procedure

  1. When the supervisor, committee member, and MA student consider that the MA thesis is ready to be submitted, they should choose an independent 3rd reader. As a general rule, the 3rd reader should be from the UBC History Department. However, recruiting a reader from another UBC department or even another institution would be acceptable if the supervisor, committee member, and student think it is advisable.  The use of an examiner external to the department should be exceptional. It would be the responsibility of the supervisor to discuss the department’s grading standards with the 3rd reader.
  2. The supervisor should contact this reader himself or herself on the advice of the committee member and MA student. In exceptional circumstances, she or he could submit a list of names to the graduate advisor who could contact the reader for the committee.
  3. The examiner would be given up to 2 weeks to assess a 40-pages MA thesis. She or he would be asked to submit a written report to the MA committee. This report should include a short summary of the thesis as well as a discussion of its strengths and weaknesses.
  4. The grade would be decided by a consensus between the supervisor, the committee member, and the 3rd reader. In matters of disagreement or failure to reach a consensus, the issue will be mediated by the graduate advisor on a case-by-case basis.
  5. The supervisor is responsible for conveying the decision to the graduate advisor and graduate programme assistant in writing. The final report should include the grade awarded by the examining team and summarize the reason behind the grade.

 

Before receiving the MA degree in History, candidates must satisfy the department's language requirement by demonstrating an adequate reading ability in a language other than English - either French or a foreign language appropriate to their field of study. Students who require a foreign language for their thesis research will be expected to take the language exam in that language.

The department holds language exams twice a year (usually in November and April). Candidates must translate a passage from the language they have chosen into English, with the aid of a dictionary, but without the assistance of a laptop computer.

The exam is a one page translation of text testing for reading ability of the target language. The grading scale represents:

  • First class: student demonstrates professional level translation in target language.
  • Pass: student demonstrates reading ability in target language
  • Fail: student does not demonstrate reading ability in target language.

 

Requesting an Exemption to the Language Requirement/Exam:

Exemption from the language exam may be granted under certain circumstances, on a case by case basis, by submitting a written request to the History graduate advisor:

  • Several departments at the university offer courses to help students acquire a reading knowledge of a foreign language, such as French, German, or Russian. Students who have successfully completed such a course at the third-year level or above, with at least a B (72%) average, can apply for exemption from the History Department's exam by submitting evidence of completion of the course to the History graduate advisor.
  • Students whose projects rely on oral sources in a language other than English can make a request to be exempted from the language exam and to instead satisfy the language requirement with their demonstrated oral proficiency in the relevant research language. In such cases, the graduate advisor will consult with the student’s supervisor to confirm their ability and determine whether this requirement has been met.
  • For all other circumstances, please contact the History graduate advisor in writing.  Exemptions may be granted on a case by case basis.

Once the MA thesis has been approved, the final step will be to submit the thesis to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (GPS) to close your program.

Step 1:
Read the overview of the submission process:
https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/final-dissertation-thesis-submission

Step 2:
Carefully follow the steps in the link below to submit your thesis to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies to close your program:
https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/final-dissertation-thesis-submission/final-submission-instructions

Note:

In step 1, the MA student must fill out the "MA Thesis Approval Form" and coordinate with each committee member to get their signature approval.  Committee members can sign separate "MA Thesis Approval Forms" and return this to the student.  Once the student has all of the forms in step 1, they can email them to the History Graduate Programme Assistant (hist.grad@ubc.ca) to verify the signatures and forward the forms to GPS on behalf of the student.

Dissertation/Thesis Submission Deadlines:

Check deadlines for dissertation/thesis submission dates:
https://www.grad.ubc.ca/deadlines
(Under Deadline Type --> Select Option: Thesis Final Submission --> Click: Filter)

Thesis approval deadlines are for having your thesis fully approved in cIRcle, not just submitted. You are expected to submit at least five days ahead of any deadline in order to allow yourself time to make any needed corrections.

For Reference: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/graduation/applying-graduate

Every candidate for a degree must make formal application for graduation. Students apply through the Student Service Centre (SSC). Please check the Deadlines section of this website or contact your program to find out when the Application to Graduate is open.

If your application to graduate is not approved, then you must re-apply for the next graduation season.

Not attending the graduation ceremony?

You must apply to graduate regardless of whether or not you plan to participate in the scheduled ceremonies.

Questions?

For questions about applying to graduate, please contact graduation@ubc.ca

 

Conference Travel Funding

Graduate students are now eligible to receive travel funding to attend a conference at which they are presenting a paper. Over the course of a graduate career, each MA student will have access to $1,500 to attend conferences. Eligibility continues for up to four months after completion of the degree. As per University guidelines, payments will be made via reimbursement.

Quick Links