Master of Letters
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The Master of Letters (MLitt from the Latin magister litterarum) is a postgraduate Master's degree.
[edit] United Kingdom
The MLitt (T) is a one-year full-time taught degree at the ancient universities of Scotland. Usually, the degree involves nine months of postgraduate-level courses, followed by a short research dissertation written during the summer months. Often the MLitt is awarded here because for the ancient universities the first degree in the Arts and Humanities is an undergraduate MA (Hons), and contrasts with the MPhil degree, a more advanced one-year research Masters.
The older MLitt, now often called the MLitt (R) to differentiate the two, is a research degree lasting two years in many UK universities, including the ancient Scottish Universities who also grant MLitts (T). Students rarely apply for an MLitt in the first instance, but for those who have completed two years of a PhD and do not wish to or cannot continue with the final year(s), they have the option to write up their completed research so far and graduate with an MLitt (R).
In all cases, the MLitt is usually awarded in Arts, Divinity, Fine Art, Humanities, or Social Sciences.
[edit] United States
The M.Litt. is awarded by only four schools in the U.S. Middlebury College in Vermont offers the degree for advanced study in writing; Drew University in New Jersey offers it as an intermediate degree in their Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) program (the only earned/non-honorary Doctor of Letters degree in the U.S.), an interdisciplinary Humanities program in scholarly writing. Mary Baldwin College in Virginia awards a unique M.Litt. degree, requiring two years of study, for in-depth research in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance, which it offers as an intermediate degree in their three-year MFA program. Oxford Graduate School in Tennessee offers a M.Litt. The Master of Letters (MLitt) degree is offered for Family Life Education and Organizational Leadership for non-profit organizations. The degree requires 30 semester hours of course credit.
