Prior to reforms for compliance with the Bologna process, a master's degree could only be obtained after five years of uninterrupted study.

Under the new system, it takes only two years but requires a previously completed three-year bachelor's program (a Bc.

Writing a thesis (in both master's and bachelor's programs) and passing final exams are necessary to obtain the degree.

Traditional Magister degrees are granted in social sciences and most of the humanities (international business, European studies and economics included), with the exception of visual and performing arts such as music and theatre.

The Polish equivalent of Master of Arts is "magister" (its abbreviation "mgr" is placed before one's name, like the title Dr).

In Finland, this master's degree is called a filosofian maisteri (in Finnish) or filosofie magister (in Swedish), and it is abbreviated as FM or "fil.mag.".

Except at Aberdeen, Cambridge, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford and St. Andrews (see below), the MA is typically a "taught" postgraduate degree, involving lectures, examination, and a dissertation based on independent research.

However, some universities in Scotland award the degree of Master of Letters (MLitt) to students in the arts, humanities, divinity, and social sciences.

The abbreviated name of the university (Oxon, Cantab or Dubl) is therefore almost always appended in parentheses to the initials "MA" in the same way that it is to higher degrees, e.g. "John Smith, MA (Cantab), PhD (Lond)", principally so that it is clear (to those who are aware of the system) that these are nominal and unexamined degrees.

Research in 2000 by the universities watchdog, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, showed that two-thirds of employers were unaware that the Oxford and Cambridge MA did not represent any kind of post-graduate achievement.

[3] In February 2011, the Labour Member of Parliament Chris Leslie sponsored a private member's bill in Parliament, the master's degrees (Minimum Standards) Bill, to "prohibit universities awarding master's degrees unless certain standards of study and assessment are met".

The bill's supporters described the practice as a "historical anachronism" and argued that "unearned qualifications" should be discontinued to preserve the academic integrity of the taught MA.

On 21 October 2011, the bill received its second reading, but it failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session, meaning it fell.

In comparison to the LLM at Cambridge, Oxford offers two master's degrees in law depending on the jurisdictional background of the student.

Master's degrees are generally offered without classification, although the top five percent may be deemed worthy of Distinction.

[6] Both universities also offer a variety of four-year undergraduate integrated master's degrees such as MEng or MMath.

Sometimes, qualified students who are admitted to a "very high research" Master of Arts might have to earn credits also at the PhD level, and they may need to complete their program in about three years of full-time candidature, e.g. at Harvard in the United States and McGill in Canada.

It must demonstrate ability to plan and carry out research, organize results, and defend the approach and conclusions in a scholarly manner.