Skip to content
 
Master of Liberal Arts  

Degree Requirements

D. Hiden Ramsey LibraryEach degree-seeking student is required to complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of MLA coursework, with at least 24 of those credits taken at UNC Asheville.  Students must complete at least one MLA course per year and maintain regular contact with their assigned faculty advisors in order to remain candidates for the degree. Students should track their own progress through the use of the Graduation Checksheet.  It is expected that a student will need no more than 5 years to complete the MLA degree. Permission of the Graduate Council is necessary in order to remain a candidate for the degree beyond this time limit. 

A minimum GPA of 3.0 must be attained in order to graduate. All coursework is assessed on the four-point scale, save that work related to the Capstone Experience, which is evaluated on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Summary of Degree Requirements
30 graduate credit hours

See Program of Study for full course descriptions.
Required Seminars- 12 graduate credit hours

Each of the following seminars are required of all MLA students.  Topics for each course change each semester.  Visit the Course Descriptions page for current offerings.

  • MLA 500: Seminar on the Human Condition - 3 graduate credit hours
  • MLA/ENG 520: Seminar on the Human Experience -  3 graduate credit hours
  • MLA 540: Seminar on the Individual and Society - 3 graduate credit hours
  • MLA/CCS 560: Seminar on Science and Human Values - 3 graduate credit hours
Required Capstone Project Seminars- 6 graduate credit hours
  • MLA 670: Scholarly Inquiry Seminar (spring semester only) - 3 graduate credit hours
  • MLA 680: Project Seminar (fall semester only) - 3 graduate credit hours

Electives - 12 graduate credit hours from independent study/tutorials, special topics and by taking additional sections of ENG/MLA 520, MLA 540 and CCS/MLA 560 as topics change.

MLA Seminar: Negotiating Peace:The Practice of Local and Global Peacebuilding

Distance Education Credit

Students may apply up to SEVEN graduate credit hours from MLA courses offered through the MLA-Distance Education collaboration towards their MLA degree.

Transfer Credit

Students may transfer up to six credit hours from other accredited graduate programs, provided that the work is relevant to the individual student’s particular focus area in the MLA Program and the student earned a grade of B- or better in each course being considered for transfer credit.  Read more about transferring credit.

Last edited by jdolfi@unca.edu on March 23, 2011