Master of Arts

This qualification includes the various specialisations in Arts. Please refer to "Notes" for details on the specialisations.

• To equip students with a specialised understanding of problems pertinent to a particular field of study in the humanities (including the social sciences), and of relevant past and current approaches to these problems;
• To equip students with the research ability/problem-solving capacity to participate in the search for productive approaches to these problems;
• To prepare students for participation in scholarly debates within a particular discipline, and to teach in that discipline;
• To prepare students for doctoral work in the particular field;
• To produce individuals who are qualified to engage in identifying, managing, and solving important problems in various sectors and professions.

Senior Certificate with Matriculation Endorsement or equivalent university admission qualification.

First degree: For a two-year MA

Honours degree: For a one-year MA

General/ Critical cross-field outcomes

The successful Master of Arts student will have

1. Mastered research skills and the logic of scholarly argument;
2. Developed a capacity for theoretical, self-reflexive and critical thinking, and solving of problems;
3. The ability to think in terms of theory, as an instrument for understanding reality;
4. The ability to work systematically and independently in approaching and solving abstract and complex problems;
5. The ability to present and challenge scholarly positions in forums/publications of substance;
6. The ability to identify and apply criteria of relevance and significance pertinent to various contexts of inquiry.

Specific Outcomes

The successful Master of Arts student will

1. Have specialised knowledge of theoretical and methodological traditions in one or more subfields of a particular discipline of the humanities;
2. Be thoroughly familiar with academic, ethical, and/or professional standards in the relevant discipline.
3. Be able to identify and formulate pertinent research problems in a specific subdiscipline or associated professional field in the humanities, and to apply appropriate knowledge and skills to solve them;
4. Be able to critically appraise accepted solutions to these problems by identifying and evaluating the assumptions on which they rest;
5. Be able to develop, in a self-critical way, new/more adequate solutions to these problems;
6. Be able to report findings in the appropriate scholarly format.

1. The assessment used for this qualification complies with the stated purposes of the qualification.
2. A range of formative and summative assessment is used, but the emphasis falls on a thesis or interrelated series of assignments in which students have to display the desired outcomes. Written and oral examinations and presentations, role-playing simulations, assignments, and case studies may also be used as instruments of assessment.
3. The appropriate kinds of assessment are used in an integrated manner to determine whether the specified outcomes have been achieved (see 6 below).
4. The assessment used meets the standard and level of achievement for NQF level 8a.

Integrated Assessment

Integrated assessment is accomplished by examining a thesis or a series of interrelated assignments that reflect the desired outcomes. The thesis or series of assignments represents an integrated summation of the level of knowledge and insight gained by the successful student as well as of his/her academic and communicative abilities.