Asian Studies: Master of Arts (MA) - UBCV is a master's degree in Arts, Design & Architecture programme taught at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The programme is delivered on campus. Teaching is in English. Tuition for international students is CAD 10,082 per year (CAD 5,739 per year for local students).
At a glance
Degree:Master's Degree
Field:Arts, Design & Architecture
Delivery: On Campus
Language: English
Local tuition: CAD 5,739 / year
International tuition: CAD 10,082 / year
Information for the 2027/28 academic year · Last reviewed September 2026 ·
Program details
Overview
This MA in Asian Studies is thesis-based only, with a minimum of 30 credits of which a substantial block is the thesis itself; there is no part-time route and no non-thesis option, and most students begin in the September session. Work is supervised across the department's regional strengths in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and South Asian studies as well as East Asian Buddhism, and approached through humanities disciplines including linguistics, literary analysis, history, philosophy, religious studies and visual and popular culture. Language instruction available to students covers Cantonese, modern and classical Chinese, Hindi and Urdu, modern and classical Japanese, Korean, Persian, Punjabi and Sanskrit, which allows the thesis to be built on primary sources. More than twenty graduate faculty supervise in the department, and students draw on UBC's Asian Library, one of the finest Asian collections in North America, alongside a regular programme of workshops, lecture series and visiting scholars.
Requirements
Minimum GPA:76.00 / %
Admission Requirements: UBC's Department of Asian Studies requires applicants to hold a Bachelor of Arts degree from an accredited university-level institution, and applies the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies' general threshold of a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC); the program notes this is competitive and meeting the minimum does not guarantee admission. Applicants whose prior degree was not taught in English must submit, within the last 24 months, IELTS Academic overall 6.5 with no section below 6.0, TOEFL iBT overall 90 (all sections at least 21) on the pre-2026 scale, or the Duolingo English Test overall 125. The GRE is not required. The department asks for three letters of reference, a statement of interest, and identifying a potential faculty supervisor is recommended, though no prior commitment is necessary.
Application Details
Start Date:September
Application Deadline:Domestic and international undergraduate applicants both apply through EducationPlannerBC for Winter Session 2027/28 (September 2027 entry) and Summer 2027: applications open in early October 2026 and the equal-consideration deadline is 15 January 2027, 11:59 p.m. PST, the same date for both groups; a few programs keep reviewing late applications on a space-available basis afterwards. Earlier dates apply only to entrance-award consideration -- 15 November 2026 for the International Scholars Program and 1 December 2026 for Presidential/Centennial/Beyond Tomorrow scholars. Several limited-entry programmes -- Law, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Nursing (advanced entry), Occupational/Physical Therapy, Social Work and Teacher Education -- set their own earlier deadlines from October 2026 through February 2027. These are institution-wide dates; this programme publishes no deadline of its own.
