At University of Victoria in Victoria, Canada, Writing: Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is offered as a master's degree in Arts, Design & Architecture programme. The programme runs for 20 months, delivered on campus. Teaching is in English. Tuition for international students is CAD 2,857 per semester (CAD 2,265 per semester for local students).
UVic's Master of Fine Arts in Writing is a roughly 20-month, full-time studio degree built around one-on-one mentorship with award-winning writing faculty. Students work across workshops, seminars and individual supervision to develop fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, poetry, interactive narrative and hybrid forms, culminating in a major creative thesis project. The emphasis is on developing voice, craft and revision expertise while learning to give and receive high-level editorial feedback within a working community of writers and creators. Study is on-campus with an optional co-op component, and graduates are qualified to teach creative writing at the college or university level.
Requirements
Admission Requirements: Admission to the Writing MFA is built around a creative portfolio rather than a grade threshold: applicants submit 10 to 15 pages of poetry, or 20 to 30 pages of playwriting, screenwriting, fiction, creative non-fiction, or multi-genre writing, formatted with 1.5 line spacing for prose and poetry or industry-standard formatting for playwriting and screenwriting. The application also requires a 500-word letter of intent covering the applicant's writing background, program goals, and the genre and project they intend to pursue; a curriculum vitae detailing relevant professional or writing experience; and two references who can speak to the applicant's talent, academic standing, critical ability, capacity for self-directed work and teaching potential, due by December 31. The page states no minimum grade-point average or English-language test score of its own; applicants whose first language is not English should expect to meet UVic's general language-proficiency minimum.
Application Details
Start Date:September
Application Deadline:Domestic applicants apply through EducationPlannerBC, which opens for 2027-entry applications on 1 October 2026: most degree programmes see September 2027 entry close 31 January 2027, January 2027 entry close 30 September 2026, and Summer 2027 entry close 31 March 2027, though Teacher Education post-degree programmes close 2 January 2027, Indigenous Education post-degree admits on an ongoing basis, and Engineering's Summer entry (high-school graduates only) closes 31 December 2026. International applicants use the same portal and face identical dates, since UVic publishes no separate international deadline. UVic treats these as fixed annual dates rather than rolling admission, though it warns any programme can close early without notice. These are institution-wide dates; this programme publishes no deadline of its own.
