Master of Arts in Liberal Studies

Oakland University’s Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) degree program is a highly challenging, interdisciplinary exploration of the liberal arts, for post-baccalaureate students wishing to broaden their education through rigorous study outside traditional areas of specialization.

Typically, MALS students are strongly motivated adults who wish to further pursue intellectual enrichment and want to broaden their professional potential. MALS students are people who still seek answers to complex problems that may not as yet been addressed in their professional and personal lives. In an ever-changing professional landscape the program will serve to broaden your background, something which appeals to employers, through the program’s emphasis on writing, analysis, reasoning, and research. The program is aimed at allowing students to help shape their own course of study though the unique combinations of core and elective courses they choose. Through the MALS program students may take advantage of opportunities to present their research in professional and community settings.

The program is inherently designed for students who wish to pursue graduate study on a part-time basis and need to balance professional and personal responsibilities. Previous MALS students have been civil servants, retirees, medical professionals, lawyers, military careerists, stay-at-home moms and people from a variety of business backgrounds. Because of this the core courses and most elective courses are offered in the evenings, with some elective courses available during the day for students who wish to take a full-time graduate load.

OU’s MALS program will:

• Introduce students to fascinating intersections between fields of study
• Promote the values of the liberal arts
• Enhance your overall income and credentials (Studies indicate that the average liberal arts graduate actually make more later in life than do students in business.)
• Offer innovative courses on compelling topics, taught by full-time faculty, highly skilled at both research and teaching
• Further your exposure to “great” works of our intellectual and cultural heritage
• Provide students opportunities to work closely with their professors, shaping a degree program that challenges them and culminates in a unique interdisciplinary research project
• Integrate graduate coursework with study abroad trips planned by MALS professors (Previous trips have included London, Moscow, and Athens.)
• Provide students multiple perspectives offered by studies in art, film, history, literature, medicine, media studies, politics, sociology, science, religion and philosophy
• Create a vital intellectual community