As a matter of fact, the Latin Magister Artium (which is used in Germany, I don't know about other countries) and which is the approximate equal to an American master's degree is also abbreviated MA. Who came first? The Romans, or the Americans? Tough one ;) ulla -----Original Message----- From: Bram Dov Abramson [] Subject: [Air-l] Re: something totally different
That means here in Austria we are moving from national to international systems and naming. Due to a lack of tradition we struggle with the meaning of MA and MSc programs.
What makes MA and MSc naming more international than, say, Magister?
the idea is - along with the Bologna declaration of the EU - that students and faculty get mobilized thus one thinks the first step is to harmonize the different educational systems and make them more easily comparable so they can move from one spot to the other. A structural shift is definentely the decision to implement Bachelor programs, here in Austria we didn't have that.
Sure. I'm just wondering how designations used mostly by the English-speaking world (MA, MSc, etc) have come to act as the de facto "international" designations. It seems kind of strange.