Second Master's Degrees

Normally, students earn only one master's degree at The University of Arizona. However, a student may be permitted to enter a second master's degree program if the majors are substantially different, with the approval of the Graduate College. A maximum of 6 credit hours may count toward the second master's.  Credits may not count toward more than two degrees.

Students sometimes want to pursue a UA master’s along with a UA doctorate in a different major. This is allowed, subject to the following restrictions:
  •  No credit may be counted for more than two degrees. Thus UA credits could not be used for a master’s in UA major 1, a doctorate in UA major 1, and a master’s in UA major 2.
  •  A student may use no more than a total of 30 credits from all master’s degrees toward a doctorate. Thus, if a student earned a non-UA master’s, up to 30 credits could be used toward a UA doctorate. In that case, none of the transfer credit nor any additional coursework toward the UA doctorate could be used toward a UA master’s in a major that differs from the doctorate because the student would have exhausted the 30 credit limit of master’s coursework that can be shared with a doctorate.