Program Requirements

All master’s degree programs may require either the writing of a thesis or professional paper or the fulfillment of a special project or other requirements. Each academic unit may determine whether to offer their master's students a coursework option for degree completion in lieu of a thesis or professional paper.

Each master’s program requires a minimum of 30 semester credit hours of approved courses. Programs that involve the writing of a thesis, professional paper, or fulfillment of a special project may allow a maximum of six semester credit hours for those activities.

All courses in the program must be graduate-level (numbered 5000 or higher), and in no case may undergraduate credit be accepted toward a master’s degree.

A maximum of 12 graduate semester credit hours earned by a “non-degree student’’ may subsequently apply toward a graduate degree only if the Dean of the Graduate School, upon recommendation of the student’s advisory committee, determines it is appropriate to the degree program.

Graduate students are not permitted to apply toward the master’s degree more than twelve semester credit hours earned in workshops, in seminars, or in any combination of these, taken at TWU. Such courses must form part of the logical, related sequence of work leading to the degree.