Program Overview

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Master of Museum Studies Program

The Master of Museum Studies (MMSt) is a two-year professional program offering students the chance to learn from leading scholars and practitioners in their fields.

Program Description

The MMSt program brings together leading researchers and practitioners to offer students the theory and professional experience they need to play a leading role in a wide variety of cultural institutions, from museums and galleries to science centres and heritage sites. It is the only master’s degree of its kind in English-speaking Canada.

Program Options

Students in the Museum Studies program have two options:

• They can either do a capstone project or complete a thesis.
• The final-year capstone project allows students to partner with cultural institutions to develop exhibits and other projects from initial concept to final delivery.
• Students who have a clearly defined topic and wish to gain experience in developing and executing a research project from beginning to end may choose to write a thesis in their second year.

Program Highlights

• MMSt Internship: Students can participate in optional internships, developing their skills at museums and heritage institutions across Canada and in other countries.
• Collaborative Specializations: Collaborative specializations allow students to specialize in a field outside of their main area of study. The courses taken within the collaborative specialization count as electives.

Combined Degree Program

The Combined Degree Program offers students the option of earning both Master of Information and Master of Museum Studies degrees over an accelerated three-year period.

Academic Requirements

The MMSt program requires students to complete fifteen 0.5 credit courses (7.5 credits). 0.5 credit courses at the University of Toronto last one semester.

• Students are eligible to complete their credits based on course work only, including required and elective courses.
• Alternatively, they can complete a thesis.
• All students have to take a shared set of required courses and choose between the capstone course and thesis option.
• The remaining credits come from elective courses, which can include the 0.5 credit course taken alongside the internship, other Museum Studies electives, and graduate-level courses outside the program.

Suggested Course Sequence

Capstone Project (7.5 FCE)

• Year 1 Fall and Winter required courses:
  • MSL1150H Collection Management 0.5 Credits
  • MSL1230H Ethics, Leadership, Management 0.5 Credits
  • MSL2331H The Museum Exhibition: Histories, Practices, Genres 0.5 Credits
  • MSL2370H Museums and Cultural Heritage: Context and Critical Issues 0.5 Credits
• Year 1 electives:
  • Students completing an internship are recommended to complete MSL3900H and 1.5 FCE in elective courses.
  • Students not completing an internship are recommended to complete 2.0 FCE in elective courses.
• Year 1 Summer:
  • Students completing an internship are recommended to complete MSL3000H MMSt Internship 0.5 Credits
• Year 2 required courses:
  • MSL2350H Museum Planning and Management: Projects and Fundraising 0.5 Credits
  • INF2040H Project Management 0.5 Credits
  • MSL4000Y Museum Studies Capstone Projects 1.0 Credits
• Year 2 electives:
  • Students completing an internship are recommended to complete 1.5 FCE in elective courses.
  • Students not completing an internship are recommended to complete 2.0 FCE in elective courses.

Thesis (7.5 FCE)

• Year 1 Fall and Winter required courses:
  • MSL1150H Collection Management 0.5 Credits
  • MSL1230H Ethics, Leadership, Management 0.5 Credits
  • MSL2331H The Museum Exhibition: Histories, Practices, Genres 0.5 Credits
  • MSL2370H Museums and Cultural Heritage: Context and Critical Issues 0.5 Credits
  • INF1240H Research Methods 0.5 Credits
• Year 1 electives:
  • Students completing an internship are recommended to complete MSL3900H and 1.0 FCE in elective courses.
  • Students not completing an internship are recommended to complete 1.5 FCE in elective courses.
• Year 1 Summer:
  • Students completing an internship are recommended to complete MSL3000H MMSt Internship 0.5 Credits
• Year 2 required courses:
  • MSL2350H Museum Planning and Management: Projects and Fundraising 0.5 Credits
  • RST9999Y Museum Studies Thesis 2.0 Credits
• Year 2 electives:
  • Students completing an internship are recommended to complete 0.5 FCE in elective courses.
  • Students not completing an internship are recommended to complete 1.0 FCE in elective courses.

Program Essentials

Admission Requirements

More details about admissions requirements for domestic and international students can be found on the MMSt Admission Requirements page.

Money Matters

Information about tuition fees, financial aid, and scholarships and awards can be found on the Money Matters page.

Awards

Detailed information about Awards, Scholarships and Financial Aid for domestic and international students can be found on the Awards page.

MMSt Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the program will have awareness and applied understanding of:

• The history of museums, and the centrality of representation within their social and political roles in societies
• Various professional responsibilities within cultural institutions and agencies and the interrelationship of these responsibilities
• Ethical issues facing cultural institutions, agencies, and professionals
• Museological best practices
• Legal frameworks and ethical debates surrounding the acquisition and care of natural and cultural heritage

Graduates of the program will be able to:

• Innovate in the face of new challenges
• Advocate for the importance of cultural institutions in society
• Communicate effectively by integrating content, form and media to achieve desired goals
• Use appropriate methods to assess on-going project development and to evaluate achievements and effects of museum activities
• Organize processes involving people, financial and physical resources in order to actualize programmes, projects, buildings and revitalization plans
• Work in and manage groups and interpersonal relations

Latest News

• Re-writing Romanian History: Museum Studies professor will use Connaught Award to explore how museums cope with political pressure
• Museum Studies students take capstone work from classroom to the world: As the 2025 capstone season concludes, students in the Master of Museum Studies (MMSt) program are showcasing the results of year-long collaborations with cultural and heritage sector partners.
• Decolonization in action: A Museum Studies example: Museum Studies lecturer Bruno R. Véras helped the Faculty of Information play a key role in a recent decision by Harvard University to repatriate two human skulls to Brazil, including one believed to belong to a Muslim rebel who took part in an important slave revolt in 1835.
• MMSt students’ exhibit on sound in the movies launches at TIFF: For their capstone project, Museum Studies students Liz Sullivan, Lana Zagorac and Devin de Silva collaborated with TIFF’s Film Reference Library to explore how sound effects, music and even silence shape audiences’ experience and linger long after the credits roll. The resulting exhibition, From Silence to Sound: Tuning the Auditory Experience, features objects from the the library’s Christopher collection.