Program Overview

Overview

The University of British Columbia's Asian Studies Department is the flagship Asian Studies department in Canada and is widely acknowledged as one of the finest in North America. The Department awards a thesis-based MA in Asian Studies to students working in a variety of regions and disciplines.

Program Structure

The program in Asian Studies consists of a minimum of 30 credits (including a 12-credit thesis). The Program does not offer part-time or non-thesis study. Most students begin their program at the start of the Winter Session (First Tuesday in September, after Labor Day). Under special circumstances students may be allowed to begin their program in the second term of the Winter Session, that is, in January (after New Year's Day).

Admission Information & Requirements

• Check Eligibility: The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC).
• English Language Test: Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application.
• Prior Degree Requirements: A Bachelor of Arts degree from an accredited university level institution.
• Meet Deadlines: See the graduate degree program listing for additional deadline details.
  • Program Name: Master of Arts in Asian Studies (MA)
  • Intake: September 2026
  • Canadian Applicant Deadline: 30 November 2025
  • International Applicant Deadline: 30 November 2025
• Prepare Application:
  • Transcripts: All applicants have to submit transcripts from all past post-secondary study.
  • Letters of reference: Applicants have to submit 3 references to apply to this graduate program.
  • Statement of Interest: Many programs require a statement of interest, sometimes called a "statement of intent", "description of research interests" or something similar.
  • Supervision: Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor.

Tuition & Financial Support

• Tuition:
  • Fees| Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat| International
    ---|---|---
    Application Fee| $118.50| $168.25
    Tuition *
    Installments per year| 3| 3
    Tuition per installment| $1,875.34| $3,294.66
    Tuition per year
    (plus annual increase, usually 2%-5%)| $5,626.02| $9,883.98
    Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (if eligible)| | $3,200.00 (-)
    Other Fees and Costs
    Student Fees (yearly)| $1,144.10 (approx.)
    Costs of living| Estimate your costs of living with our interactive tool in order to start developing a financial plan for your graduate studies.
• Financial Support:
  • Funding Statistics: Based on the criteria outlined below, 19 students within this program were included in this study because they received funding through UBC in the form of teaching, research, academic assistantships or internal or external awards with a mean of $19,919 and a median of$21,967.
  • Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding): All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education.
  • Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA): Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their supervision.
  • Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA): Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students.
  • Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA): Academic Assistantships are employment opportunities to perform work that is relevant to the university or to an individual faculty member, but not to support the student’s graduate research and thesis.
  • Financial aid (need-based funding): Canadian and US applicants may qualify for governmental loans to finance their studies.

Career Options

Students pursuing the MA degree have gone on to top-ranked PhD programs around the world; others have put their skills to use in public service, education, journalism, translation, publishing, museums and cultural education, consulting, and business.

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

• ENROLMENT DATA:
  • Applications| 2023| 2022| 2021| 2020| 2019
    ---|---|---|---|---|---
    Applications| 98| 72| 78| 41| 73
    Offers| 20| 16| 23| 8| 14
    New Enrolment| 8| 13| 10| 5| 5
    Total Enrolment| 37| 35| 29| 22| 23
• Completion Rates & Times: This program has a graduation rate of 84% based on 32 students admitted between 2015 - 2018. Based on 23 graduations between 2020 - 2023 the minimum time to completion is 1.7 years and the maximum time is 4.78 years with an average of 2.8 years of study.

Research Supervisors

• Supervision: Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor.
• Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for this program: Applicants should browse faculty profiles and indicate in their application who they are interested in working with. No commitment from a supervisor prior to applying is necessary, but contacting faculty members is encouraged.
• List of faculty members with full supervisory privileges:
  • Abedinifard, Mostafa
  • Ahmed, Rumee
  • An, Ji-yoon
  • Bailey, C. D. Alison
  • Baker, Donald Leslie
  • Chen, Jinhua
  • Duffy, Kay
  • Fulton, Bruce
  • Hoffmann, Alexandra
  • Hur, Nam-Lin
  • Kadir, Aynur
  • King, Ross
  • Laffin, Christina
  • Laird, Colleen
  • Lynn, Hyung Gu
  • Main, Jessica
  • Mostow, Joshua Scott
  • Nakamura, Fuyubi
  • Naqvi, Naveena
  • Oberoi, Harjot Singh
  • Orbaugh, Sharalyn
  • Prange, Sebastian
  • Rea, Christopher
  • Rusk, Bruce
  • Sathaye, Adheesh

Sample Thesis Submissions

• Dissent and nostalgia : unraveling Moha in contemporary Chinese cyberspace
• From principles to practice : a Ḥanafī framework for ethical and adaptive artificial intelligence
• Racial representation in Jin Yong’s fictions
• Between im/morality : an analysis of moral discourses on prostitutes in Okinawan newspaper articles,
• Pregnant with possibility : reading movement and myth in two Japanese / American texts
• Between the gendered self and empire : rethinking collaboration in the pro-japanese literature of Ch'oe Chŏnghŭi
• Beneath the healing islands : corporeal memory and decolonial writing in Medoruma Shun’s war fiction
• To be a shameful/shameless scholar : the decline of Confucian moral authenticity in The Scholars
• Not just haunting, not just love, not just humans : ghosts, weapon fetishism and non-human-centred narrative in Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem trilogy and Ball Lightning
• A new wave of cult : Sushi Typhoon and Japanese horror distribution and reception post-J-horror
• Women’s education under Taliban rule in Afghanistan : a political and socio-cultural analysis
• Sounds of parting and longing : music and narrative in Genji monogatari
• A journey within fifty-three squares : playing with Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige in sugoroku board games
• Imagining Motherland-China (zuguo-muqin 祖國-母親) : a diasporic narrative in Chinese nationalist discourse, 1905–1945
• Continuities and discontinuities in Dazai Osamu's "Osan" : unveiling the illusions of the occupation era
• The Vancouver Chinese Public School, 1917–1967 : party education, community hub, and political propaganda
• Laboring (for) machines : the human–machine dynamics in early Mao-era science fiction
• I am the worst woman : the disintegration of the idealised feminine and the final girl in The forest of love
• The encoding of whiteness and blackness in Japanese manga
• From the marginalia : a distinct Korean salute to the Xixiang ji and Jin Shengtan with divergent interpretations
• Mediation within a moral economy : fan and industry tensions in the localization of Japanese video game series Ryū Ga Gotoku/Yakuza

Related Programs

• Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies (PhD)

Further Information

• Specialization: Asian Studies
• UBC Calendar: graduate-and-postdoctoral-studies/degree-programs/asian-studies
• Program Website:
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Academic Unit: Department of Asian Studies
• Program Identifier: VGMMAA-B7
• Classification:
  • Humanities and the arts » History, archaeology and related studies » Historical studies » Asian history
  • Humanities and the arts » Languages and literature » Languages » Asian languages (except chinese language)
  • Humanities and the arts » Languages and literature » Literature and literary studies » South Asian literatures
  • Humanities and the arts » History, archaeology and related studies » Historical studies » Book history (including print culture)
  • Humanities and the arts » History, archaeology and related studies » Religion and religious studies » Comparative religious studies
  • Humanities and the arts » History, archaeology and related studies » Religion and religious studies » Islamic studies
  • Humanities and the arts » History, archaeology and related studies » Religion and religious studies » Eastern religions
  • Humanities and the arts » History, archaeology and related studies » Religion and religious studies » Religion and religious studies, n.e.c.
  • Humanities and the arts » Languages and literature » Other languages and literature » Other languages and literature
  • Humanities and the arts » Philosophy » History and philosophy of specific fields » History and philosophy of the humanities