The Master's Degree
O N THE part of college graduates there is an increasing interest in obtaining the Master's degree, secundum gradum in artibus, and, on the part of college faculties, a concern to determine the significance of the degree and to set appropriate standards for it. The marked increase in the number of candidates for the degree is shown by the fact that, in i900, American higher educational institutions granted I,744 Masters' degrees and in I932, I9,339 were awarded.' A great number of the candidates for this degree are either prospective secondary teachers or secondary teachers-inservice. Three reasons stand out among those which have brought about this remarkable contemporary increase in the number of candidates for the degree. First, a few states now require the degree for all secondary-school teachers, and in other states the teachers believe that shortly it will be a general requirement. Indeed, one of the basic issues discussed at the I937 Institute for Administrative Officers of Higher Institutions was whether a Master's degree should be prescribed for sec-