Liberal Arts certificates of advanced graduate study are offered by some institutions that offer master's degrees in interdisciplinary liberal arts. These certificate programs are designed to hone critical thinking skills and personal knowledge of a chosen field, in addition to encouraging professional development. These are all Specialist-level degrees due to a required 1200-hour internship experience and 60+ hours of graduate study. Library and information science CAS programs are intended to allow students to closely focus on a particular sub-area of library and information science after earning a master's degree in the discipline. Some students advance directly to the CAS after finishing their master's degree, others return for a CAS after working in the field. The certificate generally takes one to two years to complete, including a culminating cumulative exam or extensive project. Such programs are offered by many, but not all, of the U.S. institutions of higher education that issue
American Library Association-accredited master's degrees. At the
University of Lausanne and
EPFL, a Certificate of Advanced Studies is awarded upon completion of a programme comprising at least 120 contact hours (resulting in between 10 and 29
ECTS credits), a written examination and, in certain cases, a dissertation. Some CAGS are connected to an existing doctoral program such as PhD in Organizational Leadership: for example, PhD students receive a CAGS in Leadership Studies after completing their 2 years of doctoral study at
Eastern University. == See also ==