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Graduate Students

The Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies offers graduate programs leading to the degrees of Master of Arts (MA) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). These programs include a multi-disciplinary approach with emphasis on high quality research applied to practical problems. Recognizing the interdisciplinary nature of the field, graduate students are encouraged to focus their studies on the interrelationship between recreation/leisure and one or more of the following theme areas:

Renowned for innovative methodological approaches, these research-intensive programs feature core courses in Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Leisure Research, Quantitative Research Data Analysis and Interpretation, and Qualitative Research Data Analysis and Interpretation in addition to a wide range of electives.

Because of the broad spectrum of research fields within the Department, candidates come from a variety of different disciplinary backgrounds including business, geography, kinesiology, health studies, psychology and sociology as well as recreation and leisure studies.

Full-time students enrolled in the Master's program normally take 2 years (6 terms) to complete the degree. Full time students enrolled in the Doctoral program normally take 3-4 years (9-12 terms) to complete the degree.

Our Reputation

The University of Waterloo continues to rank "most innovative, most likely to produce the leaders of tomorrow, and best overall compared to other comprehensive Canadian universities" in the Maclean's magazine rankings out of 47 universities across Canada.

The Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies is the highest ranking leisure studies department amongst the top 41 of 213 North American institutions in terms of research publications in peer-reviewed scholarly leisure journals. The university is also ranked in the top ten of the world's tourism researchers out of 200 institutions based on publications in selected tourism journals.

The University of Waterloo offered the first MA and PhD programs in recreation and leisure studies in Canada. Our program remains one of the largest leisure programs in Canada.

The department celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2008-2009 and has over 3000 graduates. This includes 208 MA graduates pursuing a variety of careers, as well as 28 PhD graduates all employed in teaching and research positions at universities around the world.

Outstanding graduate students are vital to our success as a research-intensive university. Many of our graduate students have obtained international, national or provincial awards and scholarships. In addition, many have presented their research at national and international conferences.