Certificate in Museum Studies

Add a Certificate in Museum Studies

The University of Iowa has offered professional training for work in museums since 1910.

The Museum Studies Certificate program combines history, theory, and experiential learning to create a forward-looking curriculum preparing professionals for graduate school or work in a wide range of museums and cultural institutions.

Courses are offered online and face-to-face each semester to meet your education and professional development needs.

Graduates of the University of Iowa’s Museum Studies Program have become directors, curators, educators, and exhibit specialists in museums throughout the country. The Museum Studies program offers courses that are of value not only to students intending to pursue museum careers or continue their education, but also to those with a general interest in the arts, sciences, or humanities, as well as to those students who simply wish to know more about the workings of museums.

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Certificate overview

Museums embrace every aspect of human experience. Iowa's Museum Studies Program reflects this multiplicity, and includes students from many fields, including American studies, anthropology and archaeology, art, biology, business, communication studies, earth and environmental sciences, elementary and secondary education, English, world languages, history, and library and information science.

Instructors for museum studies courses reflect the program's interdisciplinary nature. They include faculty members from anthropology, art, art history, and design, business, history, library and information science, and other related fields.

What can a student do with a Certificate in Museum Studies?

A certificate prepares students for entry-level positions in museums or for advanced studies in graduate school. Employment in zoos and botanical gardens; historical houses and science centers; local, state and federal parks and monuments; and libraries and archives are all possible.

In large institutions a graduate with a BA/BS degree combined with a Museum Studies certificate may find employment supporting the head of department (e.g., assistant collection manager, education coordinator, exhibit artist); in smaller institutions, the same credentials may enable entry with a higher title (e.g., curator, exhibit manager, director).

What can I expect to learn and gain from Museum Studies courses?

Whether you are taking online or face-to-face courses, you can expect to engage in a variety of activities. Through lectures, discussions, visits to museums, hands-on learning, professional guest speakers, and museum-based projects students will learn about:

The history and origins of museums
Collections management and care best practices
Audience and community engagement
Nonprofit fundraising, grant writing and management
Strategic planning and organizational structure
Ethics and professionalism in the field
Communication and collaboration best practices

Museum Studies certificate students also are required to complete an internship of 150 experience hours that gives them the opportunity to engage in professional work at a museum, gallery, archive, historical center, and/or historical home of their choice and in the location that is best suited for them.

Who can earn the Certificate in Museum Studies?

The Certificate Program is open to any student, either non-traditional or undergraduate, with a minimum 2.0 GPA who is not enrolled in a graduate program in the United States. Students who have already earned a Bachelor’s degree or partial credit toward a Bachelor’s degree are also eligible to apply. Students can complete the coursework for the certificate online and/or on campus. You do not have to be admitted into a bachelor’s program or have earned a bachelor’s degree to enroll in the undergraduate, online Museum Studies certificate program.

Graduate students are welcome to take Museum Studies courses, but currently the Certificate is only offered at the undergraduate level. Graduate students have the option to enroll in the Certificate program after completing the graduate degree.

Can I complete the Museum Studies Certificate completely online?

Many of the courses for the Museum Studies Program are offered online, allowing a distance-learning student to earn the Certificate in as little as three semesters. It is also possible to take a mix of online and face-to-face courses to meet the certificate requirements. For more information, please visit the Online/Distance Learning page.

For more information about the certificate, watch this recording of our information session (from fall 2023):

Requirements

A total of 18 semester hours of work is required for the Museum Studies Certificate, including a 3-semester-hour introductory course, 12 semester hours in Museum Studies Topic Areas Courses (one course from three of the four topic areas listed below and a fourth course from any topic area), and 3 semester hours in Internship and Professionalism credit. The program is flexible enough to meet your needs, and courses are offered regularly, allowing you to complete the program within one academic year for on-campus students and three semesters for online students. You can read about specific museum studies courses and additional requirements in the general course catalog.

Internship

Museum Studies Certificate students must complete at least 150 hours of an internship at a museum, gallery, library collection, or historical society of their choice. For more information on internship credits and semester hour requirements, view the Museum Studies General Catalog.

Internships are not limited geographically and can take place in Iowa City, the state of Iowa, the United States, or even internationally. Students are encouraged to start their internship after they have completed the Introduction to Museum Studies course (MUSM:3001) and approximately 12 semester hours of coursework, in addition to declaring a Museum Studies Certificate through MyUI or with their advisor. This will ensure that you have a Museum Studies advisor who can help you with this process.

Museum Studies Certificate students who have declared the certificate receive access to the program ICON site, which has detailed information about available internships, a checklist for the internship approval process, and many other resources. If you have already declared the certificate and don’t have access to this ICON site, please contact CLAS-MuseumStudies@uiowa.edu.

Online/distance learning

Many of the courses for the Museum Studies Program are offered online, allowing a distance-learning student to earn the Certificate in as little as three semesters. The program is also flexible enough for professionals or non-traditional students to register for just one course a semester. Students can take a mix of online and face-to-face courses to meet the certificate requirements at their own pace.

Online courses are typically semester long, with 16-week courses in the Fall and Spring, and 4-, 6-, 8- and 12-week options in the summer. You do not have to be admitted into a bachelor’s program or have earned a bachelor’s degree to enroll in the undergraduate, online Museum Studies certificate program.

What courses are available online?

Not every course listed in the Museum Studies General Catalog is available online. As of Fall 2025, the following courses are regularly offered in an online format:

MUSM:3001 Introduction to Museum Studies
MUSM:3091 Topics in Museum Studies
MUSM:3105 Engaging Museum Audiences
MUSM:3120 Museum Origins
MUSM:3125 Museums in a Digital World
MUSM:3130 Topics in Museum Administration and Management
MUSM:3131 Museum Evaluation and Visitor Studies
MUSM:3200 Collection Care and Management
MUSM:3291 Museum Registration & Records Management
MUSM:3500 Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness I
MUSM:3710 Fundraising Fundamentals
MUSM:3720 Nonprofit Communications
MUSM:4150 Introduction to Grant Writing
MUSM:4600 Nonprofit Ethics and Governance

How to apply

If you are already a UI undergraduate student

You can declare a Museum Studies Certificate by signing in to MyUI and clicking on “Programs of Study” in the “Student Information” section. Once on that page, please add “Museum Studies Certificate” to your list of programs.

If you experience any complications, please contact the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Undergraduate Programs: 120 Schaeffer Hall; 319-335-2633; clasps@uiowa.edu and tell them that you want to declare the Museum Studies Certificate or talk to your advisor.

If you are not yet enrolled at the University of Iowa but plan to apply for a UI Bachelor’s degree (on-campus or online) while also earning a Museum Studies Certificate

Please apply for your Bachelor’s program and declare a certificate after acceptance into the primary program.

If you are interested in applying as a new, online student who is only pursuing the Museum Studies Certificate

Please follow these important steps:

Complete and Submit the Non-Degree Students Application.
- You can read more about this degree option here on the University of Iowa Admissions site
- The application form is available online
- Please note that there is a $55 application fee, and students will need to send a transcript for any undergraduate college credit they have earned.
When prompted in the application, select the following options:
- “What type of credit are you seeking”: Undergraduate Credit
- To which Undergraduate College of the University are you applying?”: Liberal Arts and Sciences
- “Purpose of attending”: Undergraduate Online Museum Studies Certificate
- “List the courses you plan to take at Iowa”: Museum Studies courses, including MUSM:3001.
- “I plan to take courses”: Online

* Please note that all off-campus students earning a degree or certificate online must declare the program of study through the online program. This allows distance learners to be identified easily and for related data to be collected.

Certificate cost

For current, full-time undergraduate students

You can earn the Certificate Museum Studies on campus or online at no additional cost. It is already included in your tuition. Simply declare a Museum Studies Certificate by signing in to MyUI and clicking on “Programs of Study” in the “Student Information” section. Once on that page, please add “Museum Studies Certificate” to your list of programs.

Online, non-degree seeking students

You can earn a Museum Studies Certificate at the same cost as state-resident tuition + technology fee. Tuition and fees are the same for both resident and non-resident students. To learn more, visit the Tuition & Fees site and select “College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,” “Museum Studies,” and “CLAS Museum Studies CER [online].”

Museum Studies Advisory Committee

The Museum Studies Advisory Committee meets regularly to discuss course development, program objectives, and methods of student support for the Museum Studies program.