The Master of Architecture degree prepares graduates with the educational qualifications needed for professional licensure and rewarding design careers. Graduates are equipped to navigate different contexts, think from multiple perspectives and develop innovative solutions to the world’s design challenges. It is a course-based degree, which means no research thesis is required.

Designers are increasingly being asked to respond to the most critical challenges and opportunities that face the world such as mass urbanization, climate change and social injustice. SAPL's curriculum provides students with specialized knowledge and hands-on, industry-led experience, and cultivate the ability for graduates to intentionally design thoughtful, integrated solutions for objects, buildings and places in the decades to come:

• Work Integrated Learning & Research Studios: Students build their professional networks and experience in the context of design research across a wide range of concerns. Past studios have explored issues of affordable housing, learning environments for the future, community-based design practices, technology development, circular design strategies, Indigenous design practices and many more. Students work with practices and research units on campus to explore a wide range of contemporary issues in a “research and development” modality. This has included studios with some of Calgary’s leading architecture practices including MoDA, MBAC, Lola and FRANK. Students have developed future design tools with international firm ZHA and researched the future of spaces for teaching and learning with researchers, academics and faculty members across campus. 
• Block Week Courses: Students work with prominent practitioners, educators, architects, planners, and landscape architects from around the world. During this intensive week, students study different subjects that bring current issues and technologies into the classroom for collaborative exploration. 
• Study Abroad: A well-rounded design education includes practical, real-world engagement with ideas, systems, and precedents around the world. Study Abroad opportunities range from one-week field study courses in cities like Los Angeles to semester-long programs in Japan and Spain. The study abroad locations are recognized for their expertise areas like growth management, transit-oriented communities, district revitalization, sustainable infrastructure, public space design, and urban design.