Rice University to offer Master of Artificial Intelligence degree program in 2027

Rice University will begin offering a Master of Artificial Intelligence, or “MAI,” degree in the fall of 2027, the university announced. Prospective students will be able to apply this year.

The degree program is designed to train students for roles in AI engineering, development and research under the university's Department of Computer Science.

"People that come into the program, the Master of AI, maybe they’ve got a background in computer science," Chris Jermaine, the department's chair, said in an interview. "And by the time they’re done, they would be capable of going and working for a company like OpenAI or Anthropic."

The three-semester, 30-credit-hour program anticipates it will have small cohorts. Jermaine estimated the first cohort beginning in 2027 will have around 20 students.

In 2025, Rice began offering a Bachelor of Science in AI, a degree several higher education institutions are beginning to offer. Some schools — like the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, and the University of Houston — offer master's degrees in artificial intelligence. Even fewer offer a purported “MAI” degree.

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