Is passion a must-have for a Master's student?

Passion is not necessary for a master’s degree.

You’re still at the stage of your career where you’re getting your feet wet with research. The important thing right now is to separate your feelings about research in general from your feelings about the specific research topic you’re exploring. You can always move to another topic for your PhD, and nowadays, you’ll almost certainly have to change focus areas multiple times in your career.

At this point in your career, being able to determine that:

• You love research and your focus area;
• You love research but not your focus area;
• You love your focus area, but not doing research in it; or even
• You don’t love research

are all perfectly valid outcomes because they will help you to decide on a long-term path.

I will probably get shot for this, but here is what I think: there is no way to have "passion" for anything until you master it at some level.

I wanted to do physics because my school teacher was someone pushy who liked to drive people to succeed. As I was studying, I got quite good at it, so I ended up liking the subject. But, as an undergraduate, I didn't know what I would like, so I ended up doing what others told me, which eventually didn't turn out quite right.

As a PhD student I didn't have any all consuming obsession with anything. I merely had lots of work to do, and as I was solving increasingly complex problems, I got a feeling for my subject and liked some of the stuff I was really good at.

But, as I started to find my own research problems, I began to like things enough not to change career. At this moment, I wouldn't say I'm passionate about any subject, but I very happy to be doing some of my research -- the parts that don't involve bureaucracy. And I'm very curious how my research will turn out.

Passion helps, but this is a precious resource and it can (and often does) run out, particularly on the course of several years required for MSc or PhD program.

To a certain extent, passion (generally called motivation) is normally expected of candidates in academia, so even if you do not have it, you have to show it at some point in your motivation letter and/or in your interview.

In addition to other brilliant answers, please note that MSc/PhD program is a two-side investment: student invests time and often money, but also the supervisers invest time, passion and sometimes are expected go above and beyond their contractual obligations to help students succeed. This is a rewarding process if (and only if) both parties are engaged and the result proves efforts worthy.