Union Institute and University

Hey gang,

What is the scoop on this university?

http://www.tui.edu/

Let me know,

Paul

 

Degreeinfo members, Dr. Steve Levicoff and and Dr. Rich Douglas, earned their doctorates from Union Institute and University.

 

There is a lot of information available so you may want to ask a more specific question(s).
Jack

 

Please consider the above advice carefully. You can search this board's threads for many insights into Union. Or you can ask specific questions. (You will get information from other sources than its graduates, of course, which is good.)

 

Also happy to provide information/answers (publicly or privately) on Union and it's programs. If you want to converse off-line, my e-mail is [email protected].

Cheers,
Tony Maranto
(Union Institute Class of 1997 - Ph.D. Environmental Science)

 

Accreditation?

I found the accreditation! It was hard to find.

"Yes, Union Institute & University is accredited, meaning most universities recognize a degree from Union. In the United States, recognition of university degrees is achieved through state licensing and more importantly through regional accreditation bodies. Union is licensed in the states of Florida, California, and Ohio, and is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. "



Wow, expensive! $42,000 typical tuition.

 

Is their an advantage in UIU?

What is the advantage of attending UIU over WGU?

 

You get to buy Douglas a beer at teary sentimental alumni gatherings (Levicoff BYO's, but will share).

_________________________________


Seriously, I suspect that UIU has a better reputation among "innovative" schools than WGU. It's been around longer, in various guises, and has that touch of sixties glamour about it. As a one-man unscientific sample (I have to say that in order not to upset some folks) I had heard interesting things about Union and its earlier permutations for many years before getting interested in DL myself.

You know, that's not a bad question to ask: has anyone heard of a given school outside the world of DL types?

 

Even though I’ve decided not to pursue a doctorate (or at least to take a couple of years off from schooling), threads like this still tickle my stomach.

 

Re: Accreditation?

The other day, I met someone who purported to be a professional substance abuse counselor. I became suspicious of her credentials after she used the word professional for the third time and, upon inquiry, she claimed to have a master's degree from Empire State University, an RA school that is part of the SUNY system. Upon further inquiry, she claimed to be pursuing her doctorate from Madison University in Mississippi, a degree mill - once again showing that even people who are allegedly sincere can become the victims of a scam.

The point? Madison charges $2,295 for a doctorate. Union charges some $42,000 (the tuition at Union can actually vary greatly, since it is based on number of semesters rather than number of credits - the current tuition in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, for example, is $15,750 per year). I was one of Union's two-year wonders, which means that my doctorate cost some $30,000 (including tuition, books, travel, seminar fees at the time - the whole ball of wax) back in the early 1990's. Accreditation notwithstanding, you do get what you pay for, and it is a natural that an RA school is going to cost significantly more than a degree mill at the doctoral level.

Having said all that, do I recommend Union? Not at this time. As Rich as discussed elsewhere, Union is currently going through one of its occasional crises thanks to some ass-kicking by both the U.S. Department of Education and the Ohio Board of Review (the state department of higher education). It started during a routine OBR audit of several Union PDE's (dissertations) which were found to be academically deficient, and has turned into a major audit of Union's academic policies. Federal DoEd got involved, and Union is now going through hoops to tighten its academic requirements. This includes changing from a two-year minimum enrollment in the doctoral program to three years; this is not significant, since the average enrollment has always been three-and-a-half years. Documentation requirements are being tightened to almost an anal-compulsive degree, and their programs are in quite a state of flux at this point. Most notably, the Ph.D. in Religion and Law I earned in 1991 would, if earned today, be a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences with a specialization in Religion and Law. (Would I enroll in Union today? Nope.)

A few years ago, I predicted that Union might not be around for the long haul because they have significant competition these days from schools such as Capella, Touro, and other programs that are more aggressive and more competitive. Moreover, Union has lost much of its identity as an alternative doctoral program, since the methods they deveoped and refined over the years are now being used by traditional universities as well as distance-learning schools.

Most people feel that Union will survive its current scrutiny by OBR and DoEd, but I'm a cynic at heart, and believe in playing it carefully so you don't run into major surprises. The issues I've brought up here are a major topic of discussion on the Union Graduate Learners Forum, to which you can link here.

As I have noted in the past, the caliber of learners and their major products at Union has seemed to go downhill over the past few years. (I say this based on experience, having served as both a peer and an adjunct on several Union doctoral committees. Rich actually has nothing to do with my opinion on this issue. )

Union can get out of their rut, but it's a shame that it took a major butt-kicking by OBR and DoEd to get them to start. And as a result of that butt-kicking, they are wayyyyy overcompensating with their changes. The school still has one of the better doctoral programs around, but whether it will survive for the long haul remains to be seen in the more competitive environment that exists today.

 

I just took a scientific poll of one respondent (me). 100% of this sample thinks that WGU amd UIU might be "innovative" in slightly different ways.

UIU seems to me to have a more "60's alternative" tone to it. UIU grants self-designed doctoral degrees in things like Jungian psychology and it apparently favors social change activities. WGU is busy preparing and upgrading teachers, and offering undergraduate business and IT degrees. Despite its unusual assessment methodology, WGU seems a little more "no nonsense" and perhaps a little less politicized than UIU.

But UIU has been in existence a lot longer and it does offer the doctoral degrees. It generated a lot of attention in its early days then it was called the Union of Experimenting Colleges and Universities, and was a founder of the University Without Walls (UWW). I think that UIU will celebrate its 40'th birthday next year.

Here's a short history of the UIU:

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~hendra/Briefhis.html

Personally, the characteristics that I'd use to choose between WGU and UIU would be, first, whether or not they offer programs of interest to me, and secondly, the details of how those programs are designed. Both schools try to present their programs in innovative ways and I'd want to fully understand that before I enrolled.

 

Unk:

You are now speaking in tongues. Only members of the esoteric circle and initiates can decode your message.

Ike

 

I agree with all of Steve's facts, and all of his opinions, save one.

It is hard for Steve--or Tony or me--to judge whether or not the quality of work done at Union has changed. Steve has been either an adjunct or peer on several committees. While I've not been an adjunct, I've been on 5 committees as a peer. But when we were learners (and I was a learner far before Steve), we didn't have the exposure, nor the perspective, we now enjoy. Also, it is natural for those who've finished a program to feel they did the "hard one," with everyone following having it easy. This dynamic is true in the military, other levels of schooling, even prison. Old-timers like to wax philosophical about the tough times they had to go through, and that the kids of today have it so easy, etc.

Is Steve right? Has the quality of work done at Union gone downhill? Maybe. I think so, and my involvement goes back to 1986. But that has to be tempered with the cautions I've noted above. I'll tell you one thing--and Steve alluded to it--the OBR report was very clear that there were some really bad dissertations on file. But it didn't say when they were written. And because this is the first really big hit on Union in awhile, there's no telling if this is a natural function or a recent change. And there is also no way to tell if Union got more lax on the bottom end of the quality spectrum, while still having learners at the top crank out great work. The OBR was concerned about the ones who got through and should not have. But that can probably be said about almost any doctoral program.

Union will get through this. But whether or not it will (a) improve and (b) weather the competition remains to be seen.

 

Back in the good old days of AED, The Union Institute recieved a lot of press. It was a much-discussed program. This certainly seems to be less the case now (with the exception of the occasional swipe at Rich or Steve).

Several of the doctoral programs mentioned often here seem to have eclipsed Union. I'm not quite sure why that is. Perhaps the desire for a more online program?


Tom Nixon

 

Another thing to consider is the competition. The Union has never been more than a little experiment; a blip on the higher educational radar screen. But other schools have grown tremendously--or have advertised and promoted aggressively. The Union has not, for the most part. It remains remarkably similar to what it was 30 years ago: small, quirky, and with no sense of its true potential.

 

UIU

When you say, "The other schools have grown tremendously," which ones are you referring to?

Are these schools considered to be accredited RA institutions or are you comparing UIU to any non-traditional school?

 

Re: UIU

Walden, Phoenix, Capella, and Argosy are all larger. I suspect Touro U. International and Northcentral will be someday. Nova Southeastern is larger (may have always been, though). Fielding is the same approximate size as Union, but has remained so without the financial and academic scuffles (under an accreditor--WASC--not too friendly to distance learning). I'm not sure about CIIS and Saybrook, but they're likely small as well.

When I first applied to Union, there were 5 basic alternatives: Union, Walden, International Graduate School, Fielding, and Nova Southeastern. (Sarasota, now Argosy, wasn't accredited yet. Phoenix didn't yet offer the doctorate. Capella, Northcentral, and Touro U. International didn't yet exist.) Walden is larger, IGS is gone, Fielding is about the same, Nova remains larger. But the ones that came later (Argosy, Capella, and Phoenix) are far larger.

No, I wasn't considering unaccredited schools. They operate in a different market entirely.

 

Re: Re: UIU

I just looked at the WASC website and here's the full-time-equivalent enrollment figures for several rather non-traditional specialized schools with DL programs:

Fielding 1,187. I was surprised that it was this large. They have APA accreditation, I believe, very unusual for a DL program.

California Institute of Integral Studies 670. This one mostly offers classroom courses. Its "campus" is a couple of floors in a modest office building. Its small but interesting library includes Alan Watts' personal book collection. They were on warning status from WASC a few years ago, but seem to have recovered. It only has a couple of DL programs. They also seem to be jointly offering (CA-approved) Intercultural Institute of California's DL masters in Korean Studies.

Pacifica Graduate Institute 568. They offer short residency degrees. Apparently they use their attractive Carpenteria campus for seminar-like gatherings. The facilities also house their library, which includes Joseph Campbell's personal book collection.

Saybrook 409. This one seems to be entirely DL (which does include a few short gatherings), which surprises me considering WASC's skepticism about schools that don't offer conventional on-site programs as well. I think that it once offered classroom courses, and may have kept its accreditation when it phased them out. It operates out of an office building.

Institute of Transpersonal Psychology 316. Mostly on-campus in Palo Alto, but it now offers a Ph.D. and two masters programs by DL.

Since these schools probably attract mostly part-time students, the actual number of students each semester is probably considerably higher than the FTE numbers.