When comparing the costs of various doctorate programs, the costs of the taught course are easy t calculate, but for the scary bit - the dissertation - where only an annual fee is quoted, how should one estimate the cost? So, for example, one program says their research component is approx 40,000 words and is GBP4k/year, and another is 50-70,000 words and costs GBP3k/year. What would a good rule of thumb completion rate be?
Word count is meaningless in respect to time. Just because one requires a 25% increase in "minimum" word count does not mean it will take 25% longer. It could take less depending on your advisor. Check to see if they have a minium time factor. Often the school will say that must be enrolled for at least x years, this is what counts. Also see if you can find what the average time length for completeing the program is (many US schools publish this). Remeber each dissertation is unique (or supposed to be). Two students can enroll at the same time and have the same advisor and work on similar topics, yet one could take twice as long as the other. Unlike other degrees, the docotral degree is difficult to pin down.
Also, not all dissertations are created equal (in terms of cost). If a psychology grad student has to recruit a pool of subjects, this might take a considerable amount of time, effort and money, etc. Some other dissertation might not require this sort of research activity. A person might spend most of their time analyzing some esoteric texts in a library and only have to buy the occasional pad of paper (or box if diskettes) It's probably not possible to give a really accurate answer without knowing more about the topic. Jack
There are other costs to consider I can tell already I expend money on the following: a. Filing cabinet (4 drawer) b. Lots of paper for downloads c. Travel to research sites d. Postage to mail surveys etc. to many, many subjects e. Publication costs which can be several hundred dollars f. Travel to university site That could easily amount to $1000 right there w/o the travel included. There will be more I am sure. On that note, any input on where people had their dissertations bound? The SA universities appear to want them hardback bound and that can be about $300-$400 at the sites I found. Thanks, Chris
Range of Costs Thanks On an annual basis PhD/DBA costs seem to range from South Africa - $1k (R5k-R7k) Australia - $8k (A$15) UK - $10k USA > Is that about right? I know the ZA technikons are cheaper. Is there anything in the huge price gap between South Africa and the rest?
Costs Your range is ok, from what I know, except that the UK costs can be quite a bit more than your number. 1st year Manchester DBA is 3 times that. Depending on where you're based, the residency costs (if any) can be as expensive as the tuition.
Re: Costs When I was doing my initial research into doctoral programs it seemed as if the British and Australian schools were unwilling to state categorically that you would NOT be asked to come to campus (for meetings, seminars, etc) They simply would not allow themselves to be pinned down. I know that this has not been everyone's experience but neither is it an unusual experience. Figuring in the round trip airfare, accomodations, etc. put the price of these programs over the price of many US programs. Obviously airfares fluctuate as do exchange rates. I haven't checked the numbers recently but I remember thinking that it seemed silly to actually pay more for a foreign degree than I would for a US degree.
Gap The gap between South African schools and the rest seems a bit large. Is there nothing in between? I guess it would have to be an ex-colony with a soft currency (!) HK? Singapore? India? Trouble is, if I can't think of any, think of the difficulty of explaining the degree to anyone...
Re: Gap There are schools in Hong Kong, etc. but they either don't accept non-citizens or the language(s) of instruction don't include English. Jack
The cost that no body ever seems to notice is the "opportunity cost", the income you lose because you are in school not working those extra hours. I know from experience that D/L reduces those costs, but any doctorate will surely be a nearly full time job at SOME point, right?
Costs Obviously those programs with a residency requirement would have a higher opportunity cost, and the longer the program the higher the associated opportunity cost. Of course, the more onerous the residency the less DL the program is. My view is that more than one residency in the program makes it PT, not DL! Does anyone have an idea of what is the cheapest UK doctoral program (with no residency)?
Re: Costs I was interested in a DL Leicester PhD but it was too expensive: $37,207 (for overseas students) payable in equal installments over the 6 year program.
Re: Costs The aspect of this question that makes it difficult to answer is that it's almost impossible to get any British doctoral programs to tell you up front that you'll never be required to come to campus. You see, these are not really "DL programs," they're "research doctoral programs." Once upon a time someone figured out that you didn't need to be in residence all the time and then they stretched it and stretched it to see "Just how far away can I be?" and "What is the absolute minimum number of times I have to come to campus?" Legend has it that someone got that second number down to zero (although I've never spoken to anyone who did it) There are some ways to approach the issue that might be more successful than others but I wouldn't advise you to go into the application process with the assumption that Zero-residency was the norm at any of these schools. It's not. It's the rare exception. Jack
Re: Costs The Colorado State program in Industrial Engineering has four of the nine (+) courses requiring a 3 day (over a weekend) on campus component with the remainder of the course done on-line. While this is more than one residency it amounts to 12 days over two plus years. I would still class this course as DL as 98+% of it is done away from campus.
Re: Re: Costs I would agree with you in saying that this program at Colorado State is primarily a DL program. It serves as a good example of the fact that "DL" and "non-residential" are not precisely synonymous. This can make a BIG difference to people who are estimating costs, and is essentially, the reason I wound up in a ZA program. Jack
