UNISA's artsy degrees way too slow!

Why have I halted in my tracks registering at UNISA? Or why will I at the very least totally change my major to Languages and Literature?

Ok, I'm angry. I admit it. After deciding on what seemed to be the perfect degree for my interests, but not my job - BA (Arts and Culture or BA (Religion, World Ethics, and Life Orientations) I have tossed both possibilities in the garbage.

While both degrees offer a generous allowance for religion, art history and music history courses, all these departments.... hold your breath... do not offer normal semester courses. They take twice as long, a year.

Did you get that? What should take a semester they stretch out to a year. The catalogue reads that it's the same amount of material as would be offered in a semester course. If one took any of the year courses previously as semester courses one can't take it again as a year course. So obviously once upon a time it could be done.

I want to get my degree over with not to take it with me to my grave!

These are not practicum courses as in a Bachelor of Visual Arts. So why should religion, art and music take twice as long as say history or linguistics? In my case, as much as I like them, humanities and social sciences take me, at least twice as much effort as 'softer' arts.

And what really gets me boiling is this... Islamic and Christian Studies don't require hand-holding for a year. They are semester courses. So why should Hindu and Buddhist Studies drag on for a year? Introduction to Russian (not an easy language as languages go, and in a foreign script) is a semester course. 'Art Transcendent' (sacred art) is a year. Huh?

I am contacting a Professor in a relevant depatment to see what he has to say about this bizarre situation.

Is this 'take-it-slow' approach to arts and religion characteristic of other universities, brick and mortar or distance learning? It certainly wasn't when I went to university in the seventies.

I can only speculate while I growl. Is it some internal or logistical issue about salaries or books or politics? Do South African students whiz along with the Koran and the Bible but have learning challenges with the Bhagavad-Gita and the Triptaka (sp?)?

It's bewildering, it's annoying and it's totally changed my academic planning.

 

Thats how most schools based on the British system work they offer some half year courses but most are full year courses.

 

Unisa has been gradually moving to semester-long modules.

When I started my undergraduate degree at Cape Town in mid-seventies, almost all courses took a full year with no midterms, and no points for assignments during the year. The entire grade for each course depended on the end-of-year exams (up to four 3- or 4-hour exams per course held over a period of 3 or 4 weeks). While I was there some departments were already switching to what was described as the "American system" of semester-long courses with midterms and (horrors!) part of the grade from assignments during the semester. This was a controversial change because many considered this to be a namby-pamby approach that was inappropriate at the university level.

 

My father also did his Bachelor's at the University of Cape Town. He tells me that "professor" there meant "head of department", so each department had exactly one professor (and many lecturers).

 

I think the department I was in (the largest department of chemical engineering in Africa) had two Professors. The title of Professor was an extraordinary honor. I would say that the title of Lecturer was roughly equivalent to an Assistant Professor in U.S., the title of Senior Lecturer was roughly equivalent to Associate Professor in U.S. And a Professor in South Africa would be the head of department or someone who might hold an endowed Chair in the U.S. This is why I become uncomfortable when my students here refer to me as "Professor." It seems as ludicrous as calling me Archbishop.

I think the South African universities have loosened up on the use of the Professor title over the years -- otherwise a senior faculty member with the title of Senior Lecturer could be mistaken for a part-time employee by his/her American peers.

 

Hermes,

I think the year semester modules count as regular semester modules when calculating how many modules you registered for in the year (max. 12). So, I suppose you could register for up to 12 year modules and take the exams at the end of the year.

The degree shouldn't take longer in that case.

 

Not everyone in the world is an American. Some other countries use different schedules for academic coursework. As pointed out earlier in this thread, year-long units are not uncommon in schools based on the British system. The degree doesn't have to take any longer than degrees based on the semester system- you're just taking more courses at a given moment in time. The South African BA degrees take 3 years full-time (or 4 years, for the honours degree).

My current school, the University of London, uses year-long modules. I'm studying for a MS in epidemiology. I actually like the year-long modules very much- it gives you more flexibility in scheduling your studies around other things like work. You can study more when work is slow and less when work is busy.

I wouldn't exclude UNISA based on the year-long modules. Check it out, and I bet it won't take you any longer than other respectable schools.

Alex

 

Does not compute!

Alex wrote: "The degree doesn't have to take any longer than degrees based on the semester system- you're just taking more courses at a given moment in time."

I don't undertsand what you are saying. Or rather it seems illogical to me. If the credits are the same for a year long course as a semester course it takes twice as long. *Unless* you do as you suggest and take twice as many courses which is an unecccessary burden. This 'take twice as many courses' strategy has not been suggested to me by the admissions department (mind you very little has except 'pay us' and 'send in your documents').

Also taking too many courses at once clutters the mind. I actually prefer the system followed at a few US colleges (and I would say classical education as well) where ONE subject is studied full time for a month or so. But that doesn't translate so well into distance education.

Taking say ten courses instead of five at a time means more books to travel with and more areas to mentally jump to and fro with.

Add to this the fact that as a mature student entering my first semester I am restricted to two courses.

If the Religious Studies Professor I contacted replies with an explanation I will repeat it here.

Again, Islamic Studies and Christian Studies, Latin, and many other departments offer semester courses. Religious Studies department on the other hand has gone from semeter to the year system (contrary to the suggestion that the trend is the opposite direction).

 

Quick response

One of the Professors who teaches in the departments with the year long (argh!) courses replied within 24 hours, actually less. I a being vague because have a feeling that it might be rude to give too much information in personal communications.

He wrote... "You will be writing your end-of-year examination (the only one for the year) on 8 November 2004 at 9:00. Enjoy your studies!"

This is very useful information for this would allow me to plan my trip from Vietnam to Bangkok or Singapore well in advance.

Again, admissions is very slow in replying by comparison. This strikes me as a waste of the Professors’ time. Isn’t it admission’s staff job to answer such enquiries in detail and promptly? Maybe they are overwhelmed at this time of year. I don’t know the reason. But the lesson is contact the faculty not staff at UNISA.

Is this your experience at other distance education institutions?

 

Re: Does not compute!

Hermes,

You don't take twice as many courses for the degree, but you could take more courses simultaneously with the year modules than with the semester modules and still finish the degree in the same amount of time. The amount of work done in a year would be the same under the two methods. In a hypothetical example, you might take either 5 semester-long modules per semester for a total of 10 in a year, or you could take 10 year-long modules in a study year. From experience with both the semester-long and year-long systems, I can attest that both can work well from a student point of view.

Let me give you a specific example, comparing a Unisa B.Sc. degree in mathematical and statistical science with a Texas A&M BS degree in applied mathematics. The Unisa degree requires a minimum of 3 years and the Texas A&M degree requires 4 years of full-time study (two semesters per year). All modules in the Unisa degree are year-long.

At Unisa you take 8-14 courses for year, for a total of 30 courses. All these courses would generally be math or science courses. At Texas A&M you usually take 5 courses per semester, for a total of about 40 courses. Some of these 40 courses are in non-math or science related subjects, such as required core courses in history. The total math-science content of the two degrees is very similar. The details of the two degrees are listed below, for comparison.

My point is that a degree doesn't necessarily have to take longer with year-long modules than with semester modules; it depends on how you schedule the courses. As you indicate, it could take longer if you have some special restriction on the number of courses you can take the first year, due to mature student status or some other reason. Perhaps you could get permission to take the standard number of courses if you can demostrate success in previous university-level work. If you don't feel that year-long modules would work for you, there are vast numbers of schools that offer semester-long courses. The choice is yours; you can decide whether the scheduling format you think you won't like is outweighed by your interest in the modules that make up the degree.

Good luck,

Alex


Unisa
http://www.unisa.ac.za/Default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=13083

curriculum: BSc mathematical and statistical science - mathematics stream
Minimum duration of study
Three years

Composition of curriculum
14 modules on 1st level
8 modules on 2nd level
8 modules on 3rd level

First Level
Precalculus Mathematics A (MAT110-M) (if necessary)
Precalculus Mathematics B (MAT111-N)
Calculus A (MAT112-P)
Calculus B (MAT113-Q)
Linear algebra (MAT103-N)
Comprehension Skills for Science (CSS101-H)
End-User Computing (CEM101-A)
plus seven or eight other suitable first-year modules, in one or more of the following subjects:
Applied Mathematics
Astronomy
Computer Science
Operations Research
Physics
Statistics

Second Level
Linear algebra (MAT211-R)
Real analysis (MAT213-T )
and at least two of the following modules:
Introduction to discrete mathematics (MAT212-S)
Calculus in higher dimensions (MAT215-V)
Differential equations (MAT216-W)
Applied dynamical systems (MAT217-X)
Differential geometry of curves and surfaces (MAT219-3)
plus one to four suitable second-year modules to make up the required number of 8 modules in this level, with one or more of the following subjects being strongly recommended:
Applied Mathematics
Astronomy
Computer Science
Operations Research
Physics
Statistics

Third Level
At least four of the following modules:
Linear algebra (MAT301-S)
Algebra (MAT302-T)
Complex analysis (MAT305-W) (if MAT215 is selected in second level)
Ordinary differential equations (MAT306-X) (if MAT216 is selected in second level)
Discrete mathematics: Combinatorics (MAT307-V) (if MAT212 is selected in second level)
Metric spaces and the Lebesgue integral (MAT311-U) (if MAT215 is selected in second level)
Partial differential equations (APM301-W)(if MAT217 was selected in second level to make up the required number of 8 modules on this level)
plus two to four other suitable third-level modules to make up the required number of 8 modules on this level with one or more of the following subjects being strongly recommended:
Applied Mathematics
Astronomy
Computer Science
Operations Research
Physics
Statistics


Texas A&M
http://www.math.tamu.edu/teaching/undergrad/Catalogs/126/apms_math_by_semester126.html

Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics
(click on the link to see the semester-by-semester degree plan, showing 5 courses in most of the 8 semesters, for a total of about 40 courses)

 

both kinds of courses require 30 courses

When UNSIA answers some of my basic and urgent questions I will ask the staff about the semester versus year issue. The Religious Studies Professor I contacted did not reply. But it could have been one of those emails that was bouned back.

I checked the catalogue and both degrees in departments that have semester courses and those that have year courses list 30 courses for a degree (10 first level; 10 second; 10 third). How I do math adds up to a year courses degrees therefore taking twice as long - unless the catalogue is wrong.

 

I find no instruction in the catalogue to take twice as many if taking year courses

message in subject

 

It takes the same amount of time because you register for all ten year long courses at the same time rather than five in each semester.