Century University and New Mexico law

I had this bit of New Mexico law passed on to me and was curious about responses to it. Perhaps Neil Hynd might post about his experiences with Century and experiential credit.

"Experiential credits cannot be awarded at the Ph.D. level in accordance with New Mexico Law: 5 NMAC Sec. 100.2.27.5.8, a New Mexico Commission on Higher Education regulation."

This would seem to mean to me that it must be new learning at the Ph.D. level to be legal in New Mexico.


Tom Nixon

 

Personally, I'm against life experience credit at any level. I like the Old USNY/Regents approach: if you know it, show it. A student shouldn't get credit for experience, but for demonstrating relevant, college-level knowledge. That knowledge may have come from those experiences, but it should be demonstrated nonetheless.

Regents, unlike TESC, didn't award life experience credit. However, they would take life experience credit awarded by another school. Now Excelsior says they won't award life experience "directly," but will award credits through a "Portfolio Assessment" done at a few participating schools. Go figure.

Rich Douglas

 

BRAVO!!! Life experience credit should be non-existent at the Ph.D.level. Many solid institutions do award such credit at the undergrad level, but I agree with Rich, this should not be some type of free credit given for experience which has no relation to the degree program, e.g., taking vacation in Rome, building a sand castle, or just being alive for 10 years.

One tactic of religious degree mills is to award life experience credit based upon one's years in ministry, all the way through the Ph.D. level. One school, e.g., awards 6 credit hours for every year in ministry, up to 10 years or a total of 60 hours, which is basically an associate's degree.

Hypothetically, one could have two years of college credit awarded, and not be able to spell one's name. For this reason there are those who use the title "Dr.," (which they have *earned* from some mill) and yet have difficulty in structuring a paragraph or forming a grammatically correct sentence.

I went to the driving range last week for the second time in my life, and hit a $10.00 bucket of balls until they were gone. I wonder if Potchefstroom University would give me 3 hours of credit toward my Ph.D. for this new experience?

Russell

 

Probably not, but all is not lost. Write the experience up in, say, three or four thousand words and Trinity C&U will award you a Ph.D. in Physics for it.



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Bill Gossett

 

Tom,

My Ph.D work at Century has involved all new learning. I beleive that is their policy. I am sure Neil can elabotate on this through his experience. My work has been through correspondence and phone with a staff advisor. It has involved subject area research papers, the dissertation proposal, and the dissertation.

Colleen

 

I seriously considered this option Bill, but was somewhat hesitant. I didn't know if Trinity C&U would be in Louisiana long enough to evaluate the dissertation.

Remember the old song by Paul McCartney: *Band on the Run?* This seems to fit very well with TCU, at least at this time.

Russell

 

Hi Colleen,

This is unclear from their catologue. They have phrases like, "Frequently a person may have many appropriate achievements, may currently be acting as a consultant to the trade, and may be active in the leadership of business or service organizations, yet may not have had the opportunity to gain academic recognition of their successes at the doctoral level." Also, the catalogue says, "Applicants who have already met all doctoral coursework requirements upon enrollment may only be required to complete a dissertation." Finally, they do allow an exorbitant amount of transer credit, apparently up to 48 units. They also accept as part of those 48 units "seminars/workshops/short courses."

While your experience has been different, it's unclear whether CU is complying with the law. My guess would be that NMCHE would consider attending a workshop as experiential.

Out of curiosity, why did you choose Century?


Tom Nixon

 

Hi Tom,

To answer your question, I have a BA and an MS from the College of NJ in political Science and Management. I have been in the health care management field for eight years and was interested in getting another degree in health care management. I thought that a PhD would make sense. I am not interested in teaching other than possibly at the adjunt level and might do some consulting later on.

I have two young children an needed a school that did not have a residency requirement. I found the unaccredited schools to be more affordable and did not require a residency requirement. Century had the health care management Ph.D. The advisor I was to work with had an excellent background (am MD and PhD from RA schools). Unfortunately, she has since left. Others schools did not have the health care specialty. I was aware of the nonaccredited stigma and read about the state approved schools in Rita Laws FAQ. The decision was between Century and California Coast. I believe either California Coast did not have a PhD in healthcare management (only a DBA), or did not require a dissertation-just an examination. I wanted to do the dissertation. Frankly, I can't remember the reason. I have been happy thus far and am now in the dissertation proposal phase.

Colleen