Australian univ.acceptance from US unaccredited Universities

My friend has A Bachelor degree from American Institute of Management Studies with high G.P.A 3.7 (its diploma mill insitutiton and unaccedited degree located in Jakarta,Indonesia).
What confusing me is when he applied to several Australian universities,he was accepted.Now he is doing Master degree at University of Canberra.
Several universities he applied include Macquarie and prestigious ANU which both he was accepted as well.
How could it happens? How come accredited OZ univ..even included the prestigious one willing to accept the degree from this diploma mill insitution?how the standard is measured down there?

One more case but this one is better.
My other friend graduated from one of ACICS members university and he is accepted for her Master degree in Prestigious University of Western Australia in which she is doing it right now.Other universities she applied and was accepted as well was Adelaide university.

FRom that,is it the Australian has lowered its standard by accepting all Bachelor degree holders and not regionally accredited US univ.or they will accept it as long as the Univ. come from US?

One more thing.I heard (but i'm still not sure on this one) one of Greenwich University,Norfock Island (australia) graduate has also accepted in very prestigious London Business School?
I wonder how?since the status of the greenwich as long as I know is still controversy?

thanks for your opinion guys

Susan

 

It may sound ghastly to US students entry to masters program in Britain and Australia do not require a bachelor degree.

For Aussies Unis, there are basically 2 types of Masters. By coursework and by research.

The coursework masters usually serve as a conversion program for graduates even non-graduates (with working experience) to enter a particular field and the number of modules/courses a student need to complete the course ranges from 12-16 modules/subjects.

For non-graduates they are required to sit for a bundle of basic courses like Econs 101/Marking 101/ Accounting 101- and the Unis label them graduate certificate and the like which could be transfered into the master program upon completion and be counted towards the 12 or 16 subjects.

For the coursework/"conversion" masters no prior knowledge of the subject is required and modules ranges from basic to advance

An accrediated bachelor degree in business administration may entitle a student to exempt such prequisite subject like Econs 101 and Accounts 101 (thankfully for my case). Some fellow students holding non-Commonwealth qualifications are required to sit for the entire 12 modules.

For the coursework masters ( especially those leading to professional recognition like accounting) requires an end of term examination for each subject is required at a learning centre or at the Uni ( there are few exceptions). So one may consider Aussies coursework masters like the Heriot Watt MBA where no bachelor degree is required.

The acceptance of a candidate into a research master is far more more rigourous. A candidate need to graduate with the British/ Australian/ equivalent of 1st Class honours or 2nd Class Uppers OR completion of the coursework masters to qualify for admittance. For their research doctorate (Phd) same thing - first class or upper seconds or completion of the research master ( or master with a heavy- more than 50% research component).

Of course if the Aussies impose such stringent criteria they would miss out on a very lucrative doctorate market thus the Aussies introduce DBA, Doctorate of Whatever where one could be admitted with a coursework master.

Billy

 

I've just spent the last few weeks surveying about 400 DL coursework master's programs available at Australian Universities.

While it is true that a number of coursework master's are conversion programs, they do not seem to constitute a majority. Very many Australian masters-by-coursework do in fact require a degree in the nominated subject, or a combination of experience and related course work, in addition to an "out of field" degree or the equivalent of such a degree. This is a separate issue from admission to a program (Oz=course) without an undergraduate degree - here we are discussing required previous academic or practical experience in the nominated discipline, aside from normal generic entrance requirements (an undergraduate degree or its equivalent). In summary, an Australian coursework master's program is not necessarily and not "usually" a conversion program, and need not necessarily accept applicants with undergraduate degrees (or the equivalent thereof) "out of field", without other mitigating course work and/or applied experience.

Note that here I'm excluding the usual suspects where one could likely gain entry with any degree, in Australia of in the States (for example, many subjects in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and some Business degrees). Rather, the "conversion" is to disciplines such as Information Technology, Computing, Accountancy, etc. Even in the conversion programs, there is often some minimum requirement of prerequisite course work.

On the subject of thesis -
Many Australian coursework master's degrees require the equivalent volume of research work in terms of thesis as found in a typical U.S master's degree. It is also true, however, that other Australian coursework master's do not (but these types of master's programs can also be found in the U.S.). My sense is that, on average, Australian coursework master's degree requirements for thesis or project work (depending on field), cover a range and proportion of total required program credit, similar to that found in U.S masters degrees.

It is also true that "conversion" master's programs are offered in the U.S., though that term is not used to describe them, they simply accept applicants with out-of-field undergraduate degrees, requiring few, if any, prerequisites (City U (Renton WA) MS in Computer Systems comes to mind).

All in all, there are many similarities in master's program structure between Australian coursework master's and the typical U.S. master's program. The real differences are between Australian research master's and U.S. masters.

On a another point . . .
I'm still looking at issues of level of acceptance of U.S. DL bachelor's degree acceptance by Australian institutions, too. This little project has taken on a life of its own. I wanted to gather some data that gauge "academic utility" as it relates to a US DL bachelor's earned by examination: "Does it get you in where you want to go?" This quest has taken me (metaphorically) to institutions spanning four continents (if you include Oz as a continent rather than an overgrown island), and led me to apply to programs in disparate disciplines representing the Arts, Sciences, and the Professions.

I *AM* truly interested in doing more than one program in different fields, so the applications are genuine (forking out the application fee required by some institutions should demonstrate that).

All of my applications are for admission to DL programs, so the results will be rather skewed in that respect. However, another among us, also a credit-by-examination graduate, is applying to various traditional seat-of-the-pants master's programs in a foreign land . . . it will be interesting to see how he fares.

In the mean time, given the results of my survey, I duly declare the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), the least expensive (significantly so, on average) Australian institution offering DL programs. It is also by a large margin the most customer friendly, quickest-to-respond, university in Australia, with the best, most intuitive web presence. Note also that they accepted a U.S. regionally accredited degree with a GPA >3.0 as being equivalent to an Australian honors degree for the purposes of advanced entry into a coursework master's degree. This might mean they would accept the same degree as sufficient for entry into a research master's degree (maybe). I'm still waiting to see if they will blink at the transcript detailing 150 semester hours credit by examination, with course names like "CLEP Accounting", DANTES "Drug and Alcohol Abuse", "GRE Psychology", etc. The results of applications I've made to other more traditional institutions with only one or two DL programs will be interesting. My Regents transcript is nearly 100% credit by examination, and there's no mistaking it for anything else.

 

Actually my contention was as Aussie Unis do not require a bachelor degree to enter a masters program a less than wonderful first degree is no hinderance to admission and no due to lack of standard in any part.

This is especially true for business and management programs, according to the Australian good university good - Business and management courses "entry requirements are rarely demanding and the 'or equivalent' clause is often invoked.

Of course graduating from such a program is another matter.

If one wishes to consider business and management program throw in education & training, communications, IT, accountancy, over 80,000 out of 150,000 post-grad students in Australia are doing such coursework courses and the Unis supply plentiful of such courses.

Incidentally the lack of prerequisite academic knowldege should not deter anybody from applying to a Aussie masters program. The route of obtaining a grad cert, grad dip and then masters is always avaliable for a lot of programs (exceptions being the usual like engineering, medicine, law etc.)

USQ is indeed a good choice, in the latest good guides they receive *** out of the max.*****. I think among the highest for Unis specialising in DE and they won the Uni of the year award.

However while Aussie Unis run DE programs,I have yet to find one that is truly 100% DL ( with the exception of Charles Sturt-MBA). Most of them have some residency requirement and end of semester examinations at learning centres. I have yet to find the Australian equivalent of Capella, TUI and Northcentral where you could complete 100% online. (Newcastle came up with some online programmes but I didn't go into the nuts and bolts.)

Thus my attempt to take up a research master in Economics a few years back (good excuse not to go full time) With a traditional bachelor degree and a master in Accountancy I was still rejected and was advised to complete the coursework master first. Reason - lack of research component in my 2 degrees. If you could manage to get into one love to hear about it.

Billy

 

Yes, inherited from the British, this articulating structure provides a useful and legitimate way for those with less than a first degree, the opportunity to earn a master's.

 

That was not my finding. Most do not have any residency requirement. Most of the 400 I mentioned have no need of trips to any campus or learning center - a point I went to great lengths to check. Many do have a proctored exam requirement, of course, but testing can be arranged locally in the student's home country. In the case of practical professional programs (M. Eng. for example), the student may nominate a local mentor/supervisor. It is true that some programs do have a residency component, but these I did not consider true distance learning programs, and removed them from consideration. Where I refer to DL programs in the previous post, I mean 100% distance learning programs.

In many cases, there appear to be no proctored exams in the program. There are assignments and case studies, individual and collaborative, and there are CMA tests (Computer Mediated Assessment).

As an example, you might want to peruse USQ's "USQOnline" at http://www.usqonline.com.au/

Look closely at individual course units within programs, and the specific assessment methods employed. Check also the various universities handbooks. These provide a wealth of information - fascinating - I couldn't put them down

Again, the survey I did indicates the great majority of external and/or online coursework master's programs offered by Australian Universities, require no residency of any kind whatsoever.

 

Indeed. Now the lack of an undergraduate thesis/dissertation (depending on from whence you hail) should be a bar to entry, but, if they are saying that my US bachelor degrees are equivalent to a 1st or 2nd upper Australian honors degree for the purposes of advanced entry (i.e., I get to cut some courses) into a coursework master's degree, then perhaps it will be judged equivalent for other purposes too.

Maybe I'll chance my luck with an application to a research masters in some relevant discipline. Would have to do the proposal etc first though; a lot of work if I'm not really serious. If I can find one that looks as if it might fly, I will have a go.

Now, for the sake of argument, let us assume the proposal is accepted and I'm offered a place. The next logical step would be to try for direct entry into a suitable Ph.D. program since this also requires a 1st or a 2:1 (2nd upper). On the face of it, if one's accepted into any research program on the basis of such a US bachelor's degree, there's no reason why that research program should not be a doctoral program , since the entry requirements are the same (confining ourselves to consideration of a 1st or 2nd upper honors bachelor's for the purposes of entry qualifications).