A St Clements University Doctoral thesis

Found this online at http://www.anaksarawak.com/index.html

Any thoughts on its equivalency to an RA doctoral thesis?

Cheers,

George

 

It might make an adequate undergraduate term paper, but it wouldn't get an A because it doesn't demonstrate research skills or critical thinking.

I'm not sure why the degree is called a "Doctor of Management in English: English as a Foreign/Second Language".

 

length of document

A PhD thesis for an RA school is a substantial document presenting original, novel work. Let's take a look at the length of this "thesis" as given by my browser's print-preview utility, removing the large banner that comes at the start of each chapter. (That would appear once, on a title page.)

chapter:approximate page length
1:2 pages
2:3 pages
3:1 page
4:2.5 pages
5:2 pages
6:2 pages
7:2 pages
8:1 page
9:1 page
total: 16.5 pages.

Perhaps a diferent choice of fonts and margins might increase this to 25 pages.

That is not of sufficient length to stand as a PhD thesis in an RA program.

G

 

Re: length of document

So this is how one writes a 300-400 page thesis/dissertation! Increase the font size................................

 

I guess it depends on what contribution the thesis makes to the full degree under review.

The title is:

A thesis submitted to the faculty of St Clements University in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Management in English: English as a Foreign/Second Language

This suggests to me that this work is the only requirement to fulfill the full requirements for the doctorate degree. I was under the impression that these doctorates had some form of coursework as well, but this is not mentioned. I know for my MEd Management degree, I did half by coursework, half by thesis, and my thesis title stated 'in partial fulfilment'.

So, a 16-25 page thesis to fulfil the requirements of a full doctoral degree. Mmmm.

Cheers,

George

 

I think you would have found, George, that a 16-25 page paper would represent one assignment worth about 30% for one subject in a Master's degree.

 

Why would a thesis entitled IT Management in the Healthcare Industry qualify one for a doctorate in English (or even English as a Foreign/Second Language)? Is it because it was written in English? Is the second language a programming language, perhaps?

 

" Oranges and lemons,
The bells of St Clements"

 

This paper would not have sufficed for any of my Capella courses, much less as a dissertation. This thing is so far from a dissertation that I won't even bring that into the equation.

All my research papers had to have an underlying assumption/position to be supported or contrasted by the context and citations provided in the body of the work. This paper is a topical outline of technology issues in the health care field. There is no position, assumption, research question, or hypothesis offered against which one could determine the value of the conclusions drawn.

This is a very good undergrad paper. It requires rewrite to suffice for a Master's paper. It doesn't remotely approach any research protocol expected on a doctoral level. There is no literature review provided and no research methodology explained. One cannot even discern what it is that is being researched. What is the problem/hypothesis/assumption/research question, etc?

Shame on his "professors" for accepting this or implying it is anything near doctoral research.

 

it's interdisciplinary!

As I recall, Charm Production by Muons and Its Role In Scale-Noninvariance was found to be a perfectly acceptable PhD thesis in aerospace engineering by another degree-offering entity. So maybe there's a certain amount of porosity of boundaries between disciplines!

G

 

The Reference section is interesting. The author lists 25 references, only about 12 of which I would even consider real citations (the others are just web-portals with no data or information cited). I think that my dissertation had over 160 references… and that’s probably not an extraordinary number. Didn’t notice any real thesis statement, lit-review section to speak of, statement of research value, methodology section, data presentation, acknowledgement of study limitations, nor policy suggestions/suggestions for future research. These are all elements that one would expect of an academic dissertation. Definitely, term-paperish.

The closest thing that I could see to a thesis statement was in the abstract (odd place to put it…. although admittedly I didn’t waste much time looking).

“How safe is our hospital? How efficient [sic] will be the services being rendered?”

If this is the crux of the “research question” there doesn’t appear to be any supporting research, data, or analyses to answer these questions.

Has anyone else come across other student papers from this school? Just wondering if this is a typical product or an outlier.

Cheers,
Tony Maranto

 

Perhaps, in all fairness, we should be making comparsions with an Earlscroft University Doctoral dissertation.

Cheers,

George

 

I loved this line in his conclusion. He is truly gifted in his ability to self-critique:

...Little can actually be said of the martial arts that has not already been included in earlier publications written by much more knowledgeable and experienced martial artists....

What I also found quite unique is that he includes 25 references in his reference page but somehow does not use a single one of them anywhere in his body of research. There are no citations anywhere. Now, I am not sure how you can have a reference to non-existent citations, but this fellow has found a way.

This one has to go down as the standard bearer for degree mill dissertation. When the whiners exclaim they had to do real work, this is exactly what they are talking about.

 

Thanks, George... it's always good to start the morning with a laugh.

"Doctor of Science in Martial Arts Theory"... a D.Sc. of kick butt... oh my... there's one I don't think I've seen in the Harvard catalog. Probably makes the dissertation defense fairly straightforward. If I were on the committee of someone who could break a cinderblock with his or her bare hands, I'd probably be likely to approve a dissertation handed in on a cocktail napkin.

Cheers,
Tony Maranto

 

I need some help, guys.

The largest font size I can pull up via Word 2003 is "96." If I could only find a font size "525," my ten page dissertation could be expanded to a minimum of 360 pages.

Any suggestions?

 

use PhotoShop

Yeah, here's one. You're looking to get a factor of 36 decrease in words per page, so increase your margins to drop the usable area of the page from 6"x 9" to 1"x 1.5." Then move things around so that the left and top margins are OK, set the printer to enlarge it 600%, and earn the admiration and respect of all!

G

 

actually, just highlight the font sze area and type it in!!!!!!!!


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