U of PHX DBA or Henley DBA

Hello,
new to this discussion.
I'm trying to decide between University of Phoenix and Henley Management school, DBA programs.
I'm interested in entering Academia upon completion.
Anyone who can share experience with either of these programs would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks !

-C

 

It's hard to even compare, UoP is a for-profit that will make it very difficult to enter traditional academia, Henley is a powerhouse program whose business school is arguably one of the top 20 in the world--I can't imagine there's a comparison worth discussion.

As this is your first post, I'm compelled to ask: is this for real?

 

MRW142 is right.. There should be no comparison between the two as Henley is a well known and very reputable school. Unless of course there is a decision of convenience and costs. But I imagine that UoP's tuition costs are not much less than Henley's.

 

With a DBA from UoP, there is not much you can do except to teach for low tier universities and may be some online teaching. Very few academics in the US or abroad would take a DBA from UoP seriously. The DBA from Henley is top note and recognized all over the world, many professors are teaching at top note schools with DBAs from Henley so acceptability should not be an issue. You are comparing a Honda with a Rolls-Royce. DBA is also AACSB accredited so it should meet the requirements of some academic posts.

 

Since it is truely no comparison, can you state why you have downselected to those. If you list your factors, we can help. It is really what you would use the degree for, so if you are more specific, we can help.

(Also, the board has many experts, and they might not realize those new to the selection process just need to be a little patient).

To give you some detail why

UOP - Is RA, for profit, and has some reputation issues in the U.S.

Henley - Very competitive, AACSB (though the degree comes from a non-AACSB school, go figure U of Newcastle). Internationally very highly regarded.

You will have some stigma with the Henley degree, as it is not the traditional US model (on campus, etc.), but I think that UOP is the next tier down, and you will have much more stigma there (as well is it not AACSB).

Good luck, and hope this board will help!

 

Thank you all for your quick and insightful responses.
I have no experience with distance education, my MBA is from Graziado ( Pepperdine) and they do not offer any doctoral level business degree.
I found Henley through a simple search and thought the program looked interesting, however I do not know how this degree will fair in US Academia, which is the reason I am looking at terminal degree's.
I have come to the conclusion that a limited or no residence program is the only way I will be able to achieve this.

I would welcome any other options the members may have to achieve my goal of entering US Academia.

-C

 

The DBA from Henley seems to be accepted by academia in Asia and Europe. Just check the links below for faculty members holding Henley DBAs

http://www.ntu.edu.sg/eee/eee0/cv/adjunct/ethteo.htm
http://www.aubg.bg/faculty/info/?item_id=254
http://hkuspace.hku.hk/cidp/about/staff.html
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/faculties/business_and_law/business/af_staff_elaineharris.jsp?ComponentID=16794&SourcePageID=4015
http://www.bi.no/templates/artikkel2____22548.aspx
http://home.bre.polyu.edu.hk/~bsfan/
http://www.cps.edu.sg/our_faculty.htm
http://www.acpe.edu.sg/faculty/leaderpool.html


However, I couldn't find any US academic holding a Henley degree. It is not secret that some US schools have never heard of Henley or have bias against foreign schools.

 

Thanks for the research.
Since Henley is (apparently) not accepted in US Academia, it might not be the way for me to go.

-C

 

I would suggest to look into Argosy and Nova. There are plenty of faculty members in the US holding degrees from these places. Henley is a top school in Europe but the reality is that is not very well known in the US.

 

RF Valve makes some decent suggestions. Nova, while not the ideal choice, is certainly preferable to UoP. I know little about Argosy.

I would disabuse myself of the notion that a Euro doctorate cannot qualify one for a position in U.S. academia--there are many professors in the U.S. possessing Euro terminal degrees. The only difference between them and you--should you matriculate at a school like Henley--would be that the majority of them are Euro natives who attended their schools in a traditional on-campus format, while you would have a bit of explaining to do: "You're American, why did you attend an English school?" "It says here on your CV that you were working in America while you matriculated in Europe--how ever did you manage that?"--but those would be questions with which you could deal. If you attended a school like Henley or Aston (offers either PhD or DBA via distance) or Grenoble or Manchester, you would have some real ammunition with which to respond; you could pull out the world rankings for some of these schools, show them that Henley's business school is ranked 17th in the world-- above MIT--in The Economist world rankings, and show them that virtually any of the above schools show up strongly in the rankings; you could show them that the business programs at each of those schools are AACSB accredited--you could at least make a case. With regard to UoP, that would be very difficult at all but the lowest-tier schools.

Another possibility is a DM--there are two schools in the U.S. with reasonable reputations (one stellar) that offer Doctor of Management degrees with minimal residencies: University of Maryland-University College (pro: part of the U of M system; con: the weakest part) and Case-Western Reserve. Case is a very fine school--top 50 or so material--but the program requires about one weekend a month residency, is not cheap, requires roughly 1,000 years of managerial experience, and like UMUC, it offers only the D.M.--a "practitioner's" degree which will not be as highly regarded as a PhD or DBA--although I'll bet my house, my car and my favorite tie that it would still be regarded 10 notches above a UoP DBA.

You might look at a degree in a related area. Indiana State offers a PhD in Technology Management (one focus is industrial management, which would certainly involve significant overlap with a traditional management DBA) which requires minimal residencies, and Gonzaga offers a PhD in Leadership Studies that can be taken over three or four Summers (provided that's a possibility for you) and can be taken with a corporate management concentration.

A final possibility is just to take your Pepperdine MBA and start applying for academic positions at four year colleges and community colleges--Pepperdine's no slouch, you should be a decent candidate for a position somewhere. Perhaps you could find one near a large university that has a PhD or DBA program that can be taken part-time. There, now I've gone and added to the pool of applicants for Business Professorships I'll be seeking next year!

All the best to you!

 

Why would Henley not be accepted, it has the accreditation, so you would not be prevented from applying almost anywhere. It will come down to the schools who don't know Henley, and it will take the publishing and experience. That is how it is with any school.

I would not consider an RA (UoP, Nove, and most of the others suggested), as they will prevent you from applying at any AACSB schoo, which rules out a large number in the US.

The schools with the AACSB and DL are: Henley, Grenoble, Aston... I know I am forgetting one, but can't remember right now.

If you go the RA route, just remember, you will be one step behind in applying at the AACSB scools. If you are for industry, it truely does not matter (except for a few cases, like education reimbursement, but rare from what I have seen, though experienced otherwise).

I would rule Henley out for personal reasons, I did not have a good experience, but that is just me. Grenoble has been incredible.

I general rule (in my expereince):
#1 Professional Accreditation (AACSB for Business)
#2 RA (reginal accreditation)
Then State, National, etc.

If you have a Pepperdine degree, you will be consdered, based on grades, etc. , but is a very good school.

Good luck, and if you want Grenoble information, let me know (PM me) , I know applications are closing soon for this year.

 

Here is my experience, information on the schools named:

Case Western - requires a residency every 4 weeks, so not really DL, but a great shcool, with a great reputation, if you are in the area.

UMUC - Not AACSB, so not in the same league.

Indiana's program is awarded out of their technology department, not the business department, so is not AACSB as well.

 

Han,

Grenoble or Henley are much better options that UoP, however, I couldn't find any faculty member in the US holding a Henley DBA. If one is going to be using a DBA for teaching, it is important to make sure that graduates from that school are teaching in the juridisction that one wants to teach. If you don't find one, it doesn't mean that it won't be accepted but it makes you wonder too. On the other hand, there are plenty graduates from Nova or Argosy, this indicates that it is very highly to find a job in the US with these credentials. Perhaps Henley graduates don't come to the US or may be vey few americans take this program, but this type of investment requires a lot of research since it is something that you will have to live for the rest of your life.

 

Your situation is common to all who want to move into full time business academia without the ability to take 3-6 years off from work for a traditional PhD program. The final answer is: there is no perfect answer. You must choose between the lesser of evils:

1). Lowly-regarded, unaccredited U.S. schools with the proper degree;
2). Highly-regarded, accredited, but unrecognized European schools with the proper degree;
3). Highly-regarded U.S. schools, but with degrees that don't quite match perfectly.

None of these quite fit, do they? You must choose between the three and take your chances. One thing you should probably consider with regard to all of the above is that--I'll bet you on this one--the great majority of those who currently hold tenured faculty positions at solid universities with one of the above three options for their terminal degree had already ingratiated themselves to their school before receiving the degree, say as an adjunct.

My guess is the odds would be very slim for a person with one of the three options above to compete in the open market for a tenure-eligible Professor of Management position at say, the University of California Davis, without having had something extra to make them more palatable. Now, if you'd already been demonstrating your competence to UCD for 5 years through teaching as an underpaid adjunct, perhaps they'd wink at you and ignore your CV's inability to match the criteria perfectly. Perhaps if they liked you enough, they'd even spec out the position so that it matched you more--I've seen it happen over and over when schools or government entities prepared bids for business equipment--I used to be a sales manager in that industry--you could tell who was going to win the bid often on the basis of the bid specs alone.

I do know a prof at a major (top 100) AACSB university who has an EdD capping off his MBA--however, I believe he had experience with university before he was hired full-time, I think ingratiating his way in in the manner that I described.

This all brings me back to: why don't you just try working your way into academia with you MBA? Again, you attended a fine school that won't cause the hiring committee to snicker. You won't be ideally positioned for positions teaching at a university with an MBA or Doctorate business program, but there are thousands of 4 year colleges and community colleges in the U.S.--why don't you try your hand there? Perhaps they'd even help pay your way to pursue the doctorate, you'd be getting invaluable teaching experience, and you could probably even try your hand at publishing a bit. If you go that route and then start your DL doctorate from say, Manchester (the other AACSB school with the DBA that Han said he was forgetting), in five years you'll have five years of teaching experience and perhaps a few articles published. Voila!--that European DBA isn't such a sticking point now.

 

I dont want to stir up any trouble, but I have a question. You are talking about UOP and the lack of prestige. If this is the case, what about Northcentral University? What would be the prospects of using thier Phd in academia? Better than UOP,Nova and the like?

 

I know of one PhD from NCU teaching full time at Devry. However, Devry does not require a PhD but it is desirable for full time positions.

I guess, NCU can be a good asset when the doctorate is not required but it is seen as dressing for the position.

 

Followup,

Would you try to use a Phd from Northcentral in academia? Would they( the universities) laugh you out the door? WHy go then? Just questions. I am not trying to start trouble.

 

If I were the original poster, I would not want to cap off an MBA from Pepperdine with anything but an AACSB-accredited PhD or DBA, you tend to be judged by your last degree.

 

RFValve:

How do you perform such a search? Do you just google it or is there some faculty search engine somewhere?

 

RFValve:

How do you perform such a search? Do you justr google it or is there some faculty search engine somewhere?