DBA - University of Southern Queensland

Does anyone know if you can complete this without residency, or is it the Charles Sturt version where you study at a distance... except for all the requirements where you can't.

 

Hi There:

This a very good program!!
There is no residence requirement but it is recommended to have some face-to-face meetings with your supervisor, but you may use videoconference to do so.
There are some major requirements:

· You must present proctored exams at a USQ center; there are some in the US.
· You must submit a research proposal and a supervisor must be available
· You must have at least 5 years of experience

USQ is more prestigious in Australia than CSU, as matter of fact I didn’t get good feedback of CSU when I asked references to some Australian academics, for the other hand USQ is a bit more expensive. It is hard to finish their DBA in four years part time; I’ll say that 5 to 6 years is a more realistic time frame. I'm majoring in Information Systems but other majors are available

I hope this helps,

 

A poster mentioned in the past (in AED) that CSU is not well regarded in Australia. I wonder why some people, who have had no experience whatsoever with CSU, are still trying to imply that this school is a very good Austrialian school.

Ike

 

hello Ike,

CSU is not considered a highly prestigious institution in Australia precisely because it is a DE institution and it is fairly flexible in its entry requirement and has a high proportion of student completing their course by DE. The Australian way of measuring prestige is well the same as the US way (based on level of demand for places in the institution and success in research. these criterias are not exactly in favour of DE institutions. Australian with good grades are not queing to enter a DE institution (except for some department) and research monies, PhD holders, doctorate students go to the top universities in a country. These are facts of life everywhere.

Beside prestige, CSU is a "good' school if one measures it by other criterias entry flexibility, getting a job, positive graduate outcome.
On a scale of 1-5 neither USQ nor CSU fared terribly well. USQ rates a 3 and CSU rates a 2. The 5-star ratings are for the traditional Australian universities of Sydney, Monash, New South Wales, Adelaide which are not too terribly enthuisiastic in providing courses without face to face contact.

PS by the way for those who are interested in such matters can refer to http.//www.thegoodguides.com.au for the latest Aussie Unis prestige rating and other important criterias, student staff ratio, starting salary (doesn't alway tally with prestige)


Best Regards

Billy

 

My Australian home is within sight of the University of Southern Queensland in Towoomba, Australia. USQ is a Band Six university, the lowest on the scale. Unfortunately when USQ was the Darling Downs Institute it rejected a chance to become part of the Band One University of Queensland and opted for an independent existence at first categorised by upgrading somewhat under achieved staff to the rank of full Professor and sending off these and others to get "quickie" Ed.D's in the USA. USQ's reputation was "all feathers, no meat"

Things have improved since then. The controversial nepotistic prestentious extreme right wing Vice Chancellor was removed and USQ now makes a lot of the claim that it has been voted the best distance education university in the world (I'm not sure by whom). However, the acceptance grade for USQ undergraduates is very low compared to other universities in Australia and it depends very much on recruiting rich Asian students (Koreans and Taiwanese to make ends meet. Certain cities in Australia are noted for being quality high school education centres. Toowoomba is one of these but the best high school graduates head for Brisbane to the Unversity of Queensland (UQ) and avoid USQ. It would have been much cheaper for my son to have studied Info Tech at USQ but he went to UQ instead because it is so much superior.

Some years ago I applied for 16 jobs at USQ and never got an interview. I made enquiries and was told "Oh, those jobs were already spoken for, the ads were just a formality." The another 2 jobs came up, so I asked "Are these spoken for? " They said no, I could apply. There were 24 appliants. I was the only PhD hodler, and there were twelve women with masters and the rest, except two, had BA's. I had an interview and never heard anything more. Then I met one of the panel in a store. "Oh, "said he "You were right down there to the wire". Who got the jobs? - one of their own students who hadn't yet finished his BA degree and one of their new BA graduates, aged 52. I have never bothered to apply again. I went to Canberra to work for the Minister of Education and had a much happier career dealing with Band One Australian universities.
The problem is that Band Six universities attract Band Six lecturers and Band Six students. USQ's degrees are fine but if you want the best, go elsewhere.

 

So why did you apply for a job in a university with such a low reputation?, I think we have to be careful and professional when we make commentaries and leave personal feelings out.

If you are looking for a teaching job in the US, I can tell you that I know at least one professor with a USQ doctorate that is teaching full time at a regional accredited institution.

As for reputation, in Canada I asked several professors if they could recommend an Australian University and only a few named some. Melbourne and Monash were the only ones that they knew, so I would assume that if you come with a degree from any other university as long as is accredited and doesn’t have a bad name would work for most of us.

 

You ask why I applied to teach at USQ ?

I emigrated to Australia in 1988 and moved to Toowoomba in 1990 because it has a very good reputation for high schools (my son was only 9 then). I didn't know much about USQ because it had only recently become a new university. Many applicants, including myself, thought that USQ would look for new highly qualified staff but in the event this proved not to be the case. I was advised by one academic to keep quite about my PhD because it was regarded as a threat. I didn't apply again after 1991 but when I am home I use its library and occasionally talk to staff and students and find it interesting that local farming families seem to get positions more easily than others. Rural Australia is very closed and parochial and USQ reflects this.
From 1993 till 1996 I was in Education HQ in Canberra and was a reasearcher at the Australian National University (which published my work), one of Australia's top universities and gave lectures at La Trobe and the University of Nw South Wales. The difference between these universities and USQ is quite substantial.
USQ's business degrees may be of interest but Toowoomba is a hardly a hub of commerce. USQ itself is a very small institution set in little park next to a Japanese garden. There is little to do and the campus is set on the edge of a beautiful but rather sleepy city whose main income comes from agriculture, education and government offices.
Another general problem is that although distance education serves a great need, the best academics don't take that path because the technology so far can't support their style. For the record, I teach university faculty how to lecture but I also teach via the internet. As I have said in an earlier letter my present work is to establish an Afghan Women's University and obviously distance education is one way to achieve part of that. Although I live in Toowoomba I have not bothered to approach USQ on the issue because although they have a lot of technical ability I don't believe they have much vision or flexibility. Their mentality is still very much stuck in small rural town Australia.

When I was in Hanoi, one school declared it had become an agent for USQ degrees. Hardly any interest was forthcoming. People know what Band 6 means.