I have recently been accepted into a M.Phil/Ph.D program at one of the Univ. of Wales and wonder if "anyone out there" has had any experience in pursuing a research postgraduate degree from a Welsh university. I currently hold 3 "traditional" undergraduate and graduate degrees in my field. Is a Welsh Ph.D considered acceptable in this country. Any advice would be helpful. I'm new at this! Thanks, Jim
As always, acceptable to whom for what? I can't answer your specific question but I CAN tell you something interesting. The Supreme Court of Arizona allowed an applicant to take the Arizona Bar exam based upon his having an LL.B. earned in residence at a Welsh university law school. The Court determined that the Welsh LL.B., although technically an undergraduate degree, was substantially equivalent to a J.D. from an ABA accredited U.S. law school. What makes this interesting is first, the applicant had never been admitted to the Bar in any country and second, Arizona's rules require an ABA J.D. of any applicant that has less than five years (IIRC) of law practice experience. Bottom line: Arizona is picky and to them, at any rate, the Welsh degree was entirely acceptable.
And didn't we just learn from Alan Contreras (in another thread) that as long as a UK institution is listed here it's legit? I see University of Wales listed there. Even before that, though, I'd heard of it and had always understood it to be equivalent to any U.S. regionally-accredited institution. When in doubt about a foreign degree, one could always get it evaluated by one of the agencies upon whose opinion most U.S. regionally-accredited institutions, and most government agencies, rely for determining foreign degree equivalency: The International Education Services division of the American Association of Collegegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) offers a fee-based service wherein it will determine if and how any foreign degree stacks-up against a similar degree offered by a U.S. regionally-accredited institution. This is the same service used by the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization (which is headed-up by the aforementioned Mr. Contreras). An alternative to AACRAO used by many universities is the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES), any of whose member agencies will perform, for a fee, an evaluation of one's foreign degree to determine if and how said degree stacks-up against a similar degree offered by a U.S. regionally-accredited institution.[/list=1]I do not know which of the above two entities is inherently "better;" but if one put a gun to my head (something in which several of my debating opponents around here have expressed a profound interest), I'd have to guess that it would be AACRAO. That said, I took some time one Saturday afternoon last year to visit the web sites of most of the NACES member agencies and was, I must confess, quite impressed. This is purely anectodal, I realize, but for what it's worth I also called, the following week, three registrars at regionally-accredited universities that I know and asked them if they prefered AACRAO or NACES. One said AACRAO, and two said both; and when I asked the two who said "both" which they thought more of, only one said AACRAO and the other said she felt they were more or less equal... again, for what that's worth. If I had to guess, I think people around DegreeInfo tend to like AACRAO better, but I could be wrong about that. Hope that helps!
Welsh Degree Thread - hidden agenda?? Do I detect a little sarcasm on the part of DesElms? If I'm reading it right, is this a prelude to an erudite DesElmsesque critique of Alan Contreras, the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization and maybe even the State of Oregon itself?
Re: Welsh Degree Thread - hidden agenda?? No. You weren't. No. Why would you think that? My postings here, from the outset, have been, in largest measure, supportive of Oregon's ODA and, specifically, very supportive of Alan Contreras... so I'm not sure from where this analysis, and these questions, come.
I earned my master's degree through the University of Wales. This credential has served me well within the American system. Within my discipline, I am aware of several Univ. of Wales Ph.D.'s who hold faculty appointments at well-respected American institutions.
Re: Re: Welsh Degree Thread - hidden agenda?? Thanks for the clarification; somehow I was really far off-course on this one. Returning to the initial thread topic --- A business aquaintance (a Bahamian national) received his Ph.D. from the University of Wales via DL. He remarked that the university allowed him to visit once per year for several weeks but that he otherwise stayed in contact via email, fax, telephone, etc. Overall he was quite happy with the quality of the educational experience and compared it favorably with his undergraduate degree from the University of the West Indies and masters from Iowa State University.
Twisted knickers Written-only communications -- such as we do around here -- deprives us of the audible and/or visual cues that help convey subtlety and give our communications certain kinds of needed context. Consequently, it's really easy to misunderstand and then to get one's knickers all up in a twist over something that the one who caused said knicker twisting didn't really mean. Happens all the time. No big deal. Don't worry about it.
Everything that appears on my diploma from the University of Wales is written in both English and Welsh.
