Quit the Doctorate or Transfer (if possible)

Well, as many on this board know, I have been enrolled in Durban's DTECH program for the past 2 years. However, I have come to a serious impasse with my supervisor concerning my studies. At her recommendation, I hired a local (in SA) statistician to advise me and the input provided by this person is so off base that I simply cannot use her in the future. I have consulted with another business PhD and another US based statistician and the agree (generally) with my assertion that the recommendations of the SA statistician are off of my research topic. However, my supervisor continues to consider the SA statistician's word as the final say on the matter, thus the impasse.

This leaves me in somewhat of a conundrum. I originally went with an SA school because of the cost. I did not wish to go into more debt for school and I could self finance the DIT program. I have been told I can transfer my studies to another school but it is considerably more money and I do not know if it is worth it in the end. However, I HATE to leave anything unfinished and I would really like to make all of the past 2 years effort worth something.

Any thoughts out there? Hey, if nothing else I am giving you all a chance to voice an opinion, and we know we all LOVE to do that.....

 

If it comes to a battle between a supervisor and a student, there is only ever one winner.

Transfer now, while you still can.

Angela

 

If you can afford the cash flow necessary to do the new program, do it. The money will work itself out in the long run. (Easily said, but financing most doctoral programs is hard.)

We've traded PM's, and I thought the school you were talking to lately was rather inexpensive. Please update me with a PM if you get the chance.....

 

Wouldn't hiring a different statistician be enough?

 

Wouldn't hiring a different statistician be enough?

 

Different Statistician

No, I have already done that. However, it has become apparent that my supervisor and the statistician may have some kind of personal relationship so when I criticised her opinion my supervisor became GREATLY offended. It is one of the dangers of distance study I guess. Lesson learned, when studying at a distance hire your own consultants. That helps keep personal factors out of the situation. What is odd is that the statistician has an MS in statistics and no experience in business but her opinion on my business research in the United States automatically carries more weight than mine (who has an MBA and has owned 2 businesses in the United States).

This isn't the first conflict the supervisor and I have had. The first one was referred to another person who sided with me. It was a technical question on Internet technology and was in an area I have over 14 years of experience. But my word wasn't good enough. The question was such a basic point that I couldn't believe there was any doubt in the first place. It was the first inkling of trouble.

There have been other little ithings which have added up to this point. I am actually shocked how quick the thing went bad as things were going great! One issue is that my supervisor is someone who earned her PhD after her first career and I was her first postgrad student. She is one of those people who looks at PhD's as infallible. She is so in awe of them I was kind of dumfounded by it! She told me she was offended when I disagreed with her. Frankly, she is an expert in supply chain management and has little or no experience on business location theory, retail or the Internet which are the areas encompassing my research. She had noted this when we started our research but we decided it wouldn't be a problem as she had access to other experts on those matters. I have far more experience in those areas especially in the United States which is where I am conducting my research. She would dispute basic questions concerning local ISP procedures for goodness sakes! Really, how many US ISP's has she dealt with (that was the first conflict I referred to)? Another point she and the statistician got upset with was concerning why I did not ask the Internet retailers what product they sold. I told her I could look at the company's web site and find that out for myself and I had already done so when I compiled my data base of Internet retailers. My point was that the survey company I was using was already concerned with the length of my survey and I was trying to avoid unnecessary questions!!!

Oh well, the damage is done so I am now searching for a new school. If anyone has any thoughts let me know. I would appreciate it....

 

Re: Different Statistician

Hey what a coincidence, business location theory is a large part of my research as well.

To bad about your adviser. Your case is not unique however. You might try contacting the dean to get a different adviser, but ideally you should already have someone who agreed to do it in mind.

As for a different school, DL PhD choices are limited. However, the first place I would look would be Nova.

Not many people know this, but William Applebaum, one of the pioneers of business location theory, was the dean of the business school at Nova during the 1970's. I'm sure they would be happy to have any student doing research in that area.

 

DTechBA,

Did you ever make a decision on what you will do? Stay in the program or do another one? Just curious.

I don't recall offhand but did you have to go to SA for this program?

Bing

 

There is a new Doctor of Engineering program at the University of Southern Queensland. The handbook mentions that credit transfer is possible so you might want to explore that option. Not as cheap as the SA schools but not as expensive as some american ones.

 

Re: Re: Quit the Doctorate or Transfer (if possible)

Do you have a url for this program? A search of their site yielded no information.

Thanks, Bing

 

Re: Re: Re: Quit the Doctorate or Transfer (if possible)

Sure, here is:

http://www.usq.edu.au/handbook/current/ENGD.html


The thing is that they call it "Engineering doctorate" but not PhD or DEng. I wonder what the diploma would say.

 

I came to impasse with the chair of my committee at one point. I had not been able to get the chair I wanted and could not reach agreement with the chair I had. My option was to leave the program or to get a new chiar. I went to the dean and explained my situation. He agreed that I should continue and that I should change my chair (actually my enitire committee). He helped me to get the chair I wanted and needed.

I would suggest you consider working with the university to see if you can seek a new advisor (if you cannot get a new stat person). Give them a chance to do the right thing before you lose all that time and money.

 

Transfer it is...

After much thought and research, I have come to realize the theoretical focus of the PhD is not for me. I had thought the DTech was more practical based but that is not how the DIT one worked out.

I have decided to apply to three DBA's in Australia in the following order of preference:

1. Newcastle
2. Southern Queensland
3. Charles Sturt

I like Newcastle best because of the type and variety of taught instruction in their program and because of its higher recognition rankings in the Melbourne study. USQ was next as I see them really strong on their support of DL. CSU was last but it wasn't a reflection on it quality wise, it was mostly the others were stronger in an area I valued. However, since I have concerns with how my MBA will transfer it may come down to which allows the most credit for it if the is a wide discrepency in acceptance.

If anyone has any experience with any of these programs please post their responce here or PM me. Thanks.

 

Re: Transfer it is...

The DBA at USQ requires at least one redidency on campus. This could be negotiated sometimes if the faculty travels to your country but iin this case you would need to travel to the city where the faculty will stay.

Program normally can be completed in 4 years part time if professors are not slow (mine was really slow) in assesing your work. You will be required to complete MBA units if your are planning to pursue an specialization that was not part of your MBA (e.g General MBA and DBA in Finance). This will be in addition to your DBA units.

Intake is only once a year (Semester 1) so this means that you might need to wait for a full year before you can start with the DBA.

Someone mentioned that USQ will apply for AACSB accreditation but no official announcement has been made. Charles Sturt is already in the candidacy.

If you want the technical focus you might want to consider the Doctor of Engineering instead.

 

DBA, EDD?

I am very interested in a few programs:

USQ Ed.D.
USQ DBA
and
Touro (both education and business doctorates)

My question is has anybody been through any of these programs? I already know the USQ DBA does take one or two "residencies" as I've talked to the director. But I am kinda fearful/reluctant of trying a doctorate from another system than the USA.

And Touro... well, actually this question is for all the programs... I would like to know the percentage of those who drop out. It is an indication of how much care and feeding they give doctoral students. I am not interested at all in an 8 to 10 year marathon. I've heard the horror stories and actually have one of my own back in the 80's.

 

Re: DBA, EDD?

One positive point about USQ is that you are charged per unit. This means that if you take 4 or 8 years, it won't change your total costs.

On the other hand, the dropout rate was pretty high as once the program was almost "open admissions". However, this was due to the many number of non serious candidates that were admitted into the program. You will notice that the admission requirements are a bit more selective now so I would expect the dropout rates to reduce.

 

Actually...

All 3 schools indicated that residencies were not required. CSU said there had been discussions of AACSB candidacy however there were no plans in the works at this time. I had read here that USQ had plans to apply but I didn't ask them about it. All of them charge by unit. From a rough estimate it seems that USQ charges on average the most per class. However, the difference isn't that great and could easily be overcome if another school required more classes. Of the three CSU appears to be the least expensive.

Frankly, a quick look at the schools web sites would indicate that all three jumping into distance learning in a major way. I wonder what the push is.

The drop out rates in doctoral programs is very high. Even for resident programs. ...

 

Not too sure about USQ. The rules changed few years ago and i was informed that a two week residency was required before defending the doctoral dissertation proposal. Again, this might have changed but the hand book says that the residency is still mandatory.

 

From the handbook:

"All students must attend a DBA Dissertation Workshop prior to commencing the dissertation phase of the program. Workshops will be held in Australia and selected overseas centres. It is recommended that Australian students visit their supervisors at least once each year while they are completing their dissertation. For overseas students, visits by Faculty staff will be arranged through the University's agents/partners, subject to minimum numbers."

 

From the email sent by USQ..

"This program is only offered externally and you do not need to make any trips to Australia. Fees range depending on the area you are choosing to study so they can vary from AUD1450 to AUD2150"