Thesis-only DL Master's degrees

Is there such a beast? Fields I'm interested in are Business Management, Human Resource Management, and Industrial/ Organizational Psychology. All DL, mostly thesis based, at the master's level. Are these programs more often available in South Africa or Australia?


Thanks

Rhonda

 

Hi again - yes they exist (although in South Africa they say it the opposite way as in the US - it's a Master's Dissertation and a Doctoral Thesis. South Africa, Australia and some British universities is where you'll find these degrees. You should proceed carefully though because the terms "research based" and "distance learning" are not synonymous. At UNISA, for example, virtually all the degrees are DL degrees. However, other ZA universities, while having many research based degree programs, they also have the expectation that you will come to campus with some frequency to meet with your advisor, attend grad seminars, etc. If you want to do one of those programs while living in the US then you must put on your best diplomatic attitude and convince them that it's a good idea. In Australia I'd suggest that you make your first stop Charles Sturt University as I believe that they have the greatest number of DL programs and they are frequently 100% non-residential. Good luck.
Jack

 

I agree with this advice. Though, I'm curious why some -- mostly those in Australia whom, therefore, I would expect to know a bit more about it -- aren't so terribly impressed with Sturt. I mean, it's accredited in the sense that we use that word around here; and a degree therefrom would, I'm fairly certain, be evaluated by a US foreign credential evaluator as equivalent to US regionally-accredited... but every now and then someone (usually someone from Australia) interjects around here that when it comes right down to it, Sturt's kinda' crappy. Why is that? What, if anything, are Sturt's flaws?

George... are you reading this? Comments?

For more Australian programs, go to this search page; then type "thesis" into the search box; then in the "Entry Requirements:" field, click on the first "Bachelor Degree (..." choice, then Ctrl-click on the next two; then in the "Attendance Mode:" field, click on "External" then Ctrl-click on "on-line"... and leave all other fields as they are. Then click on the "Search" button. You'll get, at this writing, 66 programs... most of them accredited Australian masters either 100% by research/thesis, or mostly so... and all of them by one form or another of distance learning.

This Google search should provide more in Australia.

This Google search should provide some in the UK.

This Google search may provide a few in the US... if there even are any.

Though my search terms narrowed the above Google searches considerably, it's usually true that all Google search results pages contain links to unhelpful web pages. Patience and tenacity in wading through as many pages of search results as you can stand will usually provide a good outcome.

 

Consider Unisa

Please do consider Unisa.

See:
http://www.tsa.ac.za/corp/academic/hrm/mhrman.htm

Knowing up-front that you will be dealing with a huge bureaucracy, they do offer many good, dissertation-only, business / HRM&D programs, that are especially well respected in the non-West, but increasingly in the West as well.

Unisa offers the MCom, MAdmin and MTech, all good programs, that are very affordable.

The MTech - HRM, should cost (total) about $1,200 (current exchange rates).

Best wishes!!

 

Thesis-only master's degrees tend to be more available in those countries that follow the British system of education. You might try the following British, Australian, and South African schools.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Central Queensland University (BG15, 103)
Charles Sturt University www.csu.edu.au (BG15, 104)
Keele University www.keele.ac.uk (BG15, 118)
University of Leicester www.le.ac.uk (BG15, 138)
Unibversity of London www.lon.ac.uk (BG15, 138)
University of Manchester www.man.ac.uk (BG15, 178)
University of New England www.une.edu.au (BG15, 141)
Open University of Hong Kong www.ouhk.edu.hk (BG15, 126)
Technikon of South Africa www.tsa.ac.za (BG15, 132)

INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

University of Bradford www.brad.ac.uk (BG15, 176)
University of Leicester www.le.ac.uk (BG15, 138)
University of London www.lon.ac.uk (BG15, 138)
University of South Africa www.unisa.ac.za (BG15, 144)

 

One small note: The Technikon of South Africa took part in the system-wide university merger in South Africa and it is now a part of UNISA. I believe that most of the programs/degrees still exist, it's just that they are now UNISA programs/degrees.
Jack