No visits required to UNISA?

For those who have entertained the idea of UNISA, here is the skinny on the History department requirements sent to me as a word doc.
-Gavin


About Unisa: The University of South Africa (Unisa) is a leading distance education university which attracts students from all over the world. It is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) in the United States, which means that Unisa is assessed by an international accrediting commission as an institution that maintains a high quality of academic teaching. Its qualifications are comparable to those of other institutions in the US and elsewhere in the world that have been accredited by DETC. The History Department at Unisa has successfully provided supervision to several overseas MA and doctoral students in recent years.

The requirements for doctoral studies in the History Department

Academic qualifications required: A Masters degree in History from an acknowledged academic institution.

A viable topic: Normally this department does not furnish prospective doctoral students with topics. Students should submit their own topics, which must be substantiated by a detailed research proposal.

Research proposal:

* A research proposal should be 10-15 typed pages long.

* It should contain the following elements:

- An outline of the issue to be researched.
- A motivation for the proposed topic (what you want to prove; what contribution to knowledge about the topic you intend to offer). This should include a historiographical survey of what has been written on the topic.
- An indication of the different kinds of sources you intend consulting during your research (primary as well as secondary material).
- A provisional division of your thesis into proposed chapters.


Method of instruction: There are no residential requirements for studying at Unisa, which means that doctoral students are not expected to attend seminars or personal meetings with supervisors/promoters. All communication can be conducted via correspondence or the electronic media. Students are of course welcome to visit promoters personally if they have the opportunity. When a research proposal has been approved and the student registered, direct contact with the promoter can be made. The procedure entails the submission of completed work by the student, usually chapter by chapter. The promoter comments on each chapter and sends it back to the student with suggestions for improvement. Whenever possible, a joint-promoter is also appointed to assist the promoter. Having read and supervised the entire thesis, the promoter gives permission to the student to submit the thesis for examination. For doctoral theses two external examiners are usually appointed.

Costs: R3960 per year for students living in Africa; R7530 per year for students living outside Africa.



Study period: At least a year after registration must expire before a thesis can be submitted for examination. Duration of study varies but generally students should aim for a four year study period. Recommendation for re-registration on a yearly basis will be made by the promoter, in accordance with the students progress.

 

As I've mentioned, the man who writes the "degrees for prisoners" chapter in Bears' Guide, Doug Dean, earned his UINISA Ph.D. while serving five consecutive life terms in the Wisconsin state prison (where he just celebrated his 35th anniversary). No US program would take him; UNISA went out of its way to help, with a consular officer driving materials to him and proctoring his exams in the prison.

 

Required visits to SA?

The following two excerpts are from emails I received from UNISA discussing required visits for their PhD in Operations Research program.

The bottom line on required residencies [visits]; it depends on your promoter and the department.

 

Are UNISA doctorates -- unless they're first professional degrees -- covered under DETC's accreditation? From the DETC web site's "UNISA" listing:

• Merged with the Technikon Southern Africa and incorporated the distance education campus of Vista University on January 1, 2004 (2002/2006). Offers certificate, diploma and degree programs at undergraduate and graduate level in the fields of Management Sciences; Accounting Sciences; Applied Accounting; Economic Sciences; Computing; Science; Engineering; Law; Criminal Justice; Arts, Culture and Social Sciences; Applied Social Sciences; Education; Language and Literature; Theology and Biblical Studies; Agriculture; Environmental, Life Sciences and Indigenous Knowledge Studies and Natural Resources. (Note: DETC’s accreditation is for courses/programs through the first-professional degree level only.)

DETC doesn't yet approve doctoral programs except such as the "Juris Doctor" (JD) degree at, for example, William Howard Taft University School of Law, and/or Kaplan's Concord School of Law. (And, actually, I wouldn't consider a JD a "doctoral"-level degree... but that gets into a whole different discussion.)

Therefore, would a PhD in History from UNISA actually be DETC accredited?

If not, it doesn't mean it wouldn't be a good thing to get. I suspect that a UNISA PhD would easily be evaluated as equivalent to a US regionally-accredited PhD by a US credential evaluation service (such as those linked-to in my signature, below); and, if so, it would be not on the strength of UNISA's DETC accreditation but, rather, it would be on the strength of the fact that even without DETC accreditation, UNISA still enjoys the "accreditation" (as we tend to use that word around here) of its government... which, in the case of countries with a culture of accountability like South Africa, usually means that said accreditation gets the kind of respect from countries like the US which makes its degrees on-par with US regionally-accredited degrees.

Is that not the right way to be looking at it... or am I missing something?

 

Re: Re: No visits required to UNISA?

I'm pretty sure that the answer is "no." The degree programs that are accredited by DETC stop after the Masters level. I've suspected that the main reason(s) that UNISA sought out DETC accreditation is that it gained them some academic respectability within South Africa (where it's not considered to be among the best schools) and it also made US students eligible to receive certain types of financial aid (did I get that right?)
Jack

 

I asked a question some a few years ago why UNISA sought DETC; after all it seemed they had the necessary accreditation. Please correct me if I'm wrong but they already had the SA equivalent of a royal charter (???) and for the school to chase DETC seemed pointless. However someone came back (maybe Jack) with a reply of it allowing US students a financial aid option.

With all the discussion activity of a DETC Doctorate lately, it seems UNISA might offer a backdoor approach to those in a few degree categories who seek a recognized accreditation level equal to or beyond DETC.

I'm by no means slamming DETC, for I have seen Ted's syllabus requirements for a course at AMU, (long before being poised on the eve of achieving RA status), my chin fell open and my eyes popped out; it was a beast and it could outstrip many RA course requirements! If many DETC approved courses have such a standard, it becomes hard to understand why there is such a difference between RA and DETC. But perhaps it is the Wildebeest syndrome; really don’t know why but everyone herd's up and runs towards the compass direction of RA.

My reasons for narrowing my search to UNISA so far has been mainly two factors, very little "jet setting" time and low cost, not that I'm a cheap ass, but the few programs offered stateside fire not just one, but a spread of torpedos into the checking account.

If anyone out there was fretting over if and when DETC was going to implement a doctorate program, I say don’t hold out too long long but look into SA programs that could possibly offer a bit more utility.

Jack, what's the scoop on how UNISA is perceived in SA, is it something nothing to really loose sleep over such as that hideous beast of rankings that comes out each year here in the US, such as " top out of sight", tier 1-4 and "bottom out of site" or is it something more serious?
-Gavin

 

Gavin - I have searched for some sort of tier scale or hierarchy for South African schools but have never found one. Our own members have created such a scale, or at least they have taken a shot at naming the top schools in ZA and it can be found somewhere back in the older threads (sorry, I can't look for it right now). But these opinions, are just that, opinions. While they may be correct it's not clear what they are based upon. The quality of such scales depend entirely on the criteria used and the data applied to these criteria. Beyond that, I would have a strong inclination to believe our fellow member oxpecker who has clearly stated that within the country of South Africa the opinion toward UNISA is that it should be located much closer to the bottom of the list than the top of the list. In my own mind, I think of it this way. In a geographical region such as New England, you will find schools such as Harvard, MIT, Brown, Tufts, BU, BC, etc. You will also find schools like UMass, UConn, URI, UNH, etc. I don't think anyone would say that these state schools are bad schools but I also think that most people would place them on the same tier as Harvard and MIT. That being said, I tend to equate UNISA with the state schools while some of the other ZA schools (Witts, Cape Town, Pretoria) might be equated with a higher tier. Have a good holiday season.
Jack

 

Hi

Just thought I would mention that there is a listing for all universities around the worold including RSA here at this link.

World Rankings of Universities

The DETC will do nothing for a student of South Africa or for any country outside of the USA. It only relates to American students. I can only presume that Unisa sought this designation, like Athabasca University of Canada did with RA in order to attract American students.

Commonwealth universities are monitored by the Association of Commonwealth Universities and many of the older universities in RSA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have Royal Charters or legislation similary with Royal Assent.

Hope this helps.

Brad

 

Thanks Brad. UNISA comes in at #7 in Africa with 9 out of the top 10 being South African universities. When I have a bit of time I'll be interested to read the methodology section. Until then I can only mention that the list is a bit dated as all the ZA schools are listed under their pre-merger names. In any case, it begins to give you a sense of where the schools stand in relation to each other.
Jack

 

The top schools seem to be under the new names or names that never changed since the more established schools did not change names under the merger, but further down the list the names are older. This could also be due to the fact that the information is listed as 2005 but more than likely gathered in 2004 or earlier and therefore only certain universities had been merged by that point.

I find it a bit suspect that for the Canada/USA section nearly all the universities in the top 100 are American. While the USA does have good universities, more than 9 of 10 Canadian should have been there. To know the real standing of universities in Canada, the better source is the MacLeans Rating which comes out each year. MacLean's University Ratings

 

Reply and discussion moved to "Off-Topic Discussion" area
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22954

 

As a point of clarification, and with all due respect to Orson, the discussion on the topic of this thread remains on this thread.
Thanks.
Jack

 

Brad,
Thanks for the information! Its nice to see how the rankings are concluded and how one college/university is held in comparison. While I personally don't put much emphasis in rankings it is nice to know that a potential school is not "off the map".
All the best,
Gavin

 

No problem, I think when it comes down to it, most of the rankings have an element of subjectivity, and our choices are based on many factors of our own. Since most people and institutions outside of RSA do not know what the rankings of RSA universities are, I think a great deal comes down to personal choice and personal factors.

For me, a degree from within the Commonwealth (or "la Francophonie") is fundamental since transfer of credits and established names is easier to manage from the Commonwealth than to get recognition in Canada (or other country) from an American university and try to sort out the accreditation system there. For all that the Commonwealth does little than fund Third World Projects and have the Commonwelath Games, it can provide this educational sharing in a more common system of recognition.

When I moved to Zambia to teach (1987-1990) and then the UK (1990-1995) I had no problem with walking in and teaching the next day since all degrees were verifiable at a glance within the ACU documents.

Anyway, glad you have considered Unisa. If you need more info let me know.

Brad

 

YES, indeed, Jack. The movement off this thread was only to the provocative opinion by Brad Sweet.

My interest in branching this out elsewhere was simply that its natural audience - and any ensuing controversy from a lengthy, and hopefully, thought-provoking response to Brad's comment - is not here in DL Discussion.

I guess my label above was too abrupt and unintentionally truncating of discussion. SORRY to all!

-Orson

PS Brad - you clearly have very interesting and worldly experiences under your belt. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts and experiences on the board!

 

I can't remember now if I did write about Unisa's DEd anywhere else but don't mind going through a bit here.

I have had very little trouble working through Unisa. From the beginning I have always connected through the Unisa agent in Vancouver, even visiting at one point. While living in Zambia I was frequently in RSA and drove to Pretoria frequently from Johannesburg and so got to know the university on those trips. People I knew in Zambia studied at Unisa as well.

I have completed the programme entirely from Canada. The research proposal was accepted first round as I had also used the same for one other university here in Canada (Université de Moncton, New Brunswick). And my promotor was assigned who specializes in North American Education History. My own subject is Post Deportation Acadian Education in eastern Nova Scotia (1780-1865). We have worked well together and I was able to write at least a chapter per year part time while serving in the Canadian Navy at home and overseas.

The easiest route I found was never to deal directly with Unisa but rather through the agent. He is known and has a direct link to the registrar's office. Nothing was misplaced or problems from the university. That is except for the final process in which a cheque was cashed for thesis microfilming which was cashed but not correctly credited to my file. That was the only issue.

It took a total of 4 years continuous work in writing, evenings, weekends, official leave time from the Canadian Armed Forces. I was writing a topic that I had commenced at the MA level at Université Laval for the early period (1792-1853) and then looked at the later period in greater detail (1811-1865).

My promoter was a great help and we had a good relationship by telephone and correspondance (electonically as well as through the post).

If there is anything specific I would be happy to answer questions you might have. I don't want to make things too general but I have had a very good experience with Unisa and the degree is recognized in Nova Scotia by the Department of Education. And I noticed recently that there is a professor at one of the universities in Halifax with a Unisa doctorate who is teaching in the history department.

Brad

 

Thanks Brad. It's great having you around.
Jack

 

Unisa is back in the running for me.

Dr. Sweet's posts have gotten me all excited about The South African choice again. Thanks for the info.

Dan B