Heriot-Watt University

Does Heriot-Watt have any students here or has anyone ever been in contact with Heriot-Watt University? Any comment would be appreciated. I have been reviewing the PhD in Management by Research - emphasis on Business Law. I wasn't able to determine, though, if (1) they give credit for courses previoulsy taken and (2) how long their Research degrees take to complete. If anyone has this information on this or can provide me with insight on the university's culture (do they respond to questions in a timely manner, are the courses extremely difficult, do they take decades to grade papers and so on and so forth) I would be delighted.

Until then, many thanks, as usual.

 

LadyExecutive, this university has been covered extensively here. In fact one of their faculty members, Prof. Kennedy, was a regular poster here. Unfortunately (fortunately for him I guess) he is now retired. He used to characterized the difficulty of the exams as "tough but fair". When I approached them a couple of years ago, they were very good in the personal treatment, and I wasn't spammed or insisted upon enrolling etc. I didn't enrolled because I couldn't justify the investment. Regarding those previous courses, my guess is that they only accept transfer credit from their own master's programs but that is something you should discuss with them directly. There are here a couple of alumni so certainly they will help you much better than me. Nevertheless, this is a serious European old university, and I think its degrees are clearly superior to most distance learning offering (but that is juts my own perception as an DL amateur). Regards and good luck.

 

The Heriot-Watt's MBA is Covered Extensively Here

Before I posted to the group I did a check, as I normally do, to see if anyone had addressed Heriot-Watt in relation to their other distance degree programs. I noticed that the posts had to do with Heriot-Watt and the Edinburgh Business School's MBA. My question and concerns has no relation to the MBA, I want to know about other programs, which presents the premise for my question. I have no interest in Heriot-Watt where their MBA is concerned. What I'd like to know is if anyone has had any dealings with them and their PhD degrees.

Thanks for your response. Appreciate it.

 

Heriot-Watt

What I do like about Heriot-Watt is that it appears that the DL Student has the option of beginning the PhD program at anytime throughout the year. Not only this, but from the looks of it -it seems that the entire PHD degree may be completed entirely online. Which of course is a bonus for me.

What I am concerned about is that with such high prestiege, how strict their entry requirements are. Better yet, I wonder the difficulty of being accepted into the institution at the PhD level. Can anyone comment on this?

 

The Applications and Admissions Procedure at Heriot-Watt University is detailed here.

 

I was a DL student at Heriot-Watt, and I was also an on-campus student. You ask a lot of questions, so I'll be brief.

1. It's a research degree, so you will most likely not be taking any courses, therefore, previous credit will not be given. If you do have to take any courses, they will be difficult.

2. Depends on your research. A full-time on-campus PhD will take around 3 years. The part-time EBS DBA has been around at least that long, has well over 100 students already, and I have yet to hear of someone graduating yet.

Email communication with any UK university is often slow. I find it best to call on the phone. Exam grading (if you take any exams) will be slow because of the UK's external examiner system.

The program you are looking at is offered through Heriot-Watt's School of Management and Languages. Although it is a "research" PhD, I don't think it is meant for DL. Heriot-Watt's Edinburgh Business School's DBA is.

 

"Although it is a "research" PhD, I don't think it is meant for DL. Heriot-Watt's Edinburgh Business School's DBA is."

Thanks for your response. Gosh, I hope you're wrong because I just spent at least an hour and a half completing their application. One good note is that the application provides a list of choices for the PhD in Business Law and distance learning was one of the options one could choose. At least, that is the way I read it. Either way, I guess I'll keep looking, if this is not the case.

I too am in Florida. What are you studying?

 

I hope to have a response soon.

I emailed them last night, so hopefully I will get a response by the end of next week. I would be interested too, as my bachelor's and master's is in legal studies. I will let you know what I find out (if anything).

 

I'm studying Business Geography. Good luck with the Heriot-Watt application. Let us know how it turns out!

 

Jane: Interesting how you and I are following the same degree path. I too have a B.Sc in Legal Studies and a Masters in the same area. I would just love to work on a PhD in Business Law as well.

I too emailed them on Thursday and have my fingers crossed that someone would get back with me in short order!

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my questions.

Warm Thoughts,

 

Hey, I too did the California University of PA M.Sc in Legal Studies: Law & Public Policy program with Dr. Nemeth. Had a blast! Graduated in 2005. I was in the first cohort. You?

 

Wow! Business Geography? Does one find such an especialism in the Department of Geography or the School of Business or both?

 

I waa thinking the same thing. He needs to lend me his brain because from the sound of it, mine would not be able to complete a degree in such an area.

 

A little bit of both. You will be hard pressed to find an actual program in Business Geography. The one I'm doing is mainly self designed. Economic geography is the next closest thing, but it is not really the same. If you can find a school with courses in Business Geography, it will be in a Geography, or sometimes an Urban Planning Department. However, many business schools are starting to catch on. One of our graduates was hired by Wharton to start a program there after they noticed our BA graduates were getting hired over their MBA graduates!

For those of you interested in what a business geographer does, I've started an online portfolio of some of my work as I am coming to the end of my program and looking to get a job soon. www.drannbauer.com . It is still a work in progress though!

 

Lady,

I finished my Master's of Science in Legal Studies Specializing in Homeland Security on 12/15/06. I don't know what cohort number I was in, but I finished!!

 

Cool website, there, edowave!

 

Yeah, I agree - the site is nice. Very pictuesque. How long do you have to go before completion?

 

Oh! I see your last name's Drannbauer! Initially, I had wondered if that was Dr. Ann Bauer's website!

 

Dr. Ann Bauer, ha ha ha. I like that. Could be a great pseudonym.

Hopefully I'll be done by summer. I just got a minor thing called a dissertation that needs to be finished.