South African PhD (Business) Help

Greetings all,

I am thinking of doing a PhD in Finance, and is considering South African Options, due to many reasons, one beign the COST. and also i prefer Distance mode as i am based in New Zealand.

What i prefer is if any one can give me some names of schools at offer PhD in Finance, as part from UNISA.

Many thanks in Advance,

Migara

 

Hi migara - Here's a list that will help you get atarted
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_African_universities
There are only a couple dozen choices and most of them will not work.
Look first to UNISA, then Pretoria. Some schools, like Witts, are out. Some schools, like Limpopo, might be in, but nobody ever even asks them. In the end you'll have three or four possibilities. You want a research degree? Your research starts here.

 

Why? Why is Witts out?

 

Thanks you to all. will do my homework over the weekend.
Thanks again.

migara

 

Does UNISA even offer a PhD in business type programs? Not sure about finance but I know management doesn't. Other business programs I know of would get the DComm degree. Management gets the DBL degree.

Bing

 

As Bear often reminds us, it is very helpful to develop a relationshi--or a dialogue, at least--with a faculty member at the school or school(s) you're interested in.

Cold-calling universities to see who will let you do your Ph.D. at a distance isn't as likely to create the result you seek.

 

UNISA www,unisa.ac.za offers the DAdmin, DBL, and DComm degrees. Finance, Risk Management, and Insurance is treated as a subdiscipline of Management Sciences. Wish I could find their faculty fiels roster. It would make things a lot more user-friendly.

 

try: www.unisa.ac.za

 

try: faculty field roster

 

Well, their faculty field roster is here www.unisa.ac.za/_cmsys/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=18868 , though it's a bit vague; here is a more specific list of research interests www.unisa.ac.za/_cmsys/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=18867 , though they do not explicitly say which professors have which research interests.

 

If you feel a state licensed doctorate degree would meet your needs, you could do what I did and enroll in Breyer State University in one of their many degree options and it would be less expensive than a foreign degree.

Just an option. One you should carefully consider however.

 

I was able to find this information for the Health Sciences department. My guess is, as with everything else at UNISA, the availability of such info is hit or miss.

 

Yes, a Breyer State University degree would look good on the wall - that is about the only utility for an unaccredited doctorate.

Shawn

 

Many people (including myself) have made inquiries to various departments. Uniformly the answer has been "no." If someone were to receive the alternate answer I'd be very happy to hear about it.

 

One reason maybe their requirement for 16 weeks on campus.

 

In my case, I did "carpet bomb" e-mails to all of the South African schools that had exercise/health science related programs. I did get replies from all of them, probably because I contacted a specific department with a very specific proposal. I believe I was able to find the graduate studies director for most of these, so that was the first contact. Many of them passed it on to a faculty member that might have an interest in my research area. Some replies were of the ' you could do that here, but I'm no so sure how...' variety (luke warm). Others were 'yes, but you need to do 6 months on campus'; 'no we can't do that but try so and so at xyz university...'. I did this also with the Australian universities I was interested in (tuition was too high for me, really).

I am working on my Phd from UZulu, which no one ever specifically recommended, due to having gotten such a great response from my promoter. It has worked out great and I think this is the key for anyone going the foreign route (as others have mentioned); make sure you have an enthusiastic promoter. Promoter is indeed the right word for what they do.

Good luck and let us know what you learn!