Post-Baccalaureate Certificate: Forensic Accounting and Fraud Investigations

Algonquin College offers a post-baccalaureate / post-diploma certificate in forensic accounting and fraud investigations via distance education. Do not let the dot-com domain fool you; Algonquin College is not a for-profit private institutions, but is a publicly-funded provincial government regulated post-secondary institution located in Ontario, Canada. I am not certain whether Algonquin College charges a different tuition rate for distance education foreign students, though foreign students are charged a higher tuition rate for on-campus studies in accordance with government regulations.

 

I have always been tempted to follow a post graduate certificate from Humber, Brown College or Algonquin. The problem is that I find insane to take 12 courses to end with a certificate, the same amount of work would give you a master;s degree at most of the universities so I don't see the point of this. Stanford gives you a certificate with only one course and many schools have 3 to 4 courses for a certificate so I don't see the logic for this.

 

I understand your point of view. A post-graduate diploma (PgDip) designation, like those in the UK, would at least make more sense. I wonder whether the courses from Forensic Accounting and Fraud Investigations graduate certificate offered by Algonquin College could be transferred into say a Ph.D. at North Central University?

 

There is limited amount of transfer that can be done at the PhD level.These graduate certificates were created by the Ontario government to deal with some shortage of workers in certain fields. They are meant for those students with little background in the field of study and you don't need a bachelors degree to register. They are more professional in nature and normally offered by colleges and not universities.

They are good alternatives but a lot of the course work is very basic and they take forever to finish. It is more cost effective to do a graduate certificate at the University since it requires 15 credits to achieve it or the equivalent of 4 or 5 courses.

 

Reason enough to go for a second master's despite of lack of focus.