If you have a Masters degree and 30 credits this Institute will allow you to write a paper or submit works for a Ph.D by publication.They will evalaute it and include you in their community of scholars. From their site: "Work which is deemed of sufficent originality, relevance and merit will become the basis for the granting of the PhD by Publication. There are presently no mandatory fees. Qualifying publications will be archived on this site and available for assessment and for useful application in the worlds of idea and action." There is no accreditation that I can see. It is an interesting idea and they do require a lot of previous graduate credits (Masters &30). The Ralph W Emerson Global Institute for Advanced Study Ralph W. Emerson Institute - The qualifying publication will represent an original and significant contribution to knowledge.
This is interesting. So it's an unaccredited PhD that is free and you only have to write a dissertation? I would even suspect that it is a degree mill of some sort, except for the fact that it does not charge. I would wonder what good a degree from there would be other than bragging rights. I can't imagine that it would be honored in academia or business in most cases.
I'm very new here and I don't know much about doctoral study, but I think this would ultimately be a waste of time. I don't even think obtaining the degree would be worth bragging rights because it would almost be disrespectful to folks who actually earned doctorate degrees. That being said, it would be awesome to see a non-prof or any other accredited institution offer something like this. With the proper application process in place to weed out unqualified candidates, a program like this could be very cool - as long as the distinguished title of "Dr" didn't get watered down in the process.
How is this different from a degree that you grant to yourself? If the granted authority has no formal recognition, it just becomes a piece of paper in my opinion.
I'll grant you a PhD for $100. With only a dissertation I will award you a PhD in Surfology. Any takers?
This would be true in academic circles, but you would be surprised how many people in the general population will take a bogus PhD at face value. Some people with bogus doctorates have even managed to weasel their way into academia. Even for free, this kind of degree doesn't seem to be worth the tremendous effort required to write a dissertation. While it is free, there is still a huge cost in effort.
There are similar doctorates offered in the UK or Australia but mainly available to people that work as staff or graduates at granting institutions. This is a free program so I wonder about their motivation. It can be a legit effort or also a phishing site that is meant to gather transcripts and cvs for identity theft or to sell fake transcripts. With legit transcripts, one could use photoshop to change the name and use them for employment or graduate school.
Good point. Are you aware of this happening in other circumstances? I've not, but I'll bet that it has happened.
Once I applied for a faculty position from a fake University, the place asked me for a transcript that I supplied thinking the job was legit. The University used my name during many years in their web site and never got a penny for this. I'm not sure if the transcript was used for something else but I wouldn't be surprised if it was sold to one of these fake transcript places. Nobody works for free, I don't think these guys are just making you a favour. They might also grant some PhDs to people with some credibility so they can build a reputation so they eventually charge for this. Think about it, the business model could be to grant 10 PhDs to professors and other high profile professionals so the credentials start getting some recognition in places like Linkedin. Once the institute gets some recognition, then charge few thousand for the same diploma. Prospect students might be willing to pay if they see professor holding a PhD from the institution. The fact is that there is no address nor any contact information for this place. For all we know, the owners could be people living in India that opened a domain in the US.
If someone is really interested by a PhD by publication, check the one below: Research & Enterprise Office - University of Stirling - Postgraduate Information, Info for Students, PhD by Publication.
Smells like Knightsbridge--a totally fake scam where a guy sold degrees from his house. But users found ways to exploit them. This, too, I'm sure.
For a totally free degree, for ten more years there has been the University of Bums on Seats, University of Bums on Seats - Welcome, discussed here a number of times. You can even print out your diploma online.
