Out of Africa an observation:

Dr Song along with shooting me an email re my acceptance into Unizul takes a shot at some elements in American "higher" ed:

"With the more liberal educational system operating in the USA, and the hair raising stories in our press of all sorts of bogus degrees being offered, some of our academics have raised questions about some of the institutions at which our post graduate theological students have studied. CAUTION seems to be the operative word."

 

Who could blame them? Good luck with your studies.
Jack

 

Thanks Jack!

 

Good luck Bill (soon to be Dr. Bill)

North

 

Re: Re: Out of Africa an observation:

On top of my most hearty congratulations I also need to add that it is quite sad that our education system is taking a beating.

North

 

North

Thanks for the great advice you and others gave me a couple of months ago.

 

Re: Re: Re: Out of Africa an observation:

I don't think that the American higher education system is "taking a beating" at all.

I would expect any university to verify the previous degrees earned by its doctoral applicants. That extends not only to verifying that they were in fact earned, and to verifying the accreditation of the school that granted them, but even to scrutiny of detailed transcripts to determine what precisely was studied and what the applicant's academic preparation really was.

What's vaguely troubling here is not the suggestion that they are doing these things, but the suggestion that up till now they haven't.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Out of Africa an observation:

I think that in other countries there may be a niave assumption about the education system. So, I do not know what UNIZUL was doing but they may have simply been requesting original transcripts, etc and assuming the schol was good to go. I know in Canada (although we have had the occasional mill pop up) there has not been a proliferation of mills as there has been in the US probably partially due to the laws in that country. Maybe the same is *generally* true in South Africa. I do not think that anyone can afford to be niave these days with the proliferation of mills and fake credentials. I am sure that in foreign countries the whole idea of *state approved* in the US causes confusion because that appears equivalent to their system. That is proabably why you saw things like Columbia Pacific University degrees accepted in some foreign countries such as Canada (eg Regina public library for some position or promotion).

North

 

After my transcript was received by Song he had to send it to SAQA for approval as is done with all foreign degrees.

The context of Song's remark is my nipping at the heels of the system (even tho only a few weeks had passed) and impetuously urging it to speed up my admission. I think Song was describing a condition of heightened wariness on the part of higher Ed in general in SA toward US applicants and more particulary the growing concern of the Unizul University Senate ,which must OK at least some applicants, that every prospective US Unizul grad student has accredited qualifications. Song says "I am at present involved in piloting a policy document through our University Senate to make life easier for me as Dean and for SATS to expedite the applications." He indicates that the Unizul faculty of Theology has no problem with ATS or RA schools.