DEAC PhD

Anyone know if they have selected the pilot schools yet?

 

If you scroll all the way down I believe you will find all the information that is currently available (which is basically nothing).

Applications and Reports

 

I was strolling through DEAC's site after posting a comment about them on another thread. I see one DEAC-accredited school is doing a PhD: Fairfax University. I didn't see any others.

I would think the Harrison Middleton Doctor of Arts would be a good candidate. It's not really a "true" DA and looks a lot more like a PhD than it does a professional doctorate anyway.

 

Yes. That's University of Fairfax - a military-friendly school that opened in response to the events of 2001. Their turf is Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, Computer Software & Engineering, and Business. Graduate programs - Masters and Doctorates. (Several professional and one PhD as Rich says.) Looks like a good school.
https://ufairfax.edu/

Not to be confused with another Virginia School - Fairfax University of America, formerly known as Virginia International University.
That school has permission to operate in VA. It has never been accredited by DEAC. It was accredited by ACICS until that agency was "de-commissioned by USDoE." It is presently unaccredited.
https://www.fxua.edu/our-university/

 

I'm a fan of Great Books schools - especially this one. Rich's idea, to me, is a seriously good one!

I'd like to see them do classical language teaching, so people could learn to read the classical works in the original languages. That would facilitate real research - going to the original source (and contemporaries, commentators etc.) rather than depending on translations - the way it's properly done with Bible Scholarship.

A suitable avocation perhaps, for scholarly folks with trust funds or bullet-proof, industrial-strength retirement incomes.

 

It doesn't take all that much. Just make ONE right choice and leave it to grow. A single investment of $1,000, in Warren Buffett's Berkshire - Hathaway Co. 50 years ago is now worth $11.5 MILLION!

All about it here: https://www.hvst.com/posts/berkshire-hathaway-warren-buffetts-millionaires-club-XD9TADzd

 

PS - I failed to do that. Silly me. I should have known.

 

Quite right. I flipped when I shouldn't have.

 

I taught for VIU in its early (pre-accredited) days and consulted with them briefly regarding accreditation.

 

Perhaps. But I don't know if the marginal value would be worth the tremendous effort. After all, the idea is to learn from these texts, not to explore them as study objects.

The reason why I say it isn't a "real" DA is because the DA was designed to be a teaching degree in one's subject matter. A DA in English would prepare the graduate for a career in teaching English, rather than researching it. It was supposed to prepare people for careers at teaching colleges. And it was supposed to be equal to a PhD. But it never caught on in any meaningful way--largely because the alternate title of the award just put people off. They worked just as hard as PhD students, but got a degree that only raised more questions.

Thus, the DA should have a component on pedagogy (and andragogy, IMHO). But the one at HM does not. It truly is a PhD in disguise. Mostly. Students can opt to do a practicum or project, but I imagine the basic dissertation elements are still there. In a PhD, however, students would largely be limited to advancing scholarship via a traditional dissertation. This could also be a reason for not switching to the PhD. They allow a dissertation, so I think they should do a PhD for those students and an alternate professional doctorate--but not the DA--for everyone else.

 

William Carey International University, DEAC since 2020, was approved by DEAC on January 25-26, 2024 to offer a PhD in Global Development, though it isn't listed on WCIU's programs page yet. WCIU had offered the PhD in International Development while unaccredited, but appears to have taught it out while seeking DEAC accreditation.

 

I ma wondering if it is the same case of University of Fairfax's Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering.
URL: https://ufairfax.edu/ph-d-in-computer-science-and-engineering/

 

???? Apparently not. We've been through this, earlier in the thread. As mentioned by Rich, the program was approved by DEAC and I see it is is available, according to the U. of Fairfax website. It is the only PhD program they offer - and the only one they currently have approval for.

The program does, however, carry this note:

Accreditation Note
The PhD in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Fairfax is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC). The University of Fairfax is one of a small group of accredited institutions requested by DEAC to participate in a pilot demonstration to the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) that DEAC’s scope of accreditation should include recognition by USDOE of the PhD program level.

 

Looking at the note -- I'm not sure if I'd want to be known as "Dr. Guinea Pig."

 

Especially if, at the end of the 'experiment,' USDoE turns around and says "No. We won't recognize DEAC as a PhD-level accreditor."

What then?

 

This thread is back from the dead! 2017

 

Probably nothing. The school remains accredited, and that's what people will look at.

The bigger question is: Why a PhD from a DEAC-accredited school? A PhD--a scholarly degree--is designed to train researchers. A professional doctorate, on the other hand, is designed for practitioner who do research. Big difference. I don't see the utility of a PhD from a DEAC-accredited school--where are you gonna go? The RA schools still maintain the gap between the two, even if the Department of Education would like to wish it away. And in the non-academic sector, the distinctions between a PhD and a professional doctorate are minimal, if they even exist at all.

I just don't see the point.

 

I LOVED my students there. I taught for 3 years there as an adjunct. It was such an intercultural experience. Admittedly, there was a sense of entitlement from some of the men from certain cultures. But it was the women who blew me away with their drive and ambition. Great stuff.

I don't know about "circling the drain." Accreditation may not be all that important to them. Virginia's SCHEV is pretty rigorous in its state licensure of schools, so they can operate without accreditation. And I can vouch first-hand that foreign students don't care a bit about accreditation--governmental approval is what matters to them. (California used to be filled with schools operating within that state's meager legal requirements, pumping out degrees to foreign students.)

I haven't talked to anyone there in 20-plus years, so I certainly don't have up-to-date information on their prospects going forward.

 

I came across the University of Fairfax situation and recalled that we'd discussed this subject before. A search turned up this thread, so I thought it was better to necromance it rather than start a new one.