Hello all, MA in Ancient Philosophy and Mythology For those of you, like me, who wish to see more distance learning graduate programs in the humanities and social sciences, here's one from the University of Wales. I don't think this program has been posted here before, but, if it has been mentioned, please pardon the repetition:"...available to both British and overseas students for one year full-time, part-time two years or external (modular) for three or four years." I'll have to verify if it's possible to do the program entirely by DL. http://www.lamp.ac.uk/classics/mamyth.html 6 modules plus a dissertation of 20,000 words. Module examples include: The Mythology of Homer, Hesiod and the Ancient Near East Myth and Tragedy: Acts of Violence and Civilising Strategies Ancient Medicine: Practice and Myth The Presocratics: Myth into Philosophy Philosophical Arguments Relating to the Body, the Soul, and the Future Life Research Skills and Methodology By the way, have any other DL philosophy programs (straight philosophy not within humanities or liberal studies) turned up? Keep the fire alive... Cheers, John
The only one (at MA level) that I am aware of is from the Open University in UK. This is rather narrowly focussed on Social and Political Philosophy (with some other bits in the first year). This has been running only for one year (it is a three year part-time programme). Theoretically I think it is only available in Europe, but I know at least one student took his exam this year in New York where he was working temporarily. Malcolm S Jenner
Malcolm, you (or someone else reading) may know the answer to this: What is the rationale behind the OU specifically excluding U.S. students? Cheers,
Not just the US. I inquired about their MSc in Math and they indicated that it was only open to EU and a few other European countries. Given that this is the only DL math masters, the restrication is a great shame. (Texas A&M has a masters of math with a teaching option; not quite the same thing) If the University of London and other British universities can deliver programs over here, why not the OU????
Oxford has online its Advanded Diploma in Local History: http://www.tall.ox.ac.uk/tallinternet/localhistory/ There is also a masters degree in international human rights being offered online. The current list of Oxford distance ed offerings can be found at: http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/inwelcome.html John
This is purely my personal reading of the situation. At undergraduate level it seems to be a mixture of practical and financial reasons. The practical aspects concern the model for delivery of distance education adopted by OU. For undergraduate courses this had originally five elements: (1) Printed material; (2) Radio broadcasts (now replaced when used by audio cassettes); (3) Television broadcasts (now broadcast mainly in the middle of the night for recording and viewing off-air); (4) Face-to face tutorials with a local personal tutor (known in OU as an Associate Lecturer) (usually a two hour session in an evening or on a Saturday, spaced at monthly to six week intervals); (5) Residential summer schools (usually for a week per course - sometimes less) (note that the OU teaching year is February - October, so the summer school comes in the middle of the year). Apart from the printed materials the bulk of the teaching falls on the Associate Lecturers, who mark the students' coursework as well as answering questions and running tutorial sessions. There are currently nearly 7000 (seven thousand) of these. Rolling the programme out to Western Europe has meant providing a network of these Associate Lecturers there. Summer Schools still require students to come to UK, but these now only feature in lower level courses. Television broadcasts can be obtained on video cassette. The logistics of setting this up in US simply as an extension of the UK provision would seem to make it prohibitive. It would need a very large number of enrolments to be able to provide Associate Lecturers and tutorial sessions within reasonable travelling distance for all students (even in UK there are problems with some courses for students in remoter parts of Scotland and Wales, where there are too few students living close enough together to be able to organise normal tutorial sessions, which are sometimes replaced by telephone conference calls). Associate Lecturers also have to be able to attend training sessions (with travel and other expenses met by OU). For the taught Master's courses some of these considerations would seem not to be applicable. Teaching consists entirely of printed material, on-line conferences, on-line tutorials (for some courses only), and direct contact (e-mail or telephone) with Associate Lecturers - no face-to-face, no residentials. Coursework can be submitted electronically. On the MSc course I teach I have had students from all round Western Europe. The financial considerations would also come from the fact that students from outside EU should pay a higher fee rate (i.e. full cost) as they do not attract government grant. For some courses the OU has made provision in specific non-EU areas. This is currently, I think, only for MBA, and where the numbers justify the administration costs. The costs of DL means that the OU works in large numbers. The MSc course I teach usually has 300-400 students on it, and the students have to take eight such courses plus a project (equal to four courses) to get their MSc. The MA in philosophy had about 130 students in its first year (just finished) (I was one of them, but will not be going on until they provide something different for the second year course), but I do not know how many have survived. Enrolment for the new intake for the first year course next year appears to be a little lower. Malcolm S Jenner
In addition.... In addition to what Malcolm Jenner has posted it is the case, as I udnerstand it from talking with colleagues at the OU, that many of the video and other materials are not compatible with North American TV/video player and other systems and the same is perhaps true elsewhere in the world. 'telfax'
Re: Re: MA Philosophy As a correction to this, I have now found that Lampeter offers no less than SEVEN MA programmes in Philosophy. All pure distance learning. All flexible learning - start when you like, work independently at your own pace. See http://www.lampeter.ac.uk/philosophy/postgrad.html#postgrad for the list and links to details of what is involved. Malcolm S Jenner
This is very good news. I'm especially intrigued that they included the MA in Business Ethics in this group. Although appropriate, it just seemed strange to see that degree alongside an MA in European Philosophy. ! Chris
Re: In addition.... This is not a problem PAL to NTSC VCRs are available but I get my UK tapes converted for $15 each.
