Here are some of the first responses to whether a MTh from SATS would gain entrance into one of SA university doctroate programs. Although I presently have an M.A. in OT, I was considering doing a MTh before a doctorate for a number of reasons (Which I will not detail here). Some responses take my previous education into account, as you will see. Frist from Reuben from SATS: "Regarding your other question, private institutions in SA were the first to be subject to the accreditation process of the Council on Higher Education. As from next year all institutions, both private and atate, will be subject to the same rules and all will have site visits to establish if they have met the established criteria. I have been appointed as an evaluator and from time to time will be asked to go out and do evaluations of both kinds of institutions. The aim of all of this is to ensure that the national aim is met, namely that standards and qualifications are absolutely uniform and that credits earned at any accredited, registered institution are truly portable. This means that whwether one earns the degree at SATS or at any other institution, the standards are the same. In any case, at the Masters level, the External Examiner will probably come from one of the state institutions anyway. Now, having said all that, there has always been what can only be described as professional jealousy between state institutions, which , with the advent of people like ourselves, I am sure has intensified. It is the state's aim to readicate that, but who knows how long that will take. We are too young to have graduates who have moved on to other institutions to be able to give you an answer. Our first graduation is in November this year. However, all our subjects up to Honours level (fourth year) have been accepted by the University Zululand as being of equivalent standard. I hope this gives you some idea." Now Unizulu: "1. If you hold an MA in OT from an accredited seminary, the University of Zululand will accept you for its doctoral programme (D.Th or D.Phil) depending on the merit of your research proposal. 2. S.A.T.S. was accredited with us, and we still regularly help them with post-graduate programmes. 3. We recommend that you register directly with us. This will avoid dealing through a third party, might cost less, and your qualification will be that of a public, state institution such as the University of Zululand, whose qualifications are internationally recognised." This last quote seems to skirt the issue a bit, so is not that helpful.
Encouraging? Kevin and others: Maybe I do not understand the SA scene very well, but will all the uncertainty with the SA mergers, and with the accreditation process that SATS described as being relatively new and still it seems in the initiation process for many SA institutions, I am left with a little uncertainty myself as to where some of these institutions (including SATS) might end up. Help me out here if I am seeing this wrong.
