I am lining up education reimbursement and running into a problem. The policy requires a grade report and units earned. Th Henley DBA only has a pass/fail (which will work) at about 1 1/2 and the end of the program, and no credits designated at all. They do have a status report that comes our bi-yearly, so I think I can make that work. But I can't get around the units issue. Anybody out there run into this, and if so, how did you explain this to your employer. Also, if I end up only getting through the first couple of years and want to transfer for some reason, I would not have anything to show for it, right?
I'd usually suggest a polite letter from the Head of Department, on headed notepaper, explaining that most courses in the UK don't have units as they're known in the United States. As Henley do a six-monthly review, you could possibly suggest to both Henley and your employer that a satisfactory result in those would be the equivalent of a certain number of graduate units. Pick a comparable looking DBA in the States and try and do a conversion of the units if it's looking difficult. If your employer/Head of Department doesn't accept the above or doesn't understand that we do things differently over here, you are, of course, in rather a bind. Welcome to the wonderful world of the doctorate by research ;-) Actually, you're extremely lucky that Henley offers an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma once you've got to the stage of starting your thesis. It's quite possible to end up with nothing to show for a whole PhD over here if the thesis doesn't work out. However, it is *imperative* that you establish beforehand, preferably with both Henley and a US business school of your choice, what the Advanced Diploma equates to, and how many credits at the doctoral level you'd receive for it. Otherwise, as you're well aware, you may be forced to take a large number of core preliminary courses at a US business school, despite the fact that you'll have covered the material at Henley. You should also check with Henley whether they follow the relatively common path in the UK of awarding an MPhil for a piece of research that ends up being substantive but falls just short of the doctoral level, just in case there are any problems with your thesis along the way. In the final analysis, I'm afraid that you're facing the commonest problem that any US student encounters in the UK doctoral arena. Your side of the pond believes in still doing courses at the doctoral level, whereas we don't. I wish I could say something more helpful, but the two models are so far apart that there's very little one can do to make them look alike. Angela
Re: Re: No Credits in a Doctorate Program This was great feedback.... I wish I could change my side of the pond
Hi Angela: What great information! This is the sort of thing that makes this forum really worthwhile. Your post is helpful to anyone in a research-only doc program.
I mis-spoke. The university always used credits. It did provide grads until a few years ago. http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/11/02/leisure.grades.reut/
ed credits My employer said any work completed outside the U.S. had to be analyzed by an authorized agency, and they had a long list of agencies that could be used (for a fee, of course). They accept whatever credit the agency deems equivalent.
