What is the cheapest non-resident PhD?

What is the cheapest non-resident PhD?
I have heard that the University of Zululand is very cheap but I am having a tough time navagating their website to find information. I am mostly interested in US schools because I feel it would be easier to communicate (travel or phone) with them but I am open minded to save 15K.

Has anyone attended UNIZUL? What is the cost? Is there a residence requirement?

 

Yes there are several here that are attending UNIZUL. I do not know of anyone doing a residency. Theirs is less than 2000 for the program. We have had theology majors, one guy who was working on a combined IT/Theology doctorate awarded by IT.

As for US schools it probably depends on the field. I think U of Nebraska is cheap for Education. Northcentral is probably the cheapest DL (and no residency) PhD. They have the fields of Psych, Business (includes CJ Admin, etc).

North

 

I took my PhD free of charge in Germany. I wrote my thesis in English and spent less than a week there.

 

Explain.

 

While UNIZUL has gotten a good share of discussion on this forum I would also want to point out that there are a number of other South African universities that are willing to enter into agreements with doctoral students. After spending a considerable amount of time researching the possibilities (this included numerous email exchanges with various department heads) I eventually decided upon the University of the Free State, located in Bloemfontein, South Africa. I haven't added it up but it's clear that the cost per year is under $1K. Prior to making this decision I had informal offers from the University of Pretoria, the University of Natal, the University of Cape Town and Rand Africaans University. My point here is that there are a number of universities that are willing to bend a bit to accommodate the right student if they are approached correctly. This is something I learned from listening to John Bear's explanations of "the UK research doctorate." So, don't feel hemmed in by the idea that UNIZUL and UNISA are your only SA options. Surf some SA university websites (I know, I know, they are sometimes difficult to navigate) and find the faculty members who share your research interests. That's the key to the first step. Good luck,
Jack

 

Good points Jack. While UNIZUL has gained a reputation as the most easy to deal with it is not your only option. Depending on your field you may be able to find an equally affordable SA institution with a department with a higher academic reputation for your field.

Good luck. As Jack points out it takes research and some negotiation.

North

 

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Randall

In the area of Theology Unizul besides the Dth offers a DPhil. My hunch is that the DPhil is offered in several other faculties too. Don't know about the PhD....same degree, different nomenclature, I suppose.

Tuition in the Unizul doc program is about a grand a year in US dollars. The nifty thing is while one should expect to take more than two years to finish, one only pays tuition for the first two years. So it's around $2000. Not so in some other SA schools. I start my second year in June.

I have not a great deal of difficulty making contact as needed for questions and such. I did have a little problem in getting thesis (dissertation) chapters to the Promoter because the foreign languages (Greek/Hebrew) for some reason came out blanks when sent by email. Of course regular postage is very slow.

I'm happy with Unizul!

 

Getting my German PhD degree wasn't exactly straighforward and relied mostly on an understanding professor. I was registered at Leicester University England for a PhD POLITICS degree on the politics of Lesotho and South Africa. I was banned from entering South Africa (no reason given but maybe because I had been an exchange student at a Nigerian university and was often resident in Tanzania) and banned from transitting to Lesotho, a country totally surrounded by South Africa. My research was therefore conducted clandestinely in both countries and I rarely went to Leicester, where I was in fact a part-time self-funded student.

In 1981 I submitted my PhD thesis at Leicester and my professor failed to look at it. Two years went by. An American friend doing a similar degree in the Netherlands suggested I transfer to a more efficient university. In early 1984 I wrote to a German professor who had written a book on a related topic. He asked me to send my work. I did so and he was satisfeid with what he read. Then my Leicester professor sent a letter saying he "really should get round to reading my work some time." I resigned from Leicester. I learned later that Leicester had a crisis with postgraduates, several of whom had suffered treatment similar to my own.

The German university accepted me as a PhD HISTORY student on the strength of my British BA Honours degree and over three years high school teaching experience. I went to Germany for three days in May 1984, was asked to omit one sentence (Liberalism is the magnaminity of the already powerful") and a sour comment that Pope Pius XII didn't do much as he should against Hitler.

In December 1984 I returned for another three days and defended my work (written in English) before a panel of five professors. I was awarded my degree magna cum laude. They asked me not to spread news of my experience otherwise they would be innudnated with applications.

There were no fees but I had to print 100 copies of my work. It was about 230,000 words and 540 pages in length. I printed 700 copies and sold 600 of them.

This work did little or nothing to help my career or deteriorating financial situation. I got a job as deputy head of History at the University of Asmara, Eritrea at US$5000 a year. I then took a Masters in TESOL and this has sustained me since. My PhD has been mostly useful for giving other people references and getting better service in shops. A shorter version was published by the Australian National University in 1995.

Germany, Scandinavia and the Netherlands are good places to try for PhD by pure research. Technically I didn't take a distance PhD but in practice it was.

 

Could it be because you were an active member of several revolutionary organizations dedicated to the overthrow of the then-current regimes in those two countries?

According to their website, University of Bremen continues to accept PhD students working in English.

 

No, I wasn't. The BCP of Lesotho was elected the Government of Lesotho in 1970 and overthrown by a military coup. My aid for that party was long after my banning from South Africa.

A word of advice: don't believe what you read on search engines. This is last time I am posting anything on this website. Goodbye

 

I think Doctor Oxpecker hit a nerve. Nurse, more novacaine. Time for a root canal.

 

Randell,

I'm pursuing a Ph.D. in Communication Science through UZ. There are no residence requirement. However, my supervisor requires a web cam in additon to the other internet/computer stuff.

He responds promptly to all emails. He answers questions, makes suggestions on the material I send him and he provides a list of resources to use in my study. In short, I am learning a lot and I'm more than pleased.

Still, I should add, I wouldn't have made it this far without Degreeinfo. The search engine alone is worth a goldmine.

Roscoe

 

African Degrees

Can someone please explain to me why Liberian degrees (West Africa) are dismissed in this forum, but South African degrees are somehow acceptable?

There appears to be a double standard.

 

Re: African Degrees

The South African schools that have been mentioned are all old universities in the British tradition and are government supported.

The Liberian schools mentioned in different threads are American or other schools that are not in Liberia and merely paid money to someone in Liberia for "accreditation". There certainly are legitimate Liberian schools but they have not been mentioned here.

 

Re: African Degrees

The answer is simple. The Liberian degrees and accreditation that are often discussed here are fraudulent. They are bogus. Nobody here would ridicule legitimate degrees from The University of Liberia or degrees other properly recognized institutions in Liberia. A degree from St. Regis that claims accreditation by the Ministry of Education of Liberia is a joke.

Ike Okonkwo

 

Re: African Degrees

South Africa has a very well established and well respected British style education system and was a major part of the British Empire. For Africa it was a very prosperous country that put a lot into the education system as both the British and the Dutch (Afrikaaners respected education). Certainly problems in terms of racial inequality in the systems, etc.

Incidentally, rather funny to think that the segment of the Dutch population that came to South Africa remained very conservative and dominated by their Calvinist beliefs while the Dutch at home became very liberal and relatively irreligious. Does sociology not have a fragmentation theory that proposes that the character of a colonized country has much to do with the point in history at which it is founded and in a sense seperated from the mother country. If I recall that is why the theory says that South American countries have had a far more difficlut time establishing democracy than did the United States. I am stretching to remember my undergrad studies and it is not really relevant.

North

 

Thanks everyone for your responses. Before I finish my MS from TUI (next summer), I will contact NCU, UNIZUL, and TUI and compare.

Thanks again, this is a tough choice. First to go for a PhD then to decide on a school.

 

Paulie

Take a look at:

AT SRU website:

http://www.stregisuniversity.ac/tuition.htm

It states near the top:

BELOW IS A LIST OF ALL FEES.
DEGREE DOCUMENTS ARE AVAILABLE ONLY TO QUALIFIED GRADUATES UPON COMPLETION OF CURRICULUM.
GRADUATES MAY BEGIN USING THEIR DEGREE TITLES IMMEDIATELY UPON ACCEPTANCE & PAYMENT OF APPLICABLE FEES.


ALso note the $995 Full Professorship -*Doctorate Degree req.

Doubt UNISA or UNIZL make the same offer!

 

Ike Okonkwo wrote:

> Nobody here would ridicule legitimate degrees from The
> University of Liberia or other properly recognized institutions in
> Liberia.

If the Liberian government is corrupt enough to "accredit" any diploma mill that pays a bribe, then who is the authority that "properly recognizes" institutions there?

 

I was referring to colleges that were established several decades ago. Liberia has not always been in a bad shape. The country was once a very stable nation. Liberia started falling apart in early 1980s after a coup d'etat that was staged by non-commissioned army officers.