College approval in theory

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Re: My college approval theory

I think the process Steve describes is actually taking place in the computer field. Some employers now expect certificates from companies such as Microsoft or Cisco in addition to, or instead of, degrees. This illustrates the point that everyone is free to offer any kind of education they want to, as long as they don't label the end result of the process with the words traditionally associated with college degrees. These non-degree education processes will receive whatever recognition the marketplace decides to give them.

From time to time, people ask how it is possible to start a new university, since there is a great demand for accreditation, and new universities are not accredited. The answer seems to be don't start a university at all; start an entirely different kind of educational organization.

 

I agree completely with the Ashton unit. What is so magical about the term "degree" anyway? As a society we have been brainwashed into thinking that all degrees are glorious and all non-degrees are worthless, which is nonsense.

Case in point: I hold two degrees, in political science and law, yet my two most significant books (both from a university press) are about birds, a subject in which I have no degree at all but 35 years of other kinds of experience (as a bird-bander etc.).

Clifford Adelman wrote an excellent essay a few years back about exactly the issue of computer certifications, and I cited it in my essay on degrees that will be in the Chronicle of Higher Ed in October.

Degrees have meaning, but they do not have ALL meaning.

 

Nonsense. You should know full well, Mr. Contreras, that the J.D. represents the ACME of human achievement!

Right??

 

Or do I mean "APEX"?

 

Actually I think the U.S. JD is a strange program. It is three years when it should be two and it does not necessarily have any practical component at all. As I recall, the Canadian model is 2 years followed by a full year practicum with a law firm, which seems more sensible.

 

What is more strange to a non-American is that the JD degree is called a doctorate!

In Australia, for example, a high school graduate completes a 4 year law degree, which is called a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.).

I also wonder at the rigour of your Ph.D. programs. It seems that the US student does a pile of course then a thesis that is not much more demanding than a course work/thesis Master's degree offered through a typical Australian university.

 

I think that is a good way of doing it. I wonder how many states do it this way?