Distance Learning Doctoral degrees + university placement

Happy New Year, all!

This is an excellent, thoughtful, insightful and useful discussion.

Thanks, Dr. Piña, Dr. Douglas et al.

 

I would suggest that the instution you are referring to is one of the smaller campuses of the university system which has an emphasis on teaching and de-emphasizes research. I would also suggest that, as stated in previous posts, these individuals could have been hired based on their masters degrees. Your mention of a PA state university brings to mind an additonal specific reason that certain types of institutions hire DL PhDs as faculty: this institution does not have the resources to compete in the market for traditonally trained faculty.

In certain disciplines, smaller B&M institutions simply don't have the resources to pay market salaries for B&M Ph.D. qualified faculty. This can be true whether the institution is a small liberal arts college or a smaller campus of a sate university system.

As an example, this is relatively common in business disciplines. PhD-qualified business faculty with AACSB-accredited degrees command approximately twice the salary of their liberal arts faculty counterparts. A brand new PhD-qualifed assistant professor in accounting, management information systems or finance at a third-tier B&M school is likely to be paid at or more than the average salary for a full professor (averaged across ALL disciplines) at a top-tier B&M school.

Smaller institutions respond to these market pressures by hiring Masters and/or professionally-qualified faculty to teach their classes. These individuals are paid far less than they could earn with a traditionally-accredited business doctorate. A DL Ph.D. may be attractive to these smaller institutions solely because they command much lower salaries than graduates of traditional PhD programs.

I know an individual that as a freshly minted B&M ABD was hired at one of the PA state campuses at the rank of ASSOCIATE professor. The ink was barely dry on the acceptance of his dissertation proposal. He did not have significant professional experience in his discipline nor teaching experience other than as a graduate teaching assistant.

Why was he hired as an associate professor? The highest step of their salary scale at this institution for an assistant professor in that discipline was about 60% of the market salary for someone with his qualifications (new ABD). As an associate professor, this person's salary was still below the market average for his qualifications. He left for another institution after one year for a demotion to assistant profesor and a significant raise. The market wages for a DL business PhD would be much closer to the salary structure of this institution.

I'm going to make a statement that many here may disagree with and that most here wish were untrue. DL doctorally prepared individuals are second class citizens in academia.

I would have strongly preferred to have obtained my doctorate in a non-traditional program. When I explored that possibility, I learned very quickly that a non-traditonal doctorate was not going to get much respect in at larger academic institutions. As I suffered through a traditional B&M PhD program I came to understand that the differences between a non-traditional and B&M program go well beyond the modality of content delivery. I'll save a discussion of my perception of these differences for another post, another time.

Interestingly, in my experience there is one non-traditional degree that seems to be more readily accepted at larger institutions. I've seen PhD grads from Union treated as peers at more than one institution. These are schools where one with a Nova, UOP or Capella degree would be better off not mentioning that fact. Maybe Dr. Bear or others here can shed some light on why.

 

I don't know this to be true, either about Union or about the other schools. But if Union graduates are held in good esteem, it is likely due to the academic roots of Union, the fact that Union has been doing this for a longer time, and that Union creates an academic community, rather than just creating a DL environment.

But the same things can be said for NSU. I don't consider Union any better than NSU, nor Fielding. I'd put Walden, Capella, and Argosy together, and lump Northcentral, TUI, and UoP together.

 

This discussion is quite timely for me, as I am being interviewed next week for a tenure-track assistant professorship at a small, liberal arts university in the Northwest. Because of the information I have gleaned through the years on this board, I am entering the interview process with realistic expectations. I think that one who enters a DL doctoral program (as I did at Fielding) should do so being realistic about their chances for landing traditional academic jobs and remain open to all sorts of other non-traditional possibilities. My doctorate has opened many doors. I'm happily employed on the faculty of Western Governors University and am also serving on some dissertation committees at Calfornia Institute of Integral Studies. I also have opportunities to do some consulting work that would not have been possible without the Ed.D.

I certainly won't be broken hearted if I don't get a b & m position, but am optimistic that it could happen if I keep publishing. I am anxious for the interview and am wondering how direct they will be in their questioning about DL. I will post something about my experience next week.

 

Best of luck to you Michael.
Jack

 

Aren't there a number of UNISA doctoral degree holders serving on faculties of "traditional B & M" universities?

 

Positive views on DL Doctoral degrees

In the article "USA losing its advantage drawing foreign students" on USAToday, http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-01-05-foreign-student-drain_x.htm
the authors discussed of "developing nations such as China and India have kept many of their best students at home." They mentioned of "other nations, such as Australia, have developed strong distance-learning programs via the Internet." I do agree with Rich of grouping Nova, Union, Fielding, Walden and Argosy in one group since these schools have been in the distance learning scene for many years. TUI and Northcentral are here less than ten years. They are young yet offering online learning experiences where students can complete regionally accredited doctorate degrees 100% online. These two schools are the future of distance learning even though they are a few years away to compete to the older and more established DL institutions. To recruit new foreign students and compete with other higher institutions in other developing and developed countries (i.e., Japan, China, India, Australia, and EU), higher tier US B&M universities should copy the Britain and Australia DL doctoral degree programs with heavy emphasis on the dissertation. At that point, DL doctoral degree holders will not be negatively judged by how they obtained their degrees but on the record of their publications. I DO HAVE A DREAM……

 

Yes, Jimmy - and there are a large number of NSU degree holders that similarly serve. I am one of these. Without my DBA I would not have been able to obtain the job that I have.

Regards - Andy

 

I thought so. Thanks Andy.