Its here !! - University of Wales DBA thro RDI-USA

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by dl_mba, Apr 26, 2010.

Loading...
  1. dl_mba

    dl_mba Member

  2. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    How much is that in USD?

    What's the accreditation and stature of this school? I'm not familiar with it.
     
  3. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    Multiply by 1.5 to get an approx USD cost.

    University of Wales is a legitimate UK university. But why not go direct to the university?
     
  4. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    What? Expend energy? Go to some effort? Use my mind? The Nerve of some people! :)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 26, 2010
  5. macattack

    macattack New Member

  6. macattack

    macattack New Member

  7. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    A neat Google trick is that it will do currency conversion for you.

    So search for "18800 GBP to USD" and before the normal results it will say:

    18 800 British pounds = 29 076.08 U.S. dollars

    Or "22750 GBP to USD":

    22 750 British pounds = 35 185.15 U.S. dollars

    -=Steve=-
     
  8. dl_mba

    dl_mba Member

    Here is the link for all your questions/answers..

    Online University & Distance Learning MBA Courses from RDI USA - Contact Us

    Please call a Programme Advisor at 1 800 874 5844 (USA and Canada) or 1 239 444 1730,
    1 800 677 2475 (Jamaica) or
    1 888 496 6173 (other Caribbean islands)

    Email: [email protected]
     
  9. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    Lists of the legitimate British degree grantors and of the additional institutions that these schools in turn 'validate' to teach their degree programs are here:

    http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/recognisedukdegrees/

    The University of Wales is a recognized British degree grantor and this RDI business is listed among the validated organizations. So it appears to be formally legitimate.

    The British equivalent of an American accreditor is the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). It conducts site visits and provides the continuing oversight that's necessary after an institution has been initially authorized to award degrees.

    http://www.qaa.ac.uk

    The University of Wales falls under the supervision of the QAA.

    Probably nobody is.

    The University of Wales is experiencing a bit of turmoil at the moment, as its most prestigious campuses withdraw from the U of W umbrella and set up shop as independent universities. The U. of Wales has survived by accepting a number of lesser known higher-education colleges as new U of W units, but it's emerged as a diminished institution.

    One of the more controversial aspects of the U. of Wales (in my opinion at least) has been its validation unit. This office has basically franchised out U. of Wales degree-granting-powers to more than 100 other sub-university-level education providers in scores of countries all around the world. While most of these things are no doubt perfectly fine, a few are a little iffy in my opinion. My feeling is that the U. of Wales validation unit might perhaps be more interested in generating revenue than it is in academics.

    In this RDI case, which among the current U. of Wales branches is overseeing these degrees? What are the detailed program requirements and syllabi? Who are the faculty? Will the professors be supplied by a U. of Wales unit or by RDI? Who will students actually be studying with and who will be supervising them?

    I'm not really criticising this program at this point. I'm just saying that lots of questions still need to be answered before anyone can say anything very intelligent about it.

    This appears to be the DBA program page:

    http://www.rdi.co.uk/research-degree-pathway/150-doctor-of-business-administration-dba.html

    There's a link to a downloadable prospectus, but I haven't looked at that yet.
     
  10. okydd

    okydd New Member

  11. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    Not sure how much validity there is in that ranking system. They have the University of Arizona (a party school with weak admission requirements) ranked ahead of Yale, WashU ranked below Oregon State and Dartmouth ranking in 180.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 27, 2010
  12. Ike

    Ike New Member

  13. Woho

    Woho New Member

    It's done by analyzing the amount of links going towards the university website (and a few other factors as for example the amount of Rich Media Files findable on the sites of the university...). World Universities' ranking on the Web: Methodology
    Kinda sad, that this is one of the very few sites which really benchmark all Universities around the world against each other...
     
  14. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    So you are saying that the ranking is not academic or by stature in the academic world? It's just a ranking of internet traffic via links? That's not a particularly useful ranking. I notice they claim that it's a better way to rank, but I don't think it is. The only thing that tells us is which is more popular online.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2010
  15. macattack

    macattack New Member

    More information about the university website ranking here: World Universities' ranking on the Web: Contact Us

    Rankings are based on the following criteria (webomatrics column):
    http://www.webometrics.info/images/tabla2.jpg

    Notice that Quality of Education was not considered. Regardless, the say:
    And their advice to schools that are ranked lower than expected (ie Yale), is the following:
    I'm not too impressed with this and many other "rankings", like some that merely rank based on enrollment (we all know who wins that one)...
     
  16. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Agreed. Not a particularly useful ranking.
     
  17. okydd

    okydd New Member

    The ranking was to give you an idea of the stature of the university as you requested. Here is another ranking that uses a similar methodology.
    Prifysgol Cymru University of Wales | Ranking and Review.

    U. Wales - 3874 & 3527
    Yale 10
    Walden 2521
    Argosy 2600

    In the UK Wales is rank in 40s according to the Times using more conventional criteria. I guess you can extrapolate this to the rest of the world
    world
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2010
  18. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I'm sorry, I didn't mean to criticize your attempt to give me info. My apologies. Thanks for giving it a shot.

     
  19. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    The Validation Unit was the subject of a detailed and very negative report by BBC Wales about two years ago, and was instrumental, as Bill points out, in their most prestigious universities withdrawing from the consortium. This would be equivalent to UCLA and Berkeley saying, "We do not wish to be part of the University of California system any more," and going independent.

    Wales has "validated" some pretty dreadful schools, in my opinion, along with many decent ones.

    It is unusual that RDI University does not have the ".ac" designation in the UK. As best I can figure out, their US umcampus in Florida is in an office building with many tenants, but they are not listed on the building directory. The only academic tenant seems to be the US International Christian Academy.

    I did read through the Prospectus. Over 100 pages, and very well done. But I did not find the names of any faculty members.
     
  20. RDI CEO

    RDI CEO Guest

    Hi Everyone, I am the RDI CEO and Principal.

    There are a number of inaccuracies in this thread that I wish to clarify.

    RDI is the largest independent provider of UK university distance learning education, worldwide. We have been doing this for the past 20 years and in that time helped more than 50,000 students successfully study UK university qualifications by distance learning.

    We currently work with 9 UK universities, offering and supporting their courses. Our headquarters is in the UK and we have offices in the USA and Hong Kong, both founded more than 10 years ago. The USA office is primarily responsible for admissions in North, South America, Caribbean and Canada. It does not provide delivery or faculty services. Tutor support by UK University Faculty is provided remotely from the UK.

    RDI operates under the regulations and procedures of each of its University partners who are audited by the Quality Assurance Agency (The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education - Home Page). RDI is responsible to and is audited by each of its University partners. This means that RDI operates to the same quality standards as each of its University partners and if we didn’t then we would be out of business very quickly. All UK Higher Education (HE) provision is also subject to external scrutiny through the External Examiner system which is well documented. Our University of Wales provision is subject to the same, and in some cases, more external scrutiny that our other HE provision. All RDI Faculty are scrutinised and approved by its University partners before appointment.

    The University of Wales DBA programme has been under development for almost 2 years. It is a prestigious programme of study with a very limited intake and substantial application process that requires scrutiny of all applications and appointment of supervisors by a Research Degrees Committee. Its Faculty are made up of highly experienced doctoral supervisors drawn from UK universities who work remotely together using our ilearn VLE and combined creates a coherent mass of academic doctoral expertise.

    Our prospectus is scrutinised by all of our University partners before publication.

    .ac.uk domain names are only allocated to organisations that receive public funding so as a private organisation RDI is not eligible (Eligibility)

    RDI does not submit itself for rankings, our University partners are the ones who are ranked. We are listed (not ranked) on the FT.com list of online MBA’s (Business school rankings and MBA rankings from the Financial Times) .

    I am happy to answer reasonable questions.

    Dr Philip Hallam
     

Share This Page