Accepted into Heriot-Watt Univ DBA program

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by JeepNerd, Oct 22, 2012.

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  1. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    May be, the guy seems to be happy with his options and just wanted to raise a possible issue. I did not know much about accreditation at the time I got my doctorate so did not care much about AACSB, now that I work in the academic realize that my options are limited and wish would have taken the extra step and gotten an accredited one.
     
  2. bassethorn

    bassethorn New Member

    Although I'm a HW grad, I won't be so biased to not recognize the university to be more of a regional institution, similar to say Simon Fraser University or University of Victoria in my neck of the woods. It certainly doesn't YET have the big name reputation as its big brother in town Edinburgh University that is more international.

    The HW DBA certainly looks very solid and afterall it comes down to each individual to make it work for them. Exclusive it certainly isn't, statistics on its website shows hundreds of DBA students enrolled around the world. I doubt another business doctoral program comes close?
     
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    RFValve's right on all this; ignore his advice at your peril.

    But to make things even more interesting, a friend of mine discovered that even if you have a doctorate from an AACSB accredited school there are no guarantees of a six-figure salary as a B-school tenure track professor. (He's doing all right, just shifted gears a little, but he was surprised when he thought he'd be a shoo-in for such a gig and it turned out not to be so.)
     
  4. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Unfortunately, there is no guarantee of anything in life. You shoot for a tenure track at a research university, you might ony get a full time non tenure track position at a teaching school. However, if you go with an option that will put you at the bottom of the list, then you are really decreasing your chances.

    You have already few negatives when you go distance learning due to bias against this type of degrees to add on top other issues such as lack of accreditation, DBA instead of PhD, open admissions, foreign degree, etc.

    Things are getting very competitive and they are getting worst with time. When I enrolled in my doctorate, any doctorate would have done as the opportunities were vast. Now, most schools want AACSB accreditation, publications in top journals, teaching experience, professional certifications, etc.
     
  5. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    It seems like it is just easier to get a six-figure salary in the corporate world and forget about a PhD all together. Getting a $100-125K position with bonuses is not that much of a stretch.
     
  6. bassethorn

    bassethorn New Member

    Those below age 35 (30?) who wants tenure positions, go to the best school you can afford and put in the time. For the rest of the folks with established careers and only want a doctorate for extra income, there are other options pending on personal costs benefits analysis.
     
  7. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    If you go on an hourly rate, the tenure position is hard to beat. Most professors with tenure might work only 20-25 hrs a week and many double their salary with extra teaching at executive programs, consulting work, etc. You get summers off that is not something you get in industry.

    I don;t know in the US but a typical business professor with tenure in Canada at a research business school might easily make more than 200K if you include consulting, extra teaching, etc.

    Some even more if they go into administration (e.g. dean).

    As Steve said, there is no guarantee that because you have all the right things you can get the job but if you are going to go thourgh the trouble of getting a doctorate, at least get an accredited one (I mean AACSB).

    Of course there is also bias because DL, foreign, DBA vs PhD, etc so the reality is that you can never get perfection once you decide to do a distance degree.
     
  8. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    What makes you believe that a doctorate will give you extra income? There are studies in Canada that show that differences in pay checks in some fields like Engineering between a PhD and a M.Sc is only few thousand.

    Adjunct careers in Canada do not require a PhD. Most people can get jobs as adjuncts at Business faculties with an MBA as professional designations (e.g. CGA, CMA, CFA).

    Many people think that the PhD would open the doors to online teaching, this can be the case but online teaching pays peanuts to hardly justify the investment.
     
  9. bassethorn

    bassethorn New Member

    Clearly the more knowledgeable someone is about the value of return from earning a doctorate in his own circumstance, the better informed his decision will be. Someone may pursue a doctorate for non-education pursuits such as to better market themselves as consultants, business owners. They will figure out their own ROIs and spend their resources accordingly.
     
  10. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    I believe aacsbs is important. Anyway i did a quick review of the accounting faculties at Canadian instituitions and could not find any support for aacsb. The main employment site does not asked for aacsb degrees.
    University Affairs - Search Results
    What I have suspected is that a strong resume and some luck will do the trick. From my brief research, A DBA/PHD from HW will not make you less competitive than DBA/PHD from Bellarmine University (aacsb) in Canada.
     
  11. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    :dance::dance::dance::dance:
     
  12. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    I believe aacsbs is important. Anyway i did a quick review of the accounting faculties at Canadian instituitions and could not find any support for aacsb. The main employment site does not asked for aacsb degree.
    What I have suspected is that a strong resume and some luck will do the trick. From my brief research, A DBA/PHD from HW will make you less competitive than DBA/PHD from Bellarmine University in Canada.
     
  13. JeepNerd

    JeepNerd New Member

    As I am already teaching, the non-AACSB is ok by me, I really want the terminal degree to secure my side income and do not plan on pursuing a full time AACSB university position.

    It is possible that down the road (closer to retirement from industry) I would consider a "full time" online teaching position, but based on my area of expertise (accounting) I suspect I will just keep plugging away part time.

    So with that in mind, the EQUIS or EMBA or such would be nice but the fact that I do NOT have to travel overseas offsets that in a big way for me! (Grenoble, or such...) If they offered the residency programs IN the USA I would have considered them higher.

    Anderson Univ was a big #2 for me, but 4 weeks per year ON CAMPUS was just too much... lots of schools actually that I considered and Baker College was actually the next school I would have applied to.

    SO...again for me, this is about securing my EXISTING teaching income (part time) at several RA college in their online programs.
     
  14. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Oh no! Another one that wants a doctorate so you can make money as a part time teacher.

    You are not supposed to exist, you are a minority in this world. People should not want a doctorate just to be able to teach part time as this is against any logic.

    Sorry, I couldn't resist, we just had a large discussion about this, it looks like some discussion members cannot believe that people do doctorates just to be able to adjunct. It seems that people wanting a doctorate should do it to be research directors, tenure track professors, politicians, CEOs but not poorly paid adjunct instructors.

    To me it makes sense, as DBA are becoming the new MBAs, the future adjunct positions would require a DBA just to be able to teach part time given the amount of new programs and graduates from doctoral programs. If you don't get the DBA, you might not be able to teach in the future so it makes perfect sense to me.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 5, 2012

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