Legit but no academic value

Please list some institutions that are legitimate but have no academic value.

 

For what purpose? Valueless is still valueless....

Wes

 

I just want to know does one exist. RA or foreign government approved (not US State approved) but have no academic value. And would you go for such degree?

Wes – so it goes down to value not legit, or we need both?

 

McDonald's Hamburger University, awarding the Doctor of Hamburgerology. Very legitimate. Very not valued academically.

 

Your two concepts legitimate and no academic value do not go together. If it is legitimate, it has value.

Any course of study has academic value. Even if all you are doing is reviewing material, you are still getting the benefits of repetition. By that I mean you are still thinking about the material, possibly making new connections between things, etc.

I will grant that value is a loaded word, each person values things differently from another. If the institute is RA or equiv. the value besides being academic learning is also the general acceptability of the degree.

For some, value comes from the information obtained while completing the degree, others only want the piece of paper, but if the school is legitimate, it is always going to have academic value.

No value would be a degree mill which someone paid $100 for a piece of paper, and even then, they do have a piece of paper to show for their trouble, and the value of the degree is certainly the piece of paper it is printed upon.

 

I attended Honeywell's Automation College back in '89 or '90. They gave me the only diploma I own that's in a frame!

 

I'd like to answer this question. But I'm too cowardly to piss off that many people.

 

Legitimacy Promotes Value

I tend to agree with Cory that if the degree is legitimate it has some value. The question of what constitutes value or how much value is in the degree can only lead to subjective answers.

Of course, one can argue that "legitimacy" is also a debatable issue. By "legitimate" do you you mean accredited? Or do you believe that a state approved degree is legitimate?

 

If by institution, you mean something that serves to instruct, then I'd have to say many vocational type programs like locksmithing. Another example might be programs run within some companies that don't have academic value because they are only teaching company rules, company culture or company processes.

 

I'd love to answer this one but I've already caught too much hell today. Maybe tomorrow.

 

I'll just say that if you are taking about schools, academic value is part of what legitimacy means.

So all legitimate schools have academic value. QED.

 

Interesting. Can you suggest the institutions that will make this list?

 

Re: Re: Legit but no academic value

And what definitions are we going to use for the terms "legitimate" and "academic value"? Moreover, are we talking about institutions of higher learning, vocational schools or both?

Dave

 

Re: Re: Re: Legit but no academic value

I'm using both terms with a common-sense rather than a technical meaning.

I'm using 'legitimate' according to definition 2 in Merriam-Webster's, to mean: "being exactly as purposed: neither spurious or false <legitimate grievance> <a legitimate practitioner>".

I'm using 'academic' in accordance with definition 1 in Merriam-Websters, to mean: "of, relating to, or associated with an academy or school especially of higher learning b : of or relating to performance in academic courses <academic excellence>"

'Value', I'll leave undefined.

So, if an educational institution does not successfully accomplish a school or academy's purpose, if it lacks academic value in other words, then it isn't legitimate.

I suppose that one might argue that a degree mill meets its purpose, hence it is legitimate. My reply is that it indeed might be an exemplary and fully legitimate degree mill, but it *isn't* an academy or school of higher learning, and it clearly fails to perform by that standard.

If degree mills didn't market themselves as being universities, there would be much less problem. The issue isn't so much that the degree mill doesn't provide quality education, but that it misleads students and/or their employers into believing that it does.

I don't think that issue is particularly relevant.

If a school of locksmithing performs admirably as a school of locksmithing, then it has academic value. And because it faithfully meets its purpose, it is legitimate.

Obviously, if a student wants a doctorate in classical archaeology, then he or she shouldn't enroll in a school of locksmithing. But the reverse is certainly true as well.

 

Just wanted readers' opinions: Are state-licensed (but unaccredited) universities or schools (which have been operating in the US for over 20 years), that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees, actually degree mills? (I am asking about DL institutions.) Thank you and cheerio.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Legit but no academic value

Thanks. Actually, I was hoping that "Tommy Fisher" would comment on what he meant by "legitimate" and "academic value" but I didn't want to usurp the entire thread... And vocational schools and institutions of higher learning are judged by different standards of "legitimacy" and "academic value," so the type of school may be an issue in framing an answer, in my view.

Dave

 

Didn't Oxford University used to grant "pass" degrees to folks that, admittedly, had no business doing university level work? VERY legitimate, academically nearly valueless.

Other than that, I'd suggest that correspondence law schools in California would fit the description. You can take the Bar but NO ONE will EVER consider your degree to have academic value.

Nosborne, JD

 

Possibly. Licensure varies from state to state and that can mean nothing more than a business license in some states. There are respectable but unrecognized institutions that may or may not have any utility for the degree recipient. One that gets California school mentioned here with some frequency that is seen as respectable still appears substandard based on information published here about the requirements (eg. open book multiple choice exams at the graduate level, DBA with no dissertation/doctoral project and not the normal amount of credits). Someone from another CA approved school mentioned they did a DBA with 12 courses. A little light.

So, do your research of all the affordable foreign and domestic options available. If you absolutely must pursue an unnaccredited degree (for some reason) then ensure that it will meet your future and present needs. One of the things to consider is if someone were doing a media story about you and looked into your degree program would it be the cause of hilarity (ie open book multiple choice exams, etc).

North

 

Tommy: Please list some institutions that are legitimate but have no academic value.

John: Bellevue Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Captain Kangaroo Fan Club. The Catholic Church.

PS - I´m pretty sure that McDonalds Hamburger University does have regional accreditation at the Associate degree level.

 

Depends. In my opinion, people toss about the term "degree mill" far too loosely and easily.

The meaning of "state-licensed" varies from state to state. Some states have fairly strict laws that govern private or proprietary secondary institutions; some have strict laws that are rarely enforced; some have vague or lax laws ... or laws that seem strict but have loopholes that can accommodate a Mack truck (Saint Mack that is).

Why? Oh, ok, this is a distance learning discussion forum ... but unaccredited schools that operate legally according to the law of the state where they're located/incorporated can range from good to bad to mediocre, regardless of how they deliver their instruction.

From the wording of your question, it seems as if you're also asking about only schools that have been operating for 20 or more years. Is that so?