anyone is familiar with this school

tadj,

I am not an expert on these matters but I know a lot more than most people. I'd be willing to bet that I know more about higher education accreditation than most HR professionals. If it remains murky to me then it will certainly be murky for our friends in HR. I'm not about to recommend a school/program that may or may not get by the credential evaluators and might get their resume sent to the circular file. So you can promote this DBA that's not a DBA if you like but you'll get some pushback from me. It feels deliberately misleading. If there were no alternatives it might be different but there are plenty of options around. Why take the chance? Oh wait, I know the answer to that one

 

What is a "top university"?

 

My research is getting a little long-in-tooth, but it supports your statement, and I haven't seen anything in the ensuing years to change that.

In fact, the ability to screen and evaluate academic and professional credentials isn't included in the competencies set out by SHRM. I'm an SPHR. In my studies for that credential, I never once came across the concept being presented, either in prep materials or on the exam itself. It's as if the concept doesn't exist. I concluded in my Union dissertation that HR professionals don't know and don't care. It's still true.

 

I would agree with your stance. There is no reason to actively promote the Collegium Humanum DBA program, especially if there is any shadow of doubt as to it's compatibility with a foreign degree under the same name. Some people might want to use this Polish post-diploma as a degree. The usage would be unethical when you consider that this is simply a different type of qualification. I am not going to recommend it in non-Polish contexts due to the associated risks. But I do feel that it is a perfectly legit award in Poland. That's why I am defending the non-degree qualification itself without evaluating the program of the specific school. I also think that there is a way to distinguish a post-diploma from a degree, even outside of Poland. A simple "post-diploma" statement on a resume would be a helpful here. Would I spend 8,000 Euro on it, if I was living outside of Poland? That would indeed be ridiculous. In fact, the program is much cheaper for on-site Polish students. It costs around 2,536 Euro at the current rate of exchange from Polish złoty. Clearly, it's not a good deal for non-locals. I am just going to push back against attacks on the school on the basis of the fact that they grant a one-year DBA in Poland. Should they be offering this with partners abroad? I'd prefer that they wouldn't engage in such practices. But the reality is that it's the only qualification that they can offer to foreigners without some on-campus presence requirement. That's the situation here.

 

There is usually an ethical way to present rare foreign qualifications. The Slovakian PhDr could be referred to as a "small doctorate" on a resume. It's comparable to an MPhil. Of course, you will always find people that will want to take advantage of the lack of knowledge about these internal country qualifications and present themselves in a dishonest manner abroad. I am quite confident that Collegium Humanum issues it's own qualification as a "Doctor of Business Administration Certificate of Completion of Postgraduate Studies", since they state that in the English-language "Diplomas and Qualifications" section for the DBA program. They wouldn't want to risk the loss of accreditation in Poland. It's just problematic to assume that words like "Bachelor", "Master" and "Doctor" have the same referent across higher education systems.

 

Think about it this way: In the U.S., you can have "Doctor" as an academic degree title, a strictly medical title, an honorary degree title-only, a professional degree title, a practitioner title, etc. Why would you assume that "Doctor of Business Administration" is a professional degree title in every instance, especially in a foreign educational context? That's how you've mostly seen it applied. But that's just an assumption on your part. Foreign education systems may deviate from your set of ingrained assumptions. It's rather ignorant to disregard this fact and insist on your preffered usage.

 

https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20148372/blog-whats-in-a-title.html

 

http://ceskapozice.lidovky.cz/tema/czech-title-mania-to-survive-in-new-education-law.A110707_164011_pozice_25383

 

Ugh.

If what you’re doing can leave the wrong impression with people, it is itself wrong.

Telling the world you have a DBA, when you really don’t, and then qualifying it with a disclaimer is deceptive, in my opinion.

In one of John Bear’s early editions he talked about a guy who had a list of post-nominal following his name. One of them was “BSA.” When John inquired about it, the man said it stood for “Boy Scouts of America.” And so it goes....

 

In Poland, if you insist that you're a doctor after obtaining your DBA in the United States, you may face legal consequences. You're giving the wrong impression to Poles, mainly that you've obtained a recognized doctorate. Notice the Americacentrism in your own argument.

 

All your arguments boil down to impressions. You've looked at the title on the website (without looking at the qualifications section where the title is explained) and you came to the conclusion that it's deceptive. I can say the same thing about the American MBA. It's deceptive to use the title as equivalent to a Master's degree, becouse it isn't a true Master's degree in my country. What does that prove? Nothing.

 

My first thought about the ethical way to present foreign qualifications (rare or otherwise) is to run them through a credential evaluation process. If the service says "This credential is equivalent to a Masters degree" then that's the way you present it regardless of whether you agree. Inventing terms like "small doctorate" is misleading.

 

In the case of the Czech and Slovak PhDr, you would then have to take the qualification off your resume, becouse there is no American equivalent. Disclaimers may work in such cases.

 

Yeah, I'd like to have a chat with someone who went through that process. I know that in South Africa the DLit et Phil designation was common. A piece of legislation was passed and on the tick of a clock everyone with a DLitt et Phil degree had a PhD and all DLit et Phil degree programs became PhD programs. Developing a common nomenclature for degrees is an ongoing process and I assume some are more eager than others. Your PhDr would seem to be a bit of a holdout. Is it a super-doctorate?

 

I've provided the link (especially the second article) to a site where some of the issues related to the "PhDr" are discussed.

 

Kind of like the recently fashionable "micro master's."

 

"Who wouldn’t want to earn a quick doctorate? And which institution for issuing just one more document wouldn’t take such a fee?"

So it's more like a Super-Bachelors. Or maybe that Mini-Masters. In the system I'm accustomed to using that would pan out to be some kind of Certification. A "GradCert"maybe. And it's based on an exam with no extra coursework so it might be a kind of Comprehensive Exam for a Bachelors. I don't know. That's why they have those credential evaluation services. I'm curious about this big test though. Is it like the GRE or maybe more broad?How long is the test?

 

It's more like a mini-doctorate. You need a Master's degree to enter it. It's just a step above the Master's degree, but not near a PhD, even though it is called a Doctor of Philosophy (Doktor Filozofie). There's another Doctor of Philosophy, which resembles the Western ideal. Both types of PhDs are granted within those countries. The closest equivalent would be a British MPhil. No American equivalent exists. It's actually closer to a Master's degree in terms of requirements. I would need to read more about the exact procedure of earning it.

 

I am throwing this stuff out in order to show that things are a bit more complex in the realm of awarding doctorate titles. You would be surpised to see what gets you the "doctor" title in some places.

 

It would seem like the Chech system, derived from German one, is even murkier than usual. So, it has a "mini-doctorate" (under multiple abbreviations), "doctorate", and a "super-doctorate". These are not new; in fact, there's a similar title in Netherlands ("doctorandus") that they are phasing out.
And yeah, selling this thing to foreigners would be banking on ambiguity, and dishonest. According to the article tadj posted, it is even problematic in Chechia (yes, it's how you spell it now). The thing was intended for best Master's graduates, but was watered down and became an empty title popular amongst title-crazed politicians. May not be a bad thing, some buffer preventing a real doctorate from the same fate.

As for the Polish award - I wonder if this has much of a value in Poland, too. I'm going to guess based on analogies, but even official degrees from a place like WMU would be a step or two below a degree from "old", public universities. This "DBA" is a completion certificate of completely unregulated content. "DBA" is not common enough in Poland to have any kind of definite weight. It's one thing if you can augment it with a link to a known Academic institution )even then, it's an "Extension Studies" situation). One from "Humanum"? What's that?