CHEA & USDOE Approve Doctorates with no Dissertation

Wait a minute, it's April Fools Day isn't it? :wall:

 

Actually that already happened, DETC's Doctorate can complete with projects. Colorado Technical University gives Doctorate students option 3 mini published papers or dissertation.

 

DETC doesn't award degrees. Which DETC-accredited schools were you referring to?

I would think that the CTU doctorates require the same amount, scope, and level of work expected in a dissertation. I can't tell from the website, but I wouldn't be surprised if the papers have to be a string of them around the same subject, some conceptual and some research, perhaps with a literature review (as an article) tucked in there as well.

 

Rich,

I included the link in my post, Columbia Southern University's Doctor of Business Administration. Also, I verified the information at CTU by myself; it can be different topic within discipline. For example, Doctor of Computer Science with Information Assurance, students can publish Encryption Algorithm, Cyber Security Warfare, and Intrusion Detection/Intrusion Prevent Systems (IDS/IPS).

At the Nova Southeastern University's program orientation; I asked this question to the School of Graduate Computer Information Systems program director. He stated that the school grants some students with this option on basic versus dissertation.

 

I was doing a Doctor of Policy with Charles Sturt University by way of publication. I had to complete a number of published papers and then write an exogesis on the articles. I had the published articles and I was embarking on the exogesis when I fell seriously ill and had to quit. The published articles were around a new philosophical direction in public policy so it fell into the category of original work.

Unfortunately, when I recovered and wished to continue with the degree I found that the university had suspended this program. I would not necessarily recommend this path as it is very difficult. The articles had to be published in peer reviewed journals which is no small effort. There is a significant period of time between submission and publication and usually a number of rewrites. The choice of journal for submission is critical as a mismatch will end in rejection and then a need to rethink the approach. You still have to have originality in the work and theme that throughout your articles. Each article virtually has to become a chapter in your exogesis and has to be synthesized with the others.

I think that the traditional path would be a lot less complicated with less "moving parts" that can break down or that need attention, for example, each article had to be subjected to a blind review by two experts in the field which effectively meant more examiners. With five articles, I had at least ten examiners in total for the five articles and then the three examiners for the total work. I left the program with a Masters with Honors for the work done and five published articles so it was not a total loss

 

TEKMAN: Awesome input. Thanks.

ebbwvale: You, too. Your experiences should dissuade a lot of looky-loos who talk about this approach as if it is a simpler or easier way. It is not. But it is a very good path for someone who has already published a cogent body of articles.

Thanks to you both, truly.