Distance - Dissertation only Ph.D. in History

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by joshp6389, Oct 20, 2011.

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  1. joshp6389

    joshp6389 New Member

    I am looking for a Ph.D. in History via distance education and it must be dissertation only.
     
  2. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    You should have "bumped" one of your recent threads asking the same question, and a moderator may merge this as a duplicate.

    Basically, almost every university with a purely research doctorate is a prospect.

    The universe in which a school that could deliver this could be found seems to consist of most research doctorate-granting university in the U.K., South Africa, Australia, maybe the rest of Europe especially if you work in a native language, but maybe not necessarily, maybe elsewhere in Africa or Asia and the Middle East, although these haven't been explored much around these parts and you should expect to do the legwork yourself.

    And really, you'd have to do the legwork yourself in the U.K., South Africa or Australia too. Write a statement introducing yourself and your constraints and possibly outlining your doctoral research interests, and send it, reasonably discriminately and without spamming!, to

    • history department offices,
    • maybe, general international graduate student admissions offices,
    • and maybe, as prospective supervisors, individual faculty whose publications or biographies you've seen and could work well with your interests - personalize these! and again, absolutely don't spam -

    at prospective schools you'd be interested in working with.

    When this sort of thing comes together, in most subjects, at most schools outside of UNISA and maybe one or two others we've told you about already on other threads, it comes together on a very individual basis. Your approach to schools will also have to be individual.

    And it will help, and it could be determinative, if you have a very compelling research proposal, and it matches with the interests of one or more faculty on staff at your school.

    But it's a process you could have to put a lot of work into, even before admission anywhere, and it might find something spectacular, and it might not quite find anything.

    Please don't interpret our not having handed you the name of this school despite repeated threads as meaning you should create a more insistent and specific thread.

    But please don't be discouraged either. This path to a doctorate is, more than anything, outside a few schools like UNISA that make a point of working by distance as a rule, about finding a mentor, and maybe a supporter or two, who will make the rules of the graduate school work for you. And the ball is really in your court.

    Good luck; I mean it, and am trying to help.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 20, 2011
  3. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    Also maybe, who knows, Central or South America. The doctoral program, by research, that could potentially be pursued with a dissertation only and by distance, is not exceedingly uncommon, as best we know. Openly advertising that these degrees are available by distance does seem exceedingly uncommon. It's an "unadvertised feature" of higher education in at least several countries. I'm sure some would say this is not a feature but a bug. But they don't hang out here. :p
     
  4. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Hi Josh - I've got good news and I've got bad news. First the bad news. There are very few dissertation-only PhD programs in History. The good news is that this fact will make your decision making process simpler. Basically you'll be looking at South Africa, Australia and, to a much lesser extent, Britain. These are the "dissertation-only" countries. Now you can explore the Malaysian Open University or some of the Indian universities that have been recently discussed but I can tell you that if you venture into that realm you will be a bushwacking pioneer. No one on this board has enrolled in any of those programs and so there's no roadmap to follow. We're talking about checking through maybe 30 university websites. This might help you to get started:

    College and University Home Pages
     
  5. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

  6. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    It's fantastic, though not dissertation-only, not in "History," and not absolutely entirely by distance education, as the OP specified or seemed to imply.

    Other U.S. options that would break one, two or three these requirements - all accredited U.S. doctorates, besides first professional doctorates like an M.D., will require coursework or course-like work plus a dissertation or equivalent, for instance - but still allow a very good doctorate mostly or very largely by distance in many historical subjects, would include

    * The Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the Union Institute & University.
    * The Ph.D. in Human Science from Saybrook University.
    * The Ph.D. in Leadership from Andrews University.
    * The Great Books-minded Doctor of Arts or Doctor of Education from Harrison Middleton University (with DOED- and CHEA-recognized national accreditation from the DETC; not regionally accredited).
     

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