How well would an Australian doctorate be accepted in the US

Agreed. Judging from what ebbwvale tells us, it appears that Australia has a pretty fine university system. One more thing to love about that place! My dad just got back from there and tells me that it's a fantastic country and I've got to go. Maybe someday when I make it rich by being an adjunct professor pulling down the big bucks. ...ahem...

 

I am seeing more and more US citizens actually emigrating. The Premier of New South Wales, (one of the bigger states of Australia), was a US emigrant.
The country is quite bizare in terms of weather. It is either a drought, a flood, or a fire. All on a massive scale. It is worth seeing. Although I grew up in the outback, I have yet to see it all myself.

I like the variety of educational experience available through the US. I was doing a degree here years ago and the local university was less than helpful about accomodating my work. I got a book written by John Bear and went to Excelsior for the undergrad. They could not have been more helpful.

I am now doing my Phd through a local uni, but would have no hesitation in doing one via the US. The local one only wins because there are no fees for local Phd Students. The govt picks up the tab. I am informed that the govt gives 70,000 Aud to the university for every student that successfully completes a thesis. Every thesis (few exceptions) has to be made available electronically.

The other difference is that the Phd has no course work, just pure research and a 80,000 word dissertation. Only 15 percent of part time students successfully complete it. The US Phd seems more like our Professional Doctorate which has coursework and a dissertation. If I was a US student, I would look around for the Professional Doctorates more than the Phds down this way. More consistent with the US model and less highly specialised than the Aussie Phd therefore better for lecturing.

 

Absolutely not. Publishing is a key element of backing up the doctorate. Even if one holds a Harvard PhD, hiring committees look for publications or the potential for publication from potential applicants. One cannot simply obtain a PhD and never publish and expect to make it in academia.

 

NCU is pretty new and has little, to no record of any published works coming from there. Dr. Pina was saying that fact puts NCU a little lower than institutions like Capella and Walden that have produced some published works. I think that's the main issue. So I plan to do the very best research and work I am capable of and will attempt to jump through the right hoops to get it published. Never done it before, so who knows, but I will give it my best. I think I can, I think I can, I think....

 

About 10 years ago they were cheaper than DETC degrees. I remember that CSU's DBA was about 10K USD (17KAUD).

 

The PhD is a RESEARCH doctorate. The entire point of the degree is to teach the student how to perform research. The traditional process of earning a PhD culminates with the validation of the degree candidate's ability to conduct original RESEARCH in their field.

The "stuff in the real world" may provide research topics or insights into phenomena, but for a doctoral student, that should be secondary to learning the literature in one's field and how to contribute to it.

If the adjunct is a professional researcher in their daytime job, I have no issue with their teaching in a doctoral program. A business executive or a school superintendent holding a research doctorate earned decades ago would not, in my opinion, be the best choice to teach at the doctoral-level.

 

This is absolutely true. Of course, many people graduate with a Ph.D. and pursue other interests that do not include publishing.

And let's not forget the efforts to get grants.

 

A few years ago (before becoming ill), I was in Doctorate program in Australia and my supervisor questioned the validity of my topic. In short, he thought it was not a worthy topic and that I was plain wrong. I laid it all out in an article and submitted it to a peer reviewed journal. It was accepted and published. I continued with two other articles on the same theme and was published. Strangely, my topic became worthy. I later found out that the published articles reflected positively on the faculty.

My approach was simple. Throw out into the market for professional assessment of its worth. It was accepted and I also received an letter of support from a person eminent in the field. Unfortunately, illness interceded but I am now back to deal with unfinished work.

If you are going to do the research, why hide it under a bushel? Throw it out into the professional arena. It builds credibility for you and your university. Why not also attend a conference and present the topic? Great way to network and to gain credibility. Even if they disagree with you, credibility is gained by the willingness to openly present for a professional audience to criticise. If get accepted as a speaker at a conference in the first place, half the battle is won before you open your mouth. You can also have your paper published as conference proceedings after the presentation. I have also gone that route

You degree may be DL, but you can counter much of any negativity attached to that by what you present. DETC or RA may become a little less relevant as you gain credibility as a researcher. Universities should be encouraging their students to do that. I rarely see either of these options mentioned for DL Doctorates.

Why not? If I can do it, anyone can. My knees knocked a bit at the presentation, but the feeling I felt afterwards compensated. I suspect that the US may present a lot more options for peer review in conferences that down here. Go for it!

 

That's great advice, ebbwvale. Thank you very much. I will attempt to do exactly as you say. It's very interesting that you went around your dissertation supervisor, got your ideas published and then gained acceptance from your school. I have never heard of that before. I have always assumed that you needed the support of the school to have your ideas considered.

 

Not a recommended course of action, but I was the practitioner in the field, not the supervisor. I felt strongly about it and submitted the article. You don't need the support of the school to get published, but publish and you may find yourself soon supported. Recognition for you is recognition for them.

Admittedly, it is the better to have the backing of the school, but they don't own the world of ideas or knowledge. I was published on two continents other than my own. Apart from my then supervisor, nobody was more surprised than me!

 

Wow, that's quite an achievement. Congratulations. And what a great opportunity to gloat! Of course, I'm sure you never indulged in that!

 

The acceptance of an Oz degree relates as much to the employer choice as it does to the degree itself.

For instance, if a lawyer graduates successfully from the New York Bar that does not mean that he or she will find employment on that basis. The potential employer is in most cases seeking to recruit graduates from particular universities and does not wish to go outside the bounds. It would be very difficult for an Oz lawyer to be accepted in large NY firms.

There are some jurisdictions that accept overseas qualifications, most noticeable Washington which only requires successfull sitting of the bar exam. Reciprocal rights in Oz have been in the negotiation stage for some time although the NSW Legal Practitioners Board was at one stage nearly successfull in agreement to terms.

Another method to assess the standard of an Oz degree is to look at the International ratings, in which case you will find that the Australian National University ranks in the top 20 and a number of other uni's rank in the top 100. Newcastle university is well recognised and it has trained medical doctors for decades. That in itself ensures that the university is of a high standard cos I caint see a degree mill doing that.

I am currently enrolled in a professional doctorate and am absolutely satisfied with the course. The thesis is only 65 K words. Course work was exempted due to my professional qualifications and other studies. Nevertheless, the Oz prof Doctorate compares well with the system used by the USA. Recent articles indicated that the USA mode of coursework and thesis/dissertation was being being viewed by many employers as better value in respect of employment as the professional doctorate provided a broader skill set.

Oz qualifications are not prejudiced due to the learning nature ie DL. This is likely because the major portion of Universities are government "owned". There are a couple that are not, Bond Uni comes to mind and I understand that there is also a Catholic Uni. Even the private ones are monitored by government assessors.

Reference is made to AIM, CPA and Depart of Education and other societies as accrediting university courses. In Oz, unis regularly seek to design courses that will fit in with the professional societies and unis will indicate normally where the qualification fails to do so. Some of these societies also provide their own courses that are self accredited. Such organisations include CIPs, CPA ICA and so on.

Some Oz unis provide scholarships to international students and a search of the individual websites will locate those that do so.

You will find a substantial number of Oz uni's will award degrees on the basis of published work but this is probably more difficult to achieve than actually studying for the degree.

I understand that there is a list of foreign universities that are recognised by and is published by the US government. It may be related to obtaining a green card or something like that.

cheers
J.D.