Input requested from all TUI Ph.D. in Business students ( past or present)

I have been in communication with the director of the Ph.D. program and 4 professors. I like very much that they consider the program to be an online research degree, and I like hearing that there appears to be ample opportunities to be prepared to publish. I like that because after a successful business career and a little adjunct teaching, my goal is to move into full-time academia after completing a degree. I cannot afford the opportunity cost of pursuing a degree full-time.

I have been somewhat dismayed by TUI's lack of response to specific questions that I have asked 2 people on 3 different occasions. The questions are;

1. Have TUI students go on to teach full-time? Is so, where?

2. Are there students already teaching that are in the program because they must have a terminal degree? If so, from which schools do they come?

3. May I speak to some current or former students?

None of these questions have been answered? Would current or past TUI Ph.D. in Business students please comment on why these questions have been avoided? Also, could you answer them for me?

Thank you very much.

 

I feel all three inquiries involve student privacy. I do not think Touro is obligated to give out personal information on students and consequently they will not give information to talk to former students.
They never give personal emails or phone numbers of students. While studying at TUI I learned that they choose NOT to have a program where they ask their students or PhD alums to be available to talk to prospective students. They don't need to! They have way more applicants than they know what to do with and they are not recruiting for the PhD. They take only a very small portion of those who apply and apparently don't care to create recruitment programs. So they have no need to make their students available and deprive them of their privacy.

During the past five years of education at TUI I came to know several students that did go on to teach full time at other universities. Yes, many of their students are already teaching and join TUI for the terminal degree. A very large percentage fit into that category. How many? Which schools do they teach at? Well, none of anyone's business I guess.
They simply don't disclose that info as it is proprietary. It is private
info. for their students. If you don't like it, then maybe you should not apply! They are not asking you to apply. They are under no obligation to release this info. If they wish to be private about how to handle their PhD students, that is their business, and I for one, appreciate protecting my privacy. I know many of my peers at TUI concur.

Let me ask you, does Harvard do this on the PhD level? No. Major
research schools do NOT recruit for the PhD and they don't give out
private student info. to do so. It is not proper and it is demeaning.
If you want to apply, please do. Chances are you will be rejected
anyway. I know few of my friends applied and only one was admitted.

But if you want to give it a whirl, you are asking the WRONG questions!
Don't ask marketing questions, ask about the research curriculum, the
rigor, the faculty, the EDUCATION! That I am positive TUI will tell you about
aplenty.

Eli

 

Eli,

Thank you very much for the feedback. It appeared to me that you took offense at my questions. It certainly wasn't my intent to perturb anyone.

I can understand why they don't arbitrarily distribute student names and contact data. That is a valid point. However, in MHO, it is certainly reasonable and valid to make available where graduates teach. The great majority of Ph.D. programs actually have an area on their website that provides that info. To use an analogy, if one's purpose is to buy a car that has low fuel consumption, it is quite reasonable to want to see the city and hwy MPH.

As far as whether I would be accepted, how could you possibly evaluate my qualifications???.... ( I know this is cyberspace, but, to use colloquial jargon---- get real!)

 

No offense. None taken.

I am in no way judging your qualifications… but merely stating that the Ph.D. program chances for acceptance at TUI are quite slim due to rigorous filtering. Again, this is from my personal experience and observation during the last year or so.

Eli

 

I would have to disagree (especially in the doctoral setting) that the graduates information is not important. At the MBA level it is very important as well. Not only "what are they doing now", but the stats on what they make coming out of the program, etc.

I was asked for my personal information and photo for the brochure that my school was doing after I graduated, since it is a HUGE factor (at least for me and some others), what their students are doing with thte degree. I think this helps build a reputation.

If a school doesn't find it important / not willing to build this information for candidates, do a search in google scholar with the school name, it will give you the publsihings, schools, etc. This will give you a flavor of what the students are doing in the academic setting. (Though I have never heard of a school not providing this information, maybe they are just buy and you should ask again).

I asked this specific question when I started in my program, and it was a factor. I also spoke to students currently in both programs I went to (MBA and doctorate). I am on the list for my MBA of students willing to be contacted. I am surprised to hear this is not the case at all schools.

I do think there are privacy issues, and those need to be respected, but schools work around it by getting a waiver and use it for student referrals, brochures, etc.

 

slb1957,

Your questions were pertinent, and were what I would think most students ask themselves before applying to a school. Han´s advice seem to be the best thing to do. I´m sure you can find lots of faculty members across the US holding Touro degrees. Ask them directly.


Regards

 

As a graduate of TUI’s PhD in Business Administration program, I can answer some of your questions.

I am currently an assistant professor and full-time faculty at TUI, which is where I intend on staying. However, since completing my degree (Spring 2003), I have also received full-time faculty offers at a state university and a private (RA not-for-profit) college; both of which, require an RA PhD.

With the exception of TUI, I did not initiate contact with any college or university regarding faculty positions or employment. Accordingly, I’m certain that industry and professional experience are contributing factors. However, absent of a PhD, I would not have been approached or considered for either faculty position. Indeed, a number of my fellow graduates have also accepted full-time faculty positions. Additionally, TUI hires some of its top PhD graduates as faculty, which is evident by their faculty list.

A substantial number of the PhD students do have considerable teaching experience and work as faculty at various RA state and private colleges and universities: some large and some small. I cannot offer any precise numbers, but based on my previous exchanges with other students and more recent experience as faculty, I would “guestimate” the number of PhD students from academia and with faculty positions to be at least in the two-hundred plus range (note: this number is my estimate only and not provided or endorsed by the school). Many others also have considerable research, professional and publication experience. TUI’s PhD programs are relatively new (5 years?), so I expect that as these and other students complete their PhD program we will see a much greater prevalence of TUI graduates in full-time and tenured faculty positions.

Here are a few institutions where TUI students and alumni are or have been faculty. Certainly, this is not an all-inclusive list, but it does identify a few of the ones that I can recall based on my own knowledge and personal experience.

American Military University
Baker College
Baylor University
Belmont University
Biola University
California State University
Central Texas College
Chapman University
City University of New York
Drexel University
Embry-Riddle University
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Fitchburg State College
Florida A & M
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Gulf Coast University
Hawaii Pacific University
Idaho State University
Indiana University
Ithaca College
James Madison University
Liberty University
Marymount University
Michigan State University
Mount Saint Vincent University
Mountain State University
National University
Nova Southeastern University
Purdue University
Saint Francis University
Saint Leo University
Salve Regina University
South University
Southern Illinois University
Southwest Missouri State University
Suffolk University
Taylor University
Texas Christian University
University of Alaska
University of Alberta
University of Arkansas
University of Central Florida
University of Maryland
University of St. Francis
University of Texas
University of Wisconsin
Webster University
Wilkes University
Wright State University
Yeshiva University

And yes, TUI's PhD programs are research oriented, and it seems even more so by the day. Both faculty and students are strongly encouraged (faculty required) to conduct scholarly research, engage students in research projects, participate/present at conferences, and publish. Often, I see internal emails acknowledging both faculty and students for research work, publications and other scholarly activities. For example, just yesterday, I received an email acknowledging the appointment of one of our core faculty as editor-in-chief of a pharmaceutical journal.

I hope that you find my answers helpful.

Dr. Thomas Esch

 

Dr. Esch,

Thank you very much. Your info is very helpful. The more I hear about TUI, the more favorably I look upon it.

 

You should also do a search of this forum and at least be aware of the accreditation changes that TUI is going through right now.

 

AFter reading these posts, I did bring up the accreditation issue. I have been told by more than one person that there is not really any issue. That they are currently accredited, and that they are moving towards WASC ( sorry, I may have the acronym wrong). I have also been told by a professor that if they thought there was any chance, they would not have left a highly regarded state univ. to work full-time at TUI.

This sounded convincing to me. Not sure if anyone sees it any differently.

 

Hi,

We also have a few TUI graduates teaching at UOP, and they are some of our most requested and respected professors. I had the pleasure to meet one of them and ask about their program, as I may be interested in a TUI MBA myself. Their programs look very solid and rigorous, and they obviously produce qualified, intelligent, and marketable graduates.

 

What is research PhD?

As I have been looking at DL PhD programs in Business Administration I have been comparing three particular schools, NCU, Touro, and UNISA. But I am confused as to what consititutes a research PhD?

NCU requires a number of traditional post-graduate courses as a part of their PhD so I would guess that they are a more of a non-research PhD. UNISA does not list any courses only the outline for developing a disertation, so they seem to be a pure research PhD. To me, Touro seems more like a hybrid as they do require certain courses to be completed before disertation work begins...so are they a research PhD or not? Just wondering what the standard or metric is on this question....

 

Re: What is research PhD?

Hi David,

It is great to see you so engaged in thinking about a research PhD. But
you are misunderstanding the process. It is not the case that a school
that goes right into a dissertation is a research PhD and one that has
coursework first is not a research program. Quite the contrary. At TUI
the coursework is in HOW to do research. You can't just jump into a
dissertation without training. A dissertation is an original piece of
research; it is a contribution to the existing body of scientific
knowledge. You have to be trained in research methods BEFORE you start
writing the dissertation and doing the research. At TUI you take a
strong series of VERY demanding research methods courses that train you
how to do scientific research and learn what it takes to create an
original contribution to academic knowledge. TUI is a research PhD
precisely because students are rigorously trained in research methods
and then, if they pass the candidacy process, go on to write their first
piece of original research in the dissertation.

Remember, in an MBA one obtains a command of the existing body of
knowledge. In a PhD one learns to create NEW scientific knowledge.
"Research" on the MBA level is not really research in the same sense.
What you are doing there is digging into the existing body of knowledge
so you can show that you have a command of that information. "Research"
in a PhD means learning to create NEW knowledge in a scientifically
reputable manner. You are going to need to take a solid and extensive
series of research courses on the PhD level before you will be allowed
to do a dissertation and create some original knowledge on your own.
Therefore, coursework is an important part of a research curriculum.

I hope this clears things up for you

Eli
Ph.D. - Touro University International

 

Eli,

Thanks so much for the clarification. I guess its not that I didn't necessarily see it from that angle as much as I thought a PhD, in its very essence, is a degree program in which one is involved in research to contribute new information to the existing body of knowledge. I thought that is what sets the PhD degree apart from other doctorates such as a DBA. if that is not true, then is a non-research PhD, if that category even really exists, truly a PhD?

Thank you for your time and I will continue exploring the Touro web site as I consider options for my continued post graduate education.