Is Textila American University an accredited University?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Jan, Jan 8, 2018.

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  1. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Most schools requires only a masters to teach undergraduate classes. However, some schools pay a bit more to adjuncts with a PhD but this has to be accredited, for a foreign school, this means an equivalence evaluation report from an institution accredited by NACES.
    If someone is a professional adjunct with little intention of becoming full time or tenure faculty, it doesn't make sense to spend 50K on a PhD only to get a little pay increase as an adjunct. In a competitive world, the PhD has also a weight when getting adjunct work.
    Many people come to the forum asking for a cheap solution to the problem of getting a PhD on an adjunct salary. A typical adjunct working at several school make somewhere between 50K to 100K so there is little room for a heavy investment on a PhD.
    However, the dilemma is if a school from a foreign country from a developing nation like Nicaragua, India, Malaysia, etc has some use for an adjunct in the US even if evaluated as equivalent to a US PhD. My experience tells me that most likely yes in a community college environment and a maybe in a University environment. It is also about opportunity, timing, teaching evaluations, etc, etc. It cannot hurt to get a foreign PhD with a positive evaluation from a NACES accredited credential evaluation service.
    The minimum requirement to teach a subject by many schools is the graduate certificate (18 credits on the teaching subject), but this is the bear minimum. This means that if a person shows up with a PhD and some publications in the subject, most likely he or she would be found more qualified than a person with a graduate certificate. There is a trend to hire PhDs for adjunct work even at community colleges, the pressure is there so the foreign PhD might be the cheapest way to get it. Again, if the goal is not to become a full time faculty and all you need is a PhD to be more competitive, the foreign route might be a feasible option provided that the school is accredited and can be recognized in the US as PhD equivalent.
    I have a foreign doctorate (Australia) and worked in the US as an adjunct for many years, it was quite easy to get work with a foreign doctorate but all the schools asked for the NACES equivalence. Some colleagues have degrees from Philippines, India, Malaysia and were working as adjuncts as well so the foreign route is a feasible way to become adjuncts.
     
  2. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Found this list of adjuncts for UMGC, quite a few people with PhDs from India, Philippines, Pakistan, etc. This does not mean that Textila would score high for adjunct work but just to show that history shows that schools do hire foreign PhDs from developing nations.

    https://www.umgc.edu/current-students/course-registration/faculty-list.cfm?facultyschool=undergraduate
     
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    If that meant I was already teaching at that community college I'd just ask them what they'd want me to do.

    But absent guidance to the contrary, in that situation I'd do the cheapest regionally accredited 18 semester-hours of graduate level MATH courses I could find, doubly so in that they'd transfer in as a complete specialization at Cumberlands if I still felt I needed a doctorate afterwards.
     
  4. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  5. cacoleman1983

    cacoleman1983 Well-Known Member

    I just saw probably the absolute lowest cost one from American College of Education (ACE). They have a Certificate of Content Area Instruction with a math specialization. For 18 credits hours, its only about $5100. The college I use to work for and am considering going back to told me that as long as the courses have the MATH prefix, it doesn't matter what the course content includes so these would work for me. These may not work for some colleges though if they require applied math or scientific content. These courses seem to be more on the social science and teaching aspect to mathematics which works for me considering I haven't taken any math courses since 2008 when I was in my BS in Mathematics program.

    Here is a link to their program:
    https://www.ace.edu/program/certificate-in-content-area-instruction

    I may do some of the MATH courses at the university I work at a discount and combine it with some of ACE's courses. I've actually been accepted into University of Central Nicuarga's PhD in Education program as well and can specialize in Mathematics so I was trying to choose between getting the roughly $6000 to $7000 PhD vs. just doing the 18 hours of math courses.
     
  6. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    One strategy could be to register in the PhD at CNU and put it in your CV as a PhD in progress, if you notice that this helps to get more work, you might want to continue with your PhD. However, before enrolling in CNU, make sure that a NACES accredited evaluation service can give you a certificate of PhD equivalency.

    As I mentioned before, there is too much competition nowadays, it looks like the PhD would be at some point the minimum requirement for adjunct work. There are few people working as adjuncts with this PhD:

    https://www.caluniversity.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/catalog.pdf

    https://www.bppe.ca.gov/webapps/file_download_2017.php?docID=85150938-FD24-487F-A53C-B51F500A81B8&docName=55199084 Catalog

    The risk here in my opinion is that you complete the certificate and then notice that nobody will be calling you and then end doing the PhD anyways. I completed a graduate certificate in accounting when there was a boom in accounting teaching, then nobody was calling me to teach accounting, I then completed a MS degree, nobody was calling as now most most want a CPA.
     
  7. tadj

    tadj Active Member

    I've looked at California Intercontinental University's catalog. One of their faculty members has nine degrees with three titles coming from Universidad Central de Nicaragua. Interesting...
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2019
  8. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    That individual seems to claim four masters degrees and two doctorates, plus an ed specialist degree. Two of the masters degrees, the EdS degree and one of the doctorates are RA, which is all the qualifications a typical person would need. The Universidad Central degrees might just be self-esteem builders.
     
  9. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    The UCN degree is a PhD while the second doctorate is a EdD degree from NCU. I hold a DBA, I have few people telling me in my face that a DBA is inferior to the PhD. The individual in question might just need the PhD to put in his signature to kill the inferiority complex. If the PhD is 6K and the person in question has quite a lot of research, it is not that hard to put a dissertation together.

    Besides the individual with 9 degrees, most faculty hold multiple degrees while very few hold only a Masters degree. CIU is not even a ranked school and attracts a lot of qualified people, you can imagine the competition to teach at better schools.

    So if an individual only holds a certificate, you can imagine the difficulty to compete with people with 9 degrees. I still apply once in a while for online faculty positions, I have not gotten than lucky as it used to be in the early 2000s. Again, not because you meet the minimum requirement, it means you can get the job.
     
  10. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Here the linked in profile of the professor in question:
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-kirk-macon-ph-d-ed-d-ba45b25/

    He is quite motivated to learn, very impressive educational credentials. By the way, he also has a graduate certificate.
     
  11. cacoleman1983

    cacoleman1983 Well-Known Member

    Would you still recommend the PhD if I’ve already taught in the department I once worked for with just a Bachelors degree and none of the adjunct or full time faculty in that department has a PhD?


     
  12. cacoleman1983

    cacoleman1983 Well-Known Member

    I think the foreign PhD is good for those who want to be a professional adjunct but also think it could make you desperately overqualified for the position. In the college where I was a former adjunct, they want me to go back and do 18 hours of MATH graduate courses. I was a provisional instructor and could only teach non-credit courses that could not transfer to the university level. Since I have not taught at a college for five years, there is no way I can bypass this requirement as a provisional instructor.

    Getting a PhD would be a major achievement but will also make me look like an outlier as an adjunct because I would be only PhD holder in that department. On the one hand, having a doctorate is nice and would boost my profile as well as get me the job. On the other hand, it would be weird to only be able to teach 3 classes a semester maximum as adjunct and yet have the only terminal degree out of the department making poverty level income. This could however make me competitive for an opening full time instructor position though.
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2019
  13. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    I think you have answered your own question. If your only objective is to teach part time at your department, then just to what your department asks you and take the extra credits. If your goal is to become a full time instructor at your CC or other similar college, the PhD would be dressing and give you an edge to become full time.
    Nothing prevents you from taking 18 credits as part of your PhD and then progress towards the dissertation if you feel you want the degree.
     

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