Kennedy-Western University

The decision as to whether you continue to pursue this worthless degree is, of course, yours... but now you've been warned by some highly respected folks, and if you choose to ignore their unsolicited free advice, you do so at your own peril.

If you *are* interested in pursuing a legitimate doctoral degree, let us know your area of study, and we'll come up with some suggestions for legitimate, regional or GAAP accredited programs that will suit your needs.

Best of luck.

Chip

[/B][/QUOTE]
Mr. Chip,
First of all, I did not say that K-W is an accredited university in my first post. I said it is not a degree/diploma mill. Since, the definition of diploma mill in the Oregon site is not applicable to it. So, I do not mind that I find K-W in a list of non-accredited universities but in a list of diploma mill is what makes me angry. Because If I just want a title as somebody have said, I would better take my degree from some well known degree mill and spare my efforts and money.
For the quality of the dissertation, I know what it means to write a high quality paper since my MS dissertation was published in the “Journal of Imaging Science and Technology” last year.
The reason I go to K-W is that I have family commitment that prevent me from leaving Kuwait and Kuwait University did not have a PhD program. So, at that time the only alternative way to complete my study was K-W, so if there are good DL universities that offer PhD program in Computer science – with reasonable duration (2-3 years) and cost will be happy to join them.
I think this post will clear every thing.

M. Omran
PhD candidate - KWU

 

Mr. Omran:

In all sincerity, the KWU degree is going to be more detrimental than beneficial to you. This is especially true since you already hold several credible degrees.

You may go to the web site www.degree.net for a list of US schools offering doctorates via distance learning. Once there, click on schools, then on doctorates. The University of South Africa www.unisa.ac.za also offers doctorates via distance learning.

Best wishes!

Russell

 

I suspect you've found another flaw in the theory that KWU is a real school. Where could these dissertations be listed? I know that you cannot count on listing in UMI for unaccredited schools. At the absolute minimum a real school would list their own dissertations in their own library.

Mr. Omran, how does one go about contacting the KWU library to get a catalog (preferably with abstracts) of the dissertations? Perhaps you would be so good as to post that information for us? Being a student at KWU you must have simple access to their library?

Didn't we see a link to a dissertation from KWU posted here a few days ago? I noticed that the author seemed to forget to include a Bibliography. Well actually it had a section titled Bibliography but it only referenced his own paper. Perhaps KWU uses a different format for their dissertations because I don't believe it had an abstract either? Of course if no one is ever going to read any KWU dissertations then abstracts and bibliographys would be kind of meaningless anyway.

 

You may be thinking of the Trinity C&U laugher found on the free term paper website. There is a KWU dissertation or doctoral project at: http://members.aol.com/AHRussell/dissert.htm



------------------
Bill Gossett

 

The CV lists three credentials (BS, MS, MBA) from Michigan State University, then the Ph.D. from KWU. Three layers of moist delicious cake (MSU), with icing which is a bit tainted (KWU). The dissertation bibliography does list 26 sources.

Russell

 

You're correct, Bill, thank you very much.

The request still stands, Mr. Omran. I would be very interested in understanding if/how KWU makes the KWU dissertations available to the public and to other universities.

I didn't find any real information on the KWU library (or the KWU faculty) from their website. However, there are parts of the website that are apparently not available to me since I'm not a student. So, any help you can provide would be appreciated, Mr. Omran.

 

Bruce, 5 courses/13 credits is a bit too light, that's true, but I think you are missing a major point which is in PhD program (at least in Computer Science) the emphasis is on research. Here is an example from perfectly legitimate institution: If you are already Master of Science, you need to take 8 courses / 4 credits each in either Computer Science or in Math, on Graduate/Advanced Graduate level. This follows by two written and one oral exames which constitute a qualifying exam. Then (as program says) 'expect to spend two years on a research project' (that is dissertation). Normally it implies that you find the advisor who's currently working on something which is also of interest to you. There may be other researches and/or grad students involved in this project as well. You must learn what already has been done in this field, and only this stage may take several months. The actual research stage may take a year, and then you still need to put everything together.

Can such a program exist in a DL framework? Probably yes. (except most likely you do have to show up a few times to meet with your advisor, and for some oral exams). There is a large body of scientific research done by several people who normally don't even meet each other, and mostly exchange the ideas via e-mail. However it appears that what's currently being offered as PhD in CS via DL is what I would call an 'inflated MSCS'. Take few courses. Write some paper which is essentially compilation of someone else's ideas. That's about it. Essentially we are talking of research-free PhD program. Is this OK? I don't think so. I think it is more like cheating, and the very first you cheat is yourself, by choosing such a program. In a long run such a PhD won't satisfy your ego anyway, since if noone else, *you* know what was the value of your PhD. It is like you declare that you are going to run the marathon, but instead of joining other runners, you took the taxi cab, then lost on a way, and arrived to what you've thought was the finish line except it wasn't. But you certainly made it in a record time. Now do you feel like a winner?

The reason I went a bit longer than I should is because I saw the postings at alt.edu.distance by some Dariuzs who already declared he doesn't like degreeinfo.com. The sewage of alt.edu.distance is apparently makes him feel more comfortable. Well, the theme of his latest posting is to defend research-free PhD programs of unaccredited DL schools. His logic: as long as they operate legally, such a program must be ok. Duh ...

 

Porky,

Just thought I'd repost a summary of my PhD program (from an earlier post). Note that there is no real course requirement, although this has changed since I did the degree (they added such a requrement and reduced the difficulty of the qualifying exams). This was at a RA State University in the US btw.

G'ba G'ba...that's all folks

 

Its been a long time since I did my Ph.D, also at state university, but it seems to me that a student wasn't a doctoral 'candidate' until he or she passed prelims. At that point you could assemble a committee and start work on the dissertation proposal. I sorta recall that until you passed the prelim hurdle you were a doctoral 'student.' Does anyone else recall this sort of convention? Parenthetically, prelims was the worst part of the experience. A card carrying Type A, I felt as though I had to know *everthing* about applied psychology. The disser was much easier as I could break things down into discrete sub-units. Better rein it in Dave, gettin' OT here.

 

In my school you were advanced to candidacy after you had been certified to complete all the requirements for the PhD except the dissertation--ie. even the proposal was done.

 

Gerstl,

the program I have in mind does have some course requirements. They vary depending whether you go to PhD from BS or from MS. They won't credit any course you took as a part of BS or MS, but if say you took some courses in between, they will. As to qualifying exams, there is certain flexibility. You have to demonstrate the breadth in CS area by a combo of 'taking some courses' plus 'some written tests' plus 'some oral tests'. If I remember correctly, at least one oral test and at least two written tests. It is a bit easier than taking the oral tests covering all major subjects (similar the areas you've described). So - if you've taken some courses after graduating with BS and/or MS, you can reduce the time to get qualified as PhD candidate.

But since this is after all the site dedicated to the fine subject of DL, may be we should refocus our discussion from general PhD (in CS) requirements to how to meet this requirements within the DL framework and still have a solid and sound program.

Regards.

 

No problem with the content concerning CS, but why not start a new discussion. This one has come a *long* way from being a discussion of the relative merits of Kennedy-Western University.


Tom Nixon

 

Actually we've only been discussing the lack of merits. Since I've given up hoping for a information on the KWU dissertation catalog, here's my thoughts on the merits of KWU. ... It is not the most expensive degree mill out there.

 

A Bears' Guide reader shared with us her recent experience with Kennedy-Western University. I thought it would be interesting to contribute to this discussion:

"My husband and I looked into Kennedy-Western University before we realized it was not accredited. The tuition was low, the computer science program seemed right and they had a decent journalism concentration for me. So we each sent in an application, together with our refundable $50 application fee.

Yes, we had your book, but we got to their site via hypertext on another site and assumed the schools listed were all accredited. We were both disappointed when we knew we had to rule them out but we were curious about how they would judge our "life experience" credits and ancient credits from the schools of our youths. We waited 3 weeks to receive our evaluations from Ms. Sharon Palmer.

First let me say that Ms. Palmer gently discouraged me once I told her that I might be more interested in teaching than in journalism. She felt I would have a problem getting into a graduate program with the KW degree. She spoke to my husband and told him that in the tech community, where many people have skills but no degrees, KW would be just fine for him. Since we already paid the fee and sent in our info, we decided to let it ride and see what they offered.

My husband heard first. Sharon had good news. His 37 credits from Temple University and the 4 or 5 intensive IT programs his employer sent to put him at 45% completion toward a Bachelor's degree in computer science. In fact, he only needed to complete 7 more classes ("ANY 7 CLASSES," Sharon said) ($4,500 worth) and could be finished with the whole degree program in 5 months. It was tempting. We decided to wait to see what kind of offer they would make me.

It took Sharon another 2 weeks to get back to me. Sharon had good news. My 13 credits from College of Staten Island and the writing workshops I had taken at various night programs put me at 45% completion toward a Bachelor's degree in journalism. In fact, I only needed to complete 7 more classes ("ANY 7 CLASSES," Sharon said) ($4,500 worth) and could be finished with the whole degree program in 5 months.

I called her first to tell her that I was applying to accredited schools and she forwarded a form (by snail mail) to request the refund. It's been 3 weeks and I haven't received the check yet so I can't tell you how reliable their refund policy is. I plan to follow up in a few days.This has got to be a scam. The 7 classes make it less conspicuously a diploma mill, but it can't possibly be a real school either.

Thought you'd like to know."

(The reader gave me permission to post this, but asked that her name not be disclosed.)

Justin Wells
Bears' Guide editor

 

WOW! Sounds like an incredible opportunity to obtain a beautifully framed diploma, and feel good about the time, energy and money invested!

Russell

 

Lets not forget that KW's permit to operate is up for renewal this June!

I almost went the KW route. But as I investigated it, too many oddities started showing up. The cautious email reply from the Board of Education really sent up a red flag, then I came accross this forum and decided to attend TESC.

 

Hey, Russell...

If you want a beautiful diploma, wait till you check out these babies:
http://www.ptshamrock.com/auto/degrees.html

 

mfjr wrote, Lets not forget that KW's permit to operate is up for renewal this June!

I'd be most interested in knowing how you learned this. Did KWU say anything? Is it public information on some state website? Thanks.

John Bear

 

Beautiful indeed, Bill! I especially like the one printed on parchment paper, as it would add to the decorum of most any office. Imagine having one's peers, clients, friends, etc., drop by the office and notice with awe the immaculately framed diploma. It would certainly boost one's self-esteem.

I would like to have more than one signature on my diploma, however, as with most one-man-operations I guess one signature is all that is available.

And the website states that "under current legislation" the degrees are legal. One could theoretically have a legal degree for one month, three months, or forever. It all depends on when the legislation changes.

Russell

 

If you click on the "recognition" link on the KW website, you get a picture of KW's Wyoming private school license:
http://www.kw.edu/recognition.asp

This shows an expiration date of June 30, 2001.

I'd like to know whether the KW enrollment form complies with this section of the Wyoming private school licensing law:

------------------
Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com