Most universities do not recognize on-line Ph.D. programs - UMass Lowell

If we're talking about Union Institute and University--or one of its predecessors, The Union Institute or the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities, or its doctorate-granting school, the Union Graduate School--then there was no "on campus" option. All Union Ph.D. programs are and have been short-residency.

Trivia Time: In the beginning, Union's Ph.D. started with a 30-day Entry Colloquium (shortly changed to 10 days where it remains to this day). Also, learners attended a closing "Terminar" to wrap up their studies. (This is long gone.) For a long time (and when I did mine), learners did a 10-day Entry Colloquium, at least 3 5-day seminars hosted by Union, and at least 10 1-day "peer days," going through structured learning experiences designed and led by the participating learners. All of that seems to have changed with the implementation of the new cohort doctoral programs.

 

My understanding is that is not such much the delivery method but the reputation of the school, accreditation and publication record that matters the most when you apply for an academic position. Many schools ask for an AACSB accredited PhD and publications in ranked journals but I don't see why it would matter if the person did it online. In Australia and the UK many academics do PhDs in external mode and nobody questions the delivery method.

If person is productive and qualified, why would someone care that the person did not spent 5 years locked in an office rather than just doing it from home. Productivity should be the main concern and not the delivery method learning.

I think the issue here is that the person that wrote this got tired of getting emails about the possibility of doing this PhD online so he or she just decided to say that nobody will hire you if the PhD is done online so you better stop asking.

 

Well, I guess he completed most of his degree by distance.
http://www.angelo.edu/dept/security_studies_criminal_justice/documents/cv/bechtol_cv_sept_2011.pdf

 

I'm not sure how to put this in a way that comes across, but here it goes: it's neither. And both. But not all.

Sure, the reputation and accreditation of the school matter. But the process is the key. Schools designed to deliver part-time doctoral education, residential or DL, are not simultaneously preparing their students to enter academia. Nor should they, since their students are already in careers! Students in these programs do not:

-- Serve as teaching and graduate assistants
-- Live on or near campus and socialize with the academic community
-- Meet professors in social and business settings away from the classroom
-- Participate in colloquia and other events where their research might be presented
-- Participate in other on-campus informal and formal learning opportunities
-- Get tutored and guided through the process of publishing research (including co-writing with professors)
-- Get apprenticed into the academic pipeline

Do some of these things occur in some DL and part-time programs? Sure. But not with the expressed intent of bringing students into academia. Do some graduates of DL and part-time programs enter academia? Sure, but my experience was/is that it's rare. Some of the students are in academia. Some of them are professors already, others are in administration or other areas. Some of the students are in practice. Most are looking to advance their careers (in academia or practice). A few might be switching careers. A few might even go into academia, but certainly in a nontraditional fashion, hired for what they bring to the university and certainly not at its lowest rungs.

I had a colleague who was told--in no uncertain terms--that she had a future at her small, spunky little university, but she needed to add a doctorate to her vita. So she went to night school at the local campus of a B&M university, got the degree, and moved up. She's now the president of that now-not-so little school. Did the degree propel her to that position? No, but she probably learned some useful things and gained valuable experience necessary when managing a faculty. But without the degree there is simply no way she would have made it that far. Could she have done the same thing by taking a degree at schools like Walden, Union, or NSU? We don't know. But I think maybe yes.

 

I think this is the bottom line of the issue. The student doing a part time online PhD has a family, work commitments, etc so we cannot expect this student to go to conferences, publish, teach in a face to face environment, network with other peers, etc.

I think it would be very hard also for an online part time student to get letters of recommendation for a teaching position when this student most likely has never taught in a face to face environment.

The few that get these tenure track positions with this type of degrees is because they have already all these elements (publications, teaching experience, contacts, etc) and just lack the paper qualification.

The other issue is getting tenure, I have a friend that has a doctorate from Boston University that is on his third gig as he was denied tenure two times already. He told me that he sees online PhD graduates getting a tenure track position but he doesn't see that many of these actually get it after 6 years. Getting tenure requires attracting research grants, great publications, etc that is not something that the typical online PhD student has experience with.

I know that it is not so very cost effective to go to a 5 year full time program but it seems to me that it is just a lot easier to get the goal of getting a tenure track and achieving tenure with this type of program.

The investment in terms of time and opportunity cost for a full time PhD is brutal. You are giving up 5 years of your most productive time (most are in their 30s) for a may be as many don't make it even after the 5 years of hard work. I think the bottom line is that many are attracted by the salary, life style and security that a tenure position offers but very few are willing to take the risk and make the time investment that it requires. The online PhD comes as a possible solution for this but it is not just the the type of program that is designed for this career path.

The online PhD is designed to be an executive doctorate that is meant to train professionals and not academics for the most part.
In Australia and the UK is different, most people join academia with a Masters degree and get a Doctorate while working in academics. In the US doesn't seem to be very realistic to get a full time position at a University with only a Masters. I think this why few people get confused and think that the British or Australian PhD is the ticket to tenure but it is not the degree but the networking that helps at the end.