New-ish Guidance on Specialist Degrees

When NCES changed their IPEDS categories, institutions didn't know how to code their specialist programs, so they coded them as post-master's certificates. Someone here argued that this meant that specialist degrees are not degrees, but this was just a case of IPEDS categories being inadequate, not proof that specialist degrees weren't degrees. Last year, the University System of Georgia requested guidance, and NCES advised them to report specialist degrees as master's degrees. This is still imperfect because specialist degrees tend to require doctoral-level courses, but there you go.

https://www.usg.edu/advisory_committees/assets/advisory_committees/documents/Spring_2024_RACIRP_IPEDS_Update.pdf

 

When the specialist "degree" is widely awarded aross all (or nearly all) disciplines, I'll consider it a degree.

 

I would like to see clear definitions as to what constitutes a EdS, CAGS, Graduate Certificate, and Executive Certificate.

I’ve seen CAGS range from 12-30 credits, Graduate Certificates seem to generally be 18, and Liberty seems to have coined “Executive Certificate”, which is 21 doctoral-level credits. Why they chose 21 is beyond me.

 

I asked my advisor, she said they want to distinguish it from a Graduate Certificate and a CAGS/EdS, which usually consist of Master’s level (500/600) courses.

No one seems to know how or why they decided on 21 credits.

 

Probably!

 

We all have our own way of viewing things, but being awarded across all disciplines or nearly all disciplines is not in the definition for "degree."

In my opinion, the juris doctor is not a real doctorate, and many would agree with me. Just because they slapped "doctor" in the name doesn't make it a doctorate, but it's still a degree. The structure of the JD and LLM are unique to law. If they were honest, they would call these degrees something other than a doctorate and master's. How many other master's programs are awarded after a doctorate (that's actually a long master's degree) and only require 24 credits?

I will have to disagree with the opinion that, if you use a well-known term, even if the program doesn't fit that term, then it's a degree, but if you use a new term to fit the uniqueness of the program structure, then it's not a degree. Honestly, since many EdS programs have capstones, they're not much different from professional, scholarly doctorates. Even some of the professional, scholarly doctorates don't require a capstone or any other research project.

 

This is where a qualifications framework would really come in handy. In the U.S. words like diploma and certificate can mean anything from a 2 hour non-graded online course to an extensive 40 credit Advanced Graduate Certificate to help qualify you for licensing as a counselor, and everything in between.

At issue is not really whether something is a degree or not. But what is its intended usage and how does it align with other educational credentials. Which gets a lot easier to do if we can just map things along a grid to look for equivalency. Every job posting I've ever signed off on (for about 20 years now) has included the line "Bachelors degree or equivalent" despite the fact that no one can agree what constitutes an equivalent to a bachelors degree. If instead we said the requirement was a level 5 qualification and that could be met with a bachelors degree, or some advanced qualification in construction, for example, we'd resolve that issue.

Otherwise we're just throwing new words out there as the market runs low on people to sell expensive degrees to.

 

The 21 credits of each Liberty Executive Cert all seem to be the CORE required courses from the relevant / related doctorate degree.

Seems a fairly obvious explanation to me.

 

Looking at the Liberty catalog those Executive Certificates all seem to be the 7 required core classes (21 core hours) from the parent doctorate.

 

Another place where the M.Phil. degree title might be useful.

As to the misnamed J.D....I have heard that the real reason law schools changed from the legitimate and universal LL.B. was political. The schools wanted the "prestige" of being doctorate granting institutions.

Grain of salt, though.

For actual lawyers, Judges, and law professors, the first professional law degree is usually called just that; a "law degree".

Oh, the J.D. LL.M. weirdness isn't unique to law. The same thing exists for dentists.

 

This is probably a silly question, but who exactly decides what constitutes an academic degree and what doesn't? I would expect that to be something the accreditation agencies decide. In many European countries, the answer is simple. There, such questions are usually decided by the respective Ministry of Education or through a legislative decision.

 

Not silly at all.

I don't know. The federal Department of Education describes various degreesand levels but I don't think that's binding on anyone. Many years ago now, a group of law professors in the Midwest created a sort of Inns of Court for American lawyers and law graduates for practical training. Upon completion, the student received an LLL degree, a "Licentiate of Laws" (sp?). Was it a real degree? The program never got off the ground.

 

I remember someone once complaining that they should have a degree for ABD. They do, I said, it's called a Masters degree.

It's not a perfect solution. But I do feel that even if something is considered to be a Masters, that doesn't make it equal with all other Masters. We know that an M.Phil. from Columbia is different than an M.A. We know that doctoral work went into one because of its name. And I think this is...a fine enough solution for this incredibly niche industry specific area. Masters degree + doctoral coursework has never been treated as anything other than a Masters degree. And if you leave a program ABD, you typically leave with a Masters degree, not a differently titled degree. Masters programs can include coursework from all levels. Or from other departments other than the one awarding the degree (in some cases). It's a pretty decent solution, I think. If we're going to fix it further I'd say we'd be better off with a proper qualification framework than more of these patchwork fixes.

 

The Ed.S is a planned course of study that often ends with a capstone. It's not the same as going from a bachelor's to PhD and then leaving before completing the dissertation. There are also Ed.S programs that award a master's degree on the way to the Ed.S.

 

CAGS and Ed.S. seem to be interchangeable. A school I’ve taught for (Fitchburg State University in MA) recently changed all their CAGS programs to Ed.S.

CAGS are still somewhat commonplace in Psychology/Counseling, many times for those who need additional credit hours for state licensure.

Most states (maybe all by now, I haven’t checked recently) require a 60 semester hour Master’s (plus 1,000 or so supervised practicum & internship hours) for licensure as a mental health counselor, but the standard for many states used to be 48 or even 36 credit hours.

Off the top of my head, Rowan University and Messiah University offer online CAGS programs for just this purpose.

 

Should all Masters degrees really be seen as at the same level? It seems to me that professional Masters such as Social Work or Divinity shouldn't be classed as equivalent to an MA in History. It's a tricky thing, though. My LLM required 24 graduate semester hours and no thesis. That sounds puny, I agree, but most Americans have already earned a Bachelors and LLB (JD) before entering the LLM program. So is the LLM really all that "puny"?