Nova Southeastern University

There are probably many reasons for a U.S. student to go for a foreign MBA but I don't necessarily agree with all of your reasons.

For one, you mention flexibility and no residency. You cannot get much more non resident and flexible than CSUDH, Amberton, Dallas Baptist Univ., Regis Univ., Colorado State Univ., Colorado U., Univ. of Phoenix, Univ. of Wisconsin, Univ. of Dallas, Univ. of Baltimore, Touro, Sarasota, and Mississippi State Univ. to name a few. These all offer on-line/distance study MBA programs, are RA, and not all bottom of the heap schools.

There are good programs in Europe and Australia, as you say. I might suggest that the general hiring manager does not have a clue regarding those schools, though. Chances are they have never heard of Curtin, Sturt, Monash, Macquarie, Flinders, or Cheltenham. It is a good bet they know London or Queensland but I doubt they know much about them(I can include Amberton and maybe Touro for this side of the pond).

Cost would be MY major factor in going overseas, particularly Australia. If you throw in English schools then the costs are often even more than the U.S. schools.

From my research, the British schools are as expensive, or more expensive than U.S. schools. I have not researched them all but you might be able to suggest some very reasonable British schools where a body might earn the MBA.

The Aussie dollar does help. However, I received an e-mail from a professor at Curtin who told me that their tuition would go up such that the difference between distance study and on-campus study would be minimal. At that time, they were mulling over charging U.S. students more(South African schools already do). In fact, I received a few notes from him regarding the costs at Curtin. Southern Cross was a bit pricey compared to the rest of Australia.

Just curious, when you say that the British and Aussie schools are "top tier", what is the source of this information? This reference could be something I would like to take a look at to compare doctorate programs for myself.

Bing

 

A couple of comments --

Once in awhile I have seen job listings here in the Research Triangle that have requested a doctorate in an IT related post. However, maybe this is due to the area because the area has boasted the greatest concentration of Ph.D.'s in the U.S. Many others jobs are looking for a master's for a top level job as a minimum qualification. Hence doctorates may apply and may have an edge.
Within the IT industry we find many senior fellows and senior computer scientists as having a doctorate. I am a senior technical fellow with my company and one aspect of even being nominated was having an advanced degree. Hence the doctorate does not hurt and are oftentimes called upon to lead corporate level research. In the IT world
there is Dr. E.A. Codd, at IBM who developed the relational database, Dr. James Gosling at Sun developed the JAVA programming language, Dr. Douglas Engelbart is responsible for hypertext, windows, cross-file editing and the mouse, and there are many other doctorates who are innovators in IT that work for industry. In addition, while I was at Nova my first two professors were adjuncts who were Ph.D.'s and researchers with IBM and working on "neat stuff" for their company.

As for adjuncts they may be a dime a dozen but are sorely used and needed by universities. One experience I had at a large university I wanted to teach at (as an adjunct) received a cold call letter from me as I didn't know anyone. The asst. dept. chair called and said he receives at least several letters a week and typically ignores them. However, since I had a doctorate he was interested in talking to me. About a year later I was teaching courses there. Also, typically, unless it is for non-credit continuing education courses, the minimum qualification to teach as an adjunct at the undergraduate level, at every place I have taught in North Carolina, was a masters degree with at least 18 graduate hours in the subject area.

John

 

I think Ike covered this one pretty well. I was initially asked to do some preliminary coursework and Nova also looked at my occupation and experience at the time which was as a Senior Systems Programmer on a U.S.A.F. Space Command contract -- this softened the blow on the admission entry qualifications. My background was physics and my job description specifically required a degree either in physics, electrical engineering, or computer science.
(By the way, my DL Excelsior degree opened the door to this job opportunity.) While on the job I completed my M.A. from Antioch and then started on the NSU program shortly thereafter.

John

 

I work in the pharm industry and a good number of corporate leaders have hard science doctorates: Chemistry, Biochemistry, Medicine, and Biology. I cannot recall any of the executives having business doctorates.

Didn't Codd have a Computer Science Ph.D.? I can see that in some of the high tech fields where the names are IBM, Sun, Cisco, and Nortel. A great number at Bell Labs were Ph.D. types. Their particular forte IS research at the companies.

Exactly! Your doctorate helped you to teach. That was what I was saying in my initial posting. If you want to teach then a doctorate might help. To be a businessman you don't need a doctorate, generally. To be a teacher a doctorate might help. To be a researcher it is probably highly important.

Since you are in the Triangle area, an area I go to quite a bit for family and work, you are in the South. I made an observation while on vacation a few weeks ago(we went South for vacation). There were signs up that read, "No Help Needed". I nearly fell off my chair when I saw them. In the North, you won't see signs like that. In fact, everywhere you go here you see a "Help Wanted" sign.

Every so often I check on IT jobs in the South and find that they require more education, experience, and less pay than what is generally found in the Midwest for an equivalent job. I think geography has a great deal to do with it. Florida could be one of the worst for this but Alabama seems a close second. Both states have a lot of high tech.

I noticed NC had a lot of New Yorkers, Californians, Hoosiers, and Land of Lincolners, to fill jobs. Many I talk with live there because the parents retired there, work for IBM, work for SAS, or are there because of biotech start-ups(Cogent Neurosciences or Sphinx are two I can think of).

Bing

 

Hello Bing,

This is my first time at the site.

The Australian equivalent of US News are a series of annual publications "The Good Universities Guide" by the Sydney Morning Herald. They rate Australian Universities by a series of * from * to ***** on a number of criterias like Presitige, Corporate Links, starting salaries, getting a job etc. The ***** universities are the Australian traditional powerhouses of Adelaide, ANU, Melbourne ,Monash, Queensland, Sydney, UNSW, UWA.

In the latest edition CS is rated **. In previous editons CSU was 'faulted' for poor-student staff ratios but has since overcome this. "CSU pirorities are courses related to its region and vocational courses for both school leavers and people already in the professions and paraprofessions"

CSU has over 30,000 students with over 80% being external students ( part-time or distance learning). CSU receive 4 to 5 stars for students getting a job and starting salaries, much better than a lot of traditional Universities.

Billy

MAcc (CSU-96)
MBA (CSU-01)

 

4 reasons why a DL MBA student should ignore the USA.

Warwick... a truly prestigious University and is AACSB accredited (see Financial Times, Guardian, Economist), great program with a thesis, at 10K pounds you can still do the mandatory residency in the UK and hit about the same price of far lesser schools in the US.

Heriot-Watt University a top tier MBA (Economist), 10K USD, several specializations available, 100% non-resident, largest program in the USA

Henley Mgmt College a top tier MBA (Economist), residency options within North America

Royal Holloway a top tier MBA (Economist), 100% non-resident, 12K USD, thesis required, international business emphasis.

... none of the US programs you mentioned come close to these.

 

Of course some would argue that "US equivalent" is an oxymoron.

 

I received an e-mail from Sturt and they said that their DBA program does require some face to face meeting. If that means flying down to Australia then your savings dwindles quickly. I don't know what a ticket costs to Australia but I would assume you might be out at least a few thousand dollar with hotel, airfare, and incidentals.

Are you interested in the Sturt program? They did have an ethics option on their DBA program.

Bing

 

Hmmmm, I was told otherwise... that it could be done without any residency. There is definetly nothing on the web-site indicating residency.

 

I know. I saw nothing like that on their website either. Here is the exact quote: "The Faculty of Commerce does have some flexibility concerning timing
and location of the induction program and the research seminar, but it is no
longer possible to complete the DBA without some face-to-face contact with
your supervisors."

Bing

 

... the key words are "no longer"... bummer, Southern Queensland has a DBA also, I wonder if they have a residency requirement. Otherwise, the best (only?) alternative will be the excellent, but pricey, University of Glasgow.

 

While I agree that the University of Glasgow has an excellent reputation, I'm not sure their DBA program could be considered 100% non-residential. At the Scottish Knowledge site at http://www.scottishknowledge.com on the web, there was a note that "All candidates are required to undertake an oral exam as part of their final assessment. This shall normally take place in the University and candidates from overseas are expected to travel to the UK for the final exam." Of course, this requirement is certainly minor when compared to the residency requirements of a typical doctoral program.

While I would agree that the Glasgow DBA is pricey when compared to a PhD by research at a UK school or UNISA, it does compare favorably with some of the US-based options. Their tuition information at http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/business/dba/questions_answers.htm shows 15,000 pounds (under 22,000 US dollars today) for a three-year DBA program.

Examples of other programs in the US that I have seen range from Nova Southeastern's DBA to Indiana State's PhD in Technology Management. ISU's site at http://web.indstate.edu/consortphd/program/program_faqs.htm on the web notes that current tuition (assuming one transfers in 30 credits of master's degree coursework into the 90 credit doctoral program) would translate to a program cost of US$12,000 to US$16,000. The FAQs page notes that there have been discussions between consortium members to "level" tuition to a $500/credit hour rate. This would increase program costs to the mid-30K range.

The Nova Southeastern DBA costs at least $36,900 for a 60-credit program based on the information in the page at http://www.sbe.nova.edu/classes/doctoral/program_fees.cfm which explains the minor fees as well. I do like the NSU format in which students and faculty get together one weekend a month, and there appears to be a well-developed support system within this program.

When compared to these two examples, the Glasgow program certainly competes on cost. Glasgow has an excellent reputation internationally. However, if one intends to use the doctorate to join the faculty of a US university (either part-time as an adjunct or full-time in a tenure-track position), would the Glasgow DBA allow one to teach or would US schools prefer programs with defined coursework requirements like NSU or ISU?

 

Good afternoon!

I agree with Ike's assessment regarding a better image for NSU in-state versus out-of-state. When I lived and worked in Florida a while back, NSU (then just plain Nova) was considered to be a fine school. Just a few states north, however, most of my colleagues have never heard of Nova.

NSU appears to suffer from internal divisions in the PR/image department. The main web page has the "We go the distance" headline that emphasizes the distance learning programs, and other posters have noted a potential anti-DL bias in the world of academia and elsewhere.

In the business school, however, there appears to be an effort to burnish the image of the programs. The connection with Wayne Huizenga for the School of Business & Entrepreneurship was a major coup. Also, I found it interesting that the DBA program contains a publication requirement (e.g., a paper or a case study in an appropriate journal or conference proceedings). This will certainly raise the level of academic consciousness about NSU's programs & students. Further, it should help jump-start the publication cycle for those students (not already published) who desire to enter the world of academia.

Dr. Borchers, did NSU have this requirement in place when you earned your DBA or is this a recent development? I am curious if these items are part of a comprehensive effort to upgrade the programs and image at NSU or if they are unrelated to each other.

 

quote:
Originally posted by Ike:
I am in total agreement. This analysis is more like an accurate summary of what have said in this thread. One point to note is that Nova's national image is not the same with its image in the state of Florida. Nova has a better image in Florida than in other states. Alberto Lacaye, who I think, lives in south Florida can attest to this.
Ike Okonkwo
Good afternoon!
I agree with Ike's assessment regarding a better image for NSU in-state versus out-of-state. When I lived and worked in Florida a while back, NSU (then just plain Nova) was considered to be a fine school. Just a few states north, however, most of my colleagues have never heard of Nova.

(snip)

[/B][/QUOTE]


Hello, group!

Yes, I live in South Florida, and what Ike and J. are saying is completely true. In fact, most people here consider NSU a residential university. My own youngest sister studied there residentially. And NSU even has traditional studies in law and in medicine-related disciplines. You know, as a matter of fact, I didn't even know that NSU had distance programs until I started to read AED, much to my amazement.

To be honest with you, I don't know why people keep insisting that NSU is a distance learning university because it is not. In point of actuality, NSU is a residential university with a distance learning wing. I know that people in other states might think that NSU is a distance institution only, so they should come here to study residentially for some days, at least, if this is possible.

The NSU case is an interesting one by which very short residencies like those offered by Upper Iowa University could change the whole image of a university. If I had connections with NSU, I would tell them about this possibility in the same way I have told Rich about residencies at CEU in Mexico.

Best wishes,


Alberto Lacaye
[email protected]

 

To my knowledge, all Nova doctoral programs do require summer residencies.

Ted

 

Dear Ted,

Hi!

Then, these same gradutates should be the ones spreading the word that NSU is not a ditance-only institution. I think that Ike is doing something to this effect, though.

On a related note, are the summer residencies for graduate as well as for undegraduate students? If so, more power to them.

Very cordially,


Alberto Lacaye
[email protected]

 

Good afternoon!

Although summer residencies may be required in some programs, the doctoral programs in business allow one to choose institute or cluster classes. I like the idea of attending classes one weekend a month, and this is certainly far easier to arrange (in my case) than a summer residency.

 

I was visiting the NSU doctoral online discussion forums when I saw a posting regarding careers of doctoral program graduates. Although the list is limited to some of the business graduates (DBA, DPA, DIBA), the link at https://secure.huizenga.nova.edu/CFBoards/Attachments/unknown/unknown/unknown/ACFE16B.xls was very interesting.

The list showed the diversity of positions held by NSU business doctoral graduates, and I even saw at least one DegreeInfo regular listed there!

 

I was interested to check this out. I've lost track of some of my peers and this pointed out where they are. Actually, to get to this spreadsheet you need to go to the main SBE site and find the discussion board on the doctoral program. The link you show below doesn't work as is.

Thanks - Andy

------------------
Andy Borchers, DBA
NSU (1996)

 

Good morning!

Thank you for letting me know about the link. I re-traced my steps in accessing the file, and here is the path:

1 - Go to http://dr.sbe.nova.edu

2 - Click on Announcements/News at the top right corner of the page -- this will take you to the Doctoral Online Discussion Forums

3 - Scroll down approximately 25 messages to one entitled "Graduates Successful Careers" -- clicking on this message should pull up an Excel spreadsheet with a long list of graduates in a wide variety of interesting positions