Nova Southeastern University

*blink*

You know, I really should get out more.


Peace,

------------------
Tom Head
www.tomhead.net

 

David,

Sorry my response is so late in coming.

With respect to your last point - I have recently graduated from NSU - School of Computer and Information Science and am aware that these liberal admission policies, lack of written qualifying exam and lack of oral dissertation defense is currently being debated. There are some faculty members who want this to be changed while others (more influential members of the faculty) want it to remain the same. I have also learned that there are a fair number of faculty members who are disappointed that a School of Computer and Information Sciences offers a Ph.D. to teachers of computing. I'm afraid I have to agree. I can't remember the last time I heard of a Mechanical Engineering Department offering and B.S., or Ph.D. for the matter, in Mechanical Engineering Education. I personally think it's simply a cash cow for the department. I also think this is why so few of the department's dissertations end up in the UMI digital dissertation library which of course ultimately proves destructive for the departments reputation.

Jake

 

Jake,

The education degree aside I found considerable rigor in the program the the course work, practicums, and the continual review of the dissertation from proposal to results to final completion.

UMI is a voluntary process. Some universities may require their students to submit their work to UMI but I wouldn't consider this a definitive statement of academic quality. In fact UMI does not provide any review of the work. UMI also did not have any difficulty in accepting my NSU dissertation and I knew of fellow students who chose not o have their dissertations reviewed. Nontheless, all dissertation can be found online through the NSU online library.

John

 

John,

I hope your not implying that submission to the UMI is simply an obscure right-of-passage for few universities. MOST traditional universities necessitate submission as a requirement for graduation. There are other reasons to do so. I know when my company hires a Ph.D., that is the first place we go to verify research history and area of expertise.

Don't get me wrong. I've truly valued my experience at Nova Southeastern University. I have made some life-long friends and got to know the faculty very well. I really feel that Nova offers a better product than other comparable "brick-and-mortar" university DL doctoral programs such as UMass, UMaryland, UIdaho, and NJ-IT. I personally think with a little better marketing to the right technical groups and a few more gating functions in the doctoral program, the school's word-of-mouth reputation could improve significantly.

Jake (Proud NSU Ph.D)

 

Jake,

UMI is not obscure in the least. I just want to point out that just because a dissertation is not listed in UMI it is not a bad thing. Anyone who earns an accredited doctorate can get their dissertation published with UMI. Thus UMI serves simply as a research, reference and publishing tool for academic theses and really nothing more.

John

John