Online Doctorate PhD

Thanks for sharing all of that, Michael! If you're up for it, could you tell us a bit more about your experience with IICUT? What was the enrollment procedure like? Are you doing mostly courses, research, or some combination thereof? What has interaction been like with teaching staff? Have you had any contact with fellow students at IICUT? What are the fees like? etc.

 

I haven't looked into the details of the doctoral programs, so no. I noticed it because I am planning on applying for one of their postgrad certificates. If I like that experience, I will likely pursue a masters and maybe more.

 

The program is a minimum of three years, and from what I've seen, they impose reasonably strict deadlines on every student so that they stay on track to completion in three years. Although students who are behind have some recourse. It's a research-only program. Keep in mind Cambodia's colonial past, as there is significant French influence in its higher ed system. Here's a breakdown, although I think they have changed a few things for newer students:

• Year one involves the completion of the formal research proposal, a research proposal defense (if your proposal doesn't pass university review), and the submission of the literature review. Since my proposal basically included my first chapter and since my literature review was my second chapter, I was done with 2/6 chapters by year one.
• Year two involves continued work on the dissertation and the completion of three articles in scholarly journals that are related to your subject matter in some sense. Journals have to be refereed. I know this has been changed into one article and several written assignments that articulate your research methodology. However, I had already submitted two of these, so I got stuck with the old requirement.
• Year three involves completing the dissertation, production of an extensive PPT presentation in prep for the defense, and the defense itself.

As for admissions, it is fairly standard for an international school (e.g., CV, transcripts, ID document, writing sample, interview). For the vast majority of the program, the only person you substantially interact with is your supervisor, as there are no courses. This was helpful for me since I had already started with Dr. Dalcour at Saint Augustine College. However, I have attended a few two to three-day seminars in which research methods and the like are discussed. There have also been conferences wherein students can present on the recommendation of their supervisor (I haven't attended these). There's an annual writing seminar held on campus once a year for ten days, but this too is optional. Students are a cross-section of the world. In the new student orientation, I met an engineer from Germany, a librarian from Ireland, a politician/lawyer from Egypt, and an MD from Singapore. The fees are reasonable, not unlike what you would encounter from an SA University (think $7-8k). I should note that FTS keeps its costs at the bare minimum, and so our PhD program with IICUT is the cheapest by far, at $6,402 divided equally over three years. The MA program we offer with IICUT is a coursework/thesis program, and it costs $4,800.