Overheard Conversation about a DL Doctorate (UofP)

I recently had a conversation with a local college chair. He was interested in the reason I am seriously considering UNISA's DBL program. This is what I told him:


I am a business person. I own my own small business and seek ROI in my business endeavors. I hold an MBA and BS in Business. Both are US RA. I also have graduate credits in IT. I am established in my business, have a very good reputation and plenty of contract adjunct IT work.

AACSB accreditation is nice but not important at all.

Do not want a program where there is NO face to face.

Am doing this for personal enrichment. Living the American Dream. Have no desire to work as anyone’s employee. Degree must be RA or equal to RA.



Basically I have two choices:

1. Attend a distance education program in the US at a cost exceeding $30,000

2. Attend UNISA at a cost of approx $10,000-$15,000 which includes travel


By attending a USA Distance Ed doctoral program I may:

Be exposed to basically the same material I had in undergraduate/graduate but at a higher level.
Earn a US RA accredited degree.
Would enjoy Nova’s program due to the personal contact. ROI is low IMHO.


By attending UNISA I may:

Be exposed to different ideas and business perspectives.
Fly to RSA to meet professors face to face.
Travel and enjoy the country while I am there.
Possibly explore new business ventures in RSA.
Earn a doctorate considered equal to a RA in the USA.

Getting to mix business with pleasure and travel for half the cost of a US degree sounds like a solid business decision to me.

 

You're too kind, really.

"Rich" will do and is certainly preferred.

Hook 'em, Horns!

 

I agree very much. I'm not criticizing the quality of education in these professions--I'm hardly qualified to do that anyway. I just object to awarding doctorates for courses of study that are not doctoral. A minor peeve, though.

 

I'm not sure how to quantify "Micky Mouse" - I much prefer "Tier 4" myself.

Union HAS accepted as doctoral work book reports on the CS Lewis series - which is sunday school reading most other places.

In 1999, on about.com, RD DID publicy ridiculed Union's academic rigor (before he was admitted as a PhD candidate).

Levicoff DID take his Union PhD and immediately put it to good use as a long-haul truck driver?

Not exactly my idea of a Oxford, Harvard, or MIT

 

They used to have a saying in the army that you don't know anything until you have done it in real time. It was a test I didn't want!
The reputation of any university is really built on the ability of the graduates to deliver in the marketplace. If a law student has gone to a CA approved law school by distance ed mode and wins cases in court then who is entitled to say that the university has not delivered?

Perhaps it would be better to track graduates' performance in the workplace than by bureaucratic processes attached to vested interests. Has there been any assessment of professional performance in a given field, such as law, to determine if there is any significant difference between the different graduate's performance after graduation? I tend to see distance learners as high achievers but I am biased.

Are the "names" in universities really more about elite class networks than performance? Einstein was a Postman, unable to get into a university, until he delivered the goods. Orville and Wilbur Wright were not engineering graduates from MIT. Clarence Darrow was not a Harvard Graduate nor was Abraham Lincoln. If Winston Churchill went to Cambridge or Oxford, it was only to drink their whiskey and eat their food. Maybe there is a PHD is researching the topic of performance in real time !

 

Is there anything you have to do besides flame me? You do it in every forum. It is petty.

 

Rich, I know it was a long road with several interesting twists and turns. A big accomplishment. You deserve to feel very good about the effort and the reward that effort brought. Congratualtions!

 

Or sue me? Dave threatened to sue me a year or so ago. He even named the law firm. Of course, when I contacted them, they said they'd heard of him, but that he wasn't a client, and they weren't taking him seriously. I rather enjoyed that. More recently, on another forum, Dave (as "Dave Andersson," no less) said:

"I may still sue Rich for libel - he made some libelous statements - but all things have their time and place."

This from the same person who set up the board about Levicoff. It is hard to engage someone like this in any civil form of discourse. But to simply ignore his churlish comments is also difficult.

No flame here, just the facts.

 

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I do not read many of the threads and go days even weeks without reading Degreeinfo. But can't seem to beat the habit altogether.

I am still with ACCS and it is going slow.
I am quite alarmed with the TRACS situation.

 

David

Your comments are petty and uncalled for. Rich has contributed to this forum from day 1. He has helped many people find the correct schools.

 

Rich,

I'll have to check...but I thought someone originated the use of the "micky mouse" term wth regards to Union. I really do prefer the Tier system.

I'm sorry you look at my postings as part of a vast right-wing conspiracy" - because it isn't. I do notice your posting and when I (based on my limited experience) see a disconnect I mention it.

I also provide kudos when appropriate. I don't recall any insults attacking your character, integrity, etc. I think you have every right to be proud of your recent PhD achievement.

Rich - you post a LOT of "disconnects". I do not regard volume posting as an excuse for errors - any more than I excused Levicoff's abuse of the disabled on his "because it's the Internet" rational. But don't look at this as a "flame".

Have a nice day.

Dave A

 

If my memory serves me correctly, Winston Churchill went to Harrow followed by Sandhurst. As this is the Royal Military College of England it is essentially, the equivalent of West Point in the US. Following his graduation he served a tour in the military, entered Parliament, became Prime Minister, helped to win WWII, won the Nobel Prize, on and on and on. Suggesting that he only went to college "to drink their whiskey and eat their food" indicates a lack of knowledge about Churchill. You'd be advised to choose another example to prove your point.
Jack

 

David

Once again your comments to Rich are petty and uncalled for. After reading your repeated attack against Rich on About.com, I believe you owe him an apology. His posts are 100% "connects" not "disconnects" and he leaves out the misinformation that we see constantly in other people's posts.

 

Dave,

Once before you engaged in unsubstantiated allegations and libel. Now you are doing it again I highly recommend you not quit your day job.

Real quick, check out the thread on NA degree acceptability for Fed Govt jobs. Note that Rich is off under a tree mumbling about "Califonia State Schools and non-Fed Govt employment" - neither of which have ANYTHING to do with the thread. And this is only one of MANY.

FYI: Blind reflexive sycophany is not very attractive - Rich owe you money?

Dave A

 

Churchill did not go to the universities (Cambridge and Oxford) that dominated the government structures at the senior levels and, in terms of lawyers, still do in the United Kingdom. Recent research shows that the judiciary is dominated by these schools, something in the order of 75 percent of appointments. The point was that Churchill was able to produce the goods despite not being an Oxbridge graduate. Sandhurst was a more professionally than academically inclined college. Churchill was more in favour of professional education than academia. It is interesting to note that the scholarships issued by the Churchill Foundation are only for professional research by Commonwealth citizens and are not awarded for academic inquiries. I don't think it is any secret that he had a preference for whiskey. The US wartime Ambassador, Mr Kennedy, was often critical of his drinking and did not recognise his other obvious talents.

 

Of course, Mr Kennedy was not always clear who the good guys were in the Second World War.

 

Oh oh. I think Ranger boy is threatening to sue me too. I wonder when he let the attorney in on the joke.

 

Nah, Dave, first it's the childish website. Then it's the lawsuit.

Sheesh!





Tom Nixon

 

And again,

Nothing of sustance but plenty of unsubsantiated allegations
And from people with a track record of resenting accomplishment in others.

I wonder how long this baiting is going to go on before the moderators are forced to intervene.

 

David

You have been twice called on ruthless, vicious and unfair attacks against Rich. The evidence is both on this board and on About.com. A man would apologize, however...