Ring of Truth ?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Neil Hynd, Apr 26, 2001.

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  1. Neil Hynd

    Neil Hynd New Member

    Does this have the ring of truth ? It does for me.

    This morning I attended a seminar held at Dubai's GETEX 2001 (Gulf Education and Training Exhibition) and given by the University of London External Programme. (I'll post more on GETEX later)

    On explaining to the audience the importance of verifying the acceptability of the distance education qualification, the speaker gave an example.

    For many years the London University External Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree was acceptable for a license for entry into law practice in Singapore.

    However, due to a surfeit of lawyers (and presumably complaints from existing lawyers about how hard it was to earn a good living !), it was decided to withdraw the London External LLB as an acceptable qualification.

    The belief stated by the speaker (in my words) was that this had nothing to do with the degree which remained much as it had always been and everything to do with regulating "supply and demand".

    One wonders whether this portends more such difficulties for holders of DL qualifications - where the main concern of those with power and influence is to retain such exclusivity, and has nothing to do with increasing educational opportunities for those who would like to improve their education or develop a career.

    I have not been able to check the latest situation vis-a-vis Singapore and the London U. External LLB ... does anyone else have information ?

    Regards,

    Neil Hynd

    ... and the 600th subject I see !!!
     
  2. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    This is one of the reasons that has often been offered to explain why the American Bar Association has not embraced the notion of distance law education: that the 600,000 (or perhaps it is 600 million) lawyers in America resist even more competition.

    And yet it was only 60 years ago, I believe, that more than half the then-practicing lawyers in America had qualified in the "Abe Lincoln" way: private study, no law school, then passing the Bar.

    John Bear
     
  3. judy wagner

    judy wagner New Member

    And yet it was only 60 years ago, I believe, that more than half the then-practicing lawyers in America had
    qualified in the "Abe Lincoln" way: private study, no law school, then passing the Bar.

    John Bear

    When my father was in his second year of law school at Ohio State Univ. (early 1920s), he took and passed the bar--could have practiced law. However, he did remain and school and finished his degree.

    Judy Wagner
     
  4. drwetsch

    drwetsch New Member

    ...and this can apply to other fields as well. A couple of decades ago Nova had a regional cluster program in North Carolina for its Ed.D. program. The program was growing until the state stepped in and filed a lawduit against Nova. The state argued that Nova could not award degrees in-state. Nova argued back that it was not awarding degrees in-state but awarded degrees from its Florida campus and only provided instruction in-state.

    The state won, Nova appealed and won on appeal. Unfortunately, the end result was that Nova currently did not restart it operations in North Carolina and students must either go to campus or to out-of-state clusters.

    Such are the wounds of being a pioneer in DL, especially at the doctoral level. Nova was competing well with the in-state schools. By taking their students away from the in-state institutions the state reacted. It is my opinion that actions like this are contributing factors to Nova's rather low scores in the national college rankings despite having excellent programs.

    Competition can be fierce even in academia.

    John
     
  5. Mohammed

    Mohammed New Member

    The situation remains. The Singapore government, I believe, have a quota for the supply of Advocates and Solicitors in the country. This is catered through the graduates' pool of the LLB program in the National University of Singapore. [​IMG]


     

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