Should an instructor for a PhD class have a PhD?

Is Big Brother watching?? I do have Joan Saunders for MGT 5005. First, I am not questioning the qualifications of the instructors; they know a lot more than I do about the subjects. That is why they are the teacher and I am the student.

I had an instructor at a community college that taught computers and had a PhD and he was not that great. I had another instructor that did not have a degree and he was great.

I thought to teach undergrad classes, you need a grad degree.
To teach grad classes, you need a PhD. If that is not the case, it opens additional doors for me to teach online classes (remember, it is all about me).

 

I knew two university professors who spent a large amount of time away from their campus' (USC and Stanford). Their classes were conducted by Teaching Assistants (PhD sudents) using video tapes.
The University of California uses TAs (see http://www.oic.id.ucsb.edu/TA/hdbk/title.html).

 

If I were enrolled in a PhD program and discovered that the instructors for my courses in Research Methodology or Statistics (for example) had Masters degrees as their highest degree then I don't think I would be upset. I think they could impart the level of knowledge needed in these areas.
Jack

 

I'll just echo what's been said already. It would depend upon the class. However, whatever degree level courseworek you are taking should be taught by a holder of that degree or higher. At the institutions I have worked and studied at, it would be unthinkable of having a Ph.D. class taught by someone without a doctorate. If memory serves me correctly, you must have a certain degree to supervise dissertation or thesis writers, depending upon the level of the students. For instance, in seminary life, you had to have a research doctorate plus tenure to supervise even a master's thesis, let alone a Ph.D. dissertation.

 

my 2 cents... PHd students should be supervised by atleast a Phd faculty..

 

Just because someone is pursuing a Ph.D. does not mean every course taken in that pursuit is a "Ph.D. class".

In many cases, graduate classes are taught by masters degree holders. In this situation, the classes in question are graduate courses (not specifically Ph.D. courses).

 

I don't think someone needs to be a PhD holder in order to teach a subject in PhD class. What you need is a good mastery of the subject you are teaching. Very successful business are invited to speak (Not teachers) to PhD candidates without having a PhD

 

You know, when it's carried to the point of absurdity, this insistance that professors must have Ph.D.s is probably one of the things that provides fodder for the degree-mills.

We all know that if we Google many of the mills, we will find people on the faculties of various legitimate universities who sport accredited bachelors and masters degrees from fine institutions, topped off by a doctorate from a mill.

My guess is that institutional pressures motivate quite a few well-qualified but undoctored instructors to embellish their resumes with some empty letters.

 

There are exceptions with people that have obtained a level of
knowledge and expertise comparable to an earned doctorate, such was the case with my late professor Severino Croatto;

Professor José Severino Croatto, professor emeritus of Hebrew Scriptures, Hebrew and Phenomenology of Religion at the Instituto Universitario ISEDET in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Prof. Croatto studied philosophy and theology at the Vincentian Seminary (Escobar, Buenos Aires, 1948-1953). He obtained a degree as a Licenciate in Theology at the Universidad Catolica Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1954). Later, he received a postgraduate degree as Licenciate in Biblical Sciences at the Pontificium Institutum Biblicum (Rome, 1957), and pursued further postgraduate studies at the Hebraic University in Jerusalem (1958).

During that two-year period Croatto engaged in archeological research in numerous historical regions, including Egypt, Greece, Crete, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. He continued that work by participating in excavations in succeeding years in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel/Palestine.

Dedicated to education, from 1962 to 1964 he taught Hebrew Scriptures at the Jesuit School of Theology of the Colegio Máximo, San Miguel, Buenos Aires; then from 1964 to 1973 he lectured on philosophy and the history of religions at the University of Buenos Aires. While at ISEDET, he also taught comparative religions at the School of Eastern Studies, Maimonides University (1994-1996) and at the Academia del Sur (1996-2003). He expressed honor at being the only Christian professor at the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, where he taught “Exegesis of the Hebrew Scriptures” and “Christian Worldview” (Buenos Aires 1997-2003).

Prof. Croatto is also well-known through his articles in the publication /RIBLA / ( /Revista de Interpretación Bíblica Latinoamericana /). In 2002, Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia invited Prof. Croatto to be one of the eight scholars in its prestigious Campbell Scholars Seminar.

His primary fields of academic interest were the history and culture of the Ancient Near East; Classical (Latin and Greek) and Semitic (Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Ugaritic and Arab) Languages; the phenomenology of religion and comparative religions; and biblical exegesis and Latin American biblical hermeneutics. He wrote more than 20 books and more than 200 articles which have been published in numerous languages. Some of his best-known books are: /Historia de la salvación / (Paulinas, 7 editions between 1963-1986); /Exodus: A Hermeneutics of Freedom / (New York: Orbis Books, 1981); /Die Bibel gehört der Armen. Perspektiven einer befreiungstheologischen Hermeneutik /(Munich: Chr.Kaiser Verlag, 1989); /Biblical Hermeneutics. Toward A Theory of Reading as the Production of Meaning /(New York: Orbis Books, 1995, 3rd edition); /Hermenéutica Práctica. Los principios de la hermenéutica en ejemplos /(Quito: RECU-Verbo Divino, 2002); and /Experiencia de lo sagrado y tradiciones religiosas: Estudio de fenomenología de la religión / (Estella, Spain: Verbo Divino, 2002). At the time of his death, he had just finished a new commentary on Genesis 1.

These are some of the doctoral dissertations he directed:

* Máximo Vicuña, “La resurrección de los muertos. l Corintios15” ISEDET (1980).
* René Krüger, “Lectura semiótica de Lucas 1-24”, ISEDET (1984)
* Néstor Míguez, “Análisis sociopolítico de 1 Tesalonicenses”, ISEDET (1988)
* Osvaldo Vena, “Estructura de Marcos 13 y periodización de la apocalíptica
judeo-cristiana”, ISEDET (1989).
* Pablo Andiñach “Exégesis del libro de Joel”, ISEDET (1992)
* Jorge Torreblanca “Estructura retórica del libro de Jeremías”, ISEDET (1990)
* Samuel Almada, “De la muerte a la vida: el alumbramiento de un nuevo proyecto histórico. Propuesta para una lectura latinoamericana de Ezequiel 34-37 desde una perspectiva evangélica, comunitaria y ecuménica” (ISEDET, 9.12.02).
* Juan José Barreda, “El mesianismo en Qumrân” , ISEDET
* Darío Barolín, Éxodo 19-40.
* Bernardo Gandulla, “Los Hebreos en el Gran Canaán del Bronce Medio al Hierro I (El sustrato etnocultural del Antiguo Israel en las tradiciones bíblicas y la cultura material)” (UBA, Fac. de Filosofía y Letras; Co-Director, Director: A Finet, de Francia; 17.11.03).
* Diana Lea Frenkel, “La presencia del mundo griego en el libro segundo de los Macabeos” (UBA, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Historia Clásica).