UK degree acceptance in United States

While I generally agree with what Lerner and hierophant have said, I want to make a picky editorial point. It's simply this, there is no such thing as "American employers." Used in this sense the term suggests that there is some homogenized group of people who all feel the same way about everything. Clearly that's not the case. Clearly there are some employers who would be delighted to interview a graduate of a British university. Similarly there are some (stupid) employers who would send that resume into the circular file upon seeing that little printed "UK" Of course there would also be some when noticing your degree from University of Lancaster would assume it's that place in Pennsylvania and not that place in England. If you go the route of a British degree hoping for employment in the US then I would suggest that you also get a formal degree equivalency evaluation performed (not a big deal) and that you prepare to be asked questions about the school and that whole "online degree thing." So, in general, British degrees are good, acceptable degrees that will be accepted in the US. Some of these schools are better known and better regarded than others. In the US, many will be entirely unknown (No sir, the University of Birmingham is not in Alabama). My own philosophy in these situations is that you choose the school that works best for you and you figure out how to sell it afterwards. But that's just me. And I'm a little, well, you know . . . but just a little.

 

How do I have degree evaluated?

 

Evaluation is a process in USA where a person with foreign degree submits the diploma and transcripts to foreign degree evaluation service that is approved by the University or Employer that require the evaluation.
Its usually a report with a statement of equivalency to US degree.

There are many private companies that provide evaluation services. Not all are recognized and some are bogus.
Usually member services of NACES among the listed approved evaluation agencies.

Some Professional Licensing boards require their own evaluation.
For example in Social Work degrees the evaluation needs to be performed by the office that is a part of US Social Work Professional Accreditation agency.

While education is important part of the employment process it can be as simple a check on the job application process or it can play a more heavy role depends on the type of the employment.

We all know what it takes to get hired.

A lot of positions have education requirements as a part of the hiring process but there is also experience, attitude, age, successful passing of the interviews.
Skills etc etc.

Some people don't list their advanced degrees on a resume as it makes them overqualified for type of positions they applying for.
In other casses you must earn an advanced degree in order to qualify as job candidate.

 

I pretty much agree with what was said here. I'll just add, as a Human Resources professional, that there are also some nuances with distance learning.

If a person walks into an interview and has a British accent then their having a degree from the U.K. Raises no particular concerns. In fact, of that person comes from Asia, Africa or anywhere in Europe it all falls within "normal" range.

I'd speculate that is likely due to our American centric nature. We have the US and then "the rest of the world."

When we encounter an American or someone who, by all outward appearances, is US born and raised with a foreign degree it evokes a different response. For some HR people it's a negative response. But for most it's a fascination.

An example of the bad: "Yeah well, if he was so smart then why couldn't he get into a college in America?" Said about a software engineer from the states who completed his CS degrees in Denmark.

An example of the good "Wow that's interesting, what's Costa Rica like?"

So the only potential problem is that it puts you in a position where you either feel compelled to lie about physically attending the school or admitting, early into the interview in most cases, that you earned your degree through DL.

So the question is really how does that particular employer view DL? I've seen a massive shift in attitude toward DL since I began my own professional career. In the early 2000s it wasn't uncommon to find an HR person or hiring manager who had the attitude that DL degrees, regardless of their awarding institution, didn't qualify a candidate. Now, it's not uncommon for that interviewer to say "Oh, neat, I did my masters online!"

There is no general trend to how US companies will respond to a degree. The biggest obstacle I can imagine is that many companies outsource degree verification to third parties. Some of the major players in that field are absolutely terrible at degree verification. I cannot imagine that their quality would improve when verifying an international degree. And some companies don't have a mechanism in place for foreign degree evaluation because it is uncommon for them. I recall one situation where an applicant was really sweating because our (former) verification service assured us numerous times that he didn't graduate from college only for us to discover that they were calling Virginia Tech to verify his University of Virginia degree.

At the end of the day, the questions you should ask yourself are these:

1. Is this program legal? If they are operating out of a post office box in Dubai because they got chased away from multiple states AG then it is likely best to stay away.

2. Is this program accredited? I'm not going to start an RA or the highway debate here. And I know that it gets hazy in countries where we are all less familiar with the accreditation landscape. If third party accreditation is the norm in that country then does this school have it? If government approval is the norm then does this school have it?

3. Can you be proud of a degree from that school without embellishment? If you will take pride in that school in rural India or the heart of Nairobi then that's a positive step. That doesn't mean everyone everywhere will be impressed by it. That doesn't mean you will get every job you apply for with it. But you have to feel confident in it without trying to fudge the lines (I.e. Pretending your degree from the University of Management and technology in Virginia is a degree from the University of Management and Technology in Pakistan).

4. Is it defensible? If someone popped out of the woodwork and accused you of sporting a milled degree, can you defend yourself without twisting yourself into a mental pretzel? "Yeah well, my degree is accredited by an accredited recognized by the USDOE" as opposed to "well, the first amendment guarantees us freedom of religion and as a religious school..."

Because here's the deal, there are people out there with diploma mill degrees. And in that other thread we talk about a time bomb going off for a hospital executive. But, despite this revelation, her board backing her. I'm not saying that's a good thing. But it shows what happens when you carry yourself confidently.

 

Neuhaus thank you for your time and insight. Because of America Centric attitude skipping a Bachelors does not farewell sometimes also. There are many non diploma Mills UK schools that do not have a particular accreditation outside governmental approval for awarding degrees how is they viewed

 

That definitely is very unusual for an American university. There are countries, however, where that's always the case. A Swiss MBA, for instance, never meets the Master's requirement for entry into a Swiss doctoral program. At least if the university in question has Swiss institutional accreditation. (Unaccredited Swiss universities often admit people with an MBA into their doctoral programs.) The same is true in Sweden, for example. But it's important to note that the titles of Swedish degrees are in Swedish, and there are official English translations of that title on Swedish diplomas. These translated titles are legally regulated, and differ somewhat from "normal" titles in the English speaking academic world. The point is these countries require an MSc in BA for entry, which also means there is a real difference between an MBA and MScBa there.

 

Is UK degree most valued foreign degree ?

 

You don't mean Newcastle University right?

Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, NE1 7RU

 

No - not the legit one in Newcastle. I think this is the one FTFaculty refers to -- one that started in a Manchester Pub and sold diplomas to eight Al-Quaeda members, among others. https://www.geteducated.com/fake-diplomas/386-university-of-newcastle-degree-mill-scam

J.

 

From America its hard to determine the quality of education at many universities unless they are the well known top rank.

I'm interested in a few former Polytech but cannot find much useful information on quality of Education for my area of Interest