Unaccredited PhD Poll

And I, of course, have been reading John's simple-but-strong proposal for years. But I do have a concern: representation.

I'm not sure how many dissertations/theses would comprise a representaive sample, but I suspect more than proposed. But that would be a simple thing to resolve.

My other concern is process. Maybe it's my PI bias, but I think transparent and effective processes lead to better results. With unaccredited schools, I would want to know more than just whether or not they can crank out some good dissertations. I would also want to know how they did it. A good process can save a mediocre effort, and help propel a good one to greater heights. But an already excellent student can overcome a crummy process in a lot of cases.

With a bad process, how many poor students fail to finish? They wouldn't show up when comparing completed dissertations/theses, but those failures would be a key indicator of the quality of the process and, therefore, of the school in question.

So, the 'ol bottom line is certainly the most important measure. I'd like to know that the school in question was ensuring that the minimum standard wasn't minimal. But I'd also want to know that the process wasn't failing, too.