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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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 Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:44 pm Post subject: Rocheville vs University of Phoenix |
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A recent post on Dave's ESL Cafe brought up the issue of Rochville University and the Board of Online Universities Accreditation. An anonymous comment claimed that Rochville is a legitimate provider of on-line education. After an examination of information available on the Internet, I believe this is not true and that Rochville University should be avoided by those looking for legitimate education.
Rochville's website does not provide any contact information. There is no phone number or address for a business office anywhere to be found on the site. Only a fax number can be found on the Home Page. Contrast this with one of the top providers of legitimate on-line education, the University of Phoenix (UOP); the phone number of their business office can be found on the Home Page and the Contact Page contains all the information you'll need to walk in off the street and see the school.
Their webpage contains no meaningful information about the courses they offer. There is no information about course descriptions, program requirements, or who does their teaching.
Rochville University claims accreditation from the Board of Online Universities Accreditation (BOUA) and Universal Council for Online Education Accreditation (UCOEA). Neither of these organizations appear meaningful. Almost all their reported members are the same. In fact, the layout for their webpages appear to be so similar that I wonder if they are not the same organization with 2 different names. |
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chinagirl
Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 235
Location: United States
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| Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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This has been an interesting discussion. I hope the OP has gotten some useful feedback!
By the way, even distance programs - although legitimate degrees from brick-and-mortar schools - are sometimes not competitive against PhDs and master's done in person. That isn't to say these are not excellent programs, but it really depends on your end goal. I have a friend who did a "low-residency" master's by distance in the US from a university in another state, which allowed her to schedule her life more effectively. She visited the school three times - each time for a week - while in the program. It was excellent and she had no problem securing a promotion in her teaching job upon graduation.
However, there are cases when a distance degree would not always be a good route to take. If you are a person that plans on a career in academia in the US, Canada, etc. it is probably wise to matriculate into a more traditional program. There are just too many people with PhDs from traditional programs jostling elbows for those positions. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 8:20 pm Post subject: |
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| chinagirl wrote: |
| ThHowever, there are cases when a distance degree would not always be a good route to take. If you are a person that plans on a career in academia in the US, Canada, etc. it is probably wise to matriculate into a more traditional program. There are just too many people with PhDs from traditional programs jostling elbows for those positions. |
All very well if you can do that. Im married with two kids, have a full time job and cant take two years off to do a higher degree on-campus.
PS there is a recent thread on GP about jobs in Japan vs. in the US. One poster said that US jobs are not what they are cracked up to be, that many universities now hire many part timers or sessional workers and often very qualified people are turned down for political reasons that have nothing to do with the authenticity of their qualifications or their academic record. One woman who applied had a phD from Oxford had written two books dozen publications but teaching staff saw her as a potential threat to them and was turned down. |
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taikibansei
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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| chinagirl wrote: |
| However, there are cases when a distance degree would not always be a good route to take. If you are a person that plans on a career in academia in the US, Canada, etc. it is probably wise to matriculate into a more traditional program. There are just too many people with PhDs from traditional programs jostling elbows for those positions. |
This is fair advice--generally, it is difficult to turn a distance graduate degree into a tenure track position in the US, Canada, etc. However, it can be done--indeed, at my US university, we just hired a guy working in Japan who'd gone the distance degree route.
How did he distance himself from the other 95+, mostly traditional, applicants? He published more--in Japanese and English. His distance PhD was also from a reputable British university, with at least one letter of recommendation from a top professor there. His dissertation, as well, was both interesting subject-wise and close to publishable in book form. Even then, it was tough--some faculty here did mumble a bit about his "on-line" PhD--but he got the job.
Bottom line: your degree--whatever its source--is only one of many things a search committee will be looking at. Even if you feel you are inadequate in any one area, just make sure you are stronger in the others. |
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taikibansei
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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| PAULH wrote: |
| One poster said that US jobs are not what they are cracked up to be, that many universities now hire many part timers or sessional workers |
All this is true, though certainly nothing new--i.e., this stuff has been going on for at least the last 40 years, if not far longer. Furthermore, the same thing has been happening at universities in most countries throughout the world, and for similar reasons--money.
| Quote: |
| and often very qualified people are turned down for political reasons that have nothing to do with the authenticity of their qualifications or their academic record. |
Nothing new or strange about this either. Tell me, Paul, do Japanese universities hire solely on applicant qualifications or strength of academic record? That would be news to many people--including many Japanese.
For US university searches, you get 80-200 (depending on the field) applicants, most of whom are highly qualified, widely published, and excellent teachers. Hence, the final decision often has to do with something besides applicant qualifications--including personalities and politics. E.g., do the faculty in question want to spend the rest of their careers in the same department as the person in question? Yeah, one might want to keep these decisions completely objective, but they never are--anywhere.
Now, if you really want to criticize specifically US universities, I'd start with the salaries--many of which have been frozen at levels achieved in the mid-90's. Heck, the money I earned yearly in my part-time job in Japan almost equals my salary now. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 2:22 am Post subject: |
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| taikibansei wrote: |
| chinagirl wrote: |
| However, there are cases when a distance degree would not always be a good route to take. If you are a person that plans on a career in academia in the US, Canada, etc. it is probably wise to matriculate into a more traditional program. There are just too many people with PhDs from traditional programs jostling elbows for those positions. |
This is fair advice--generally, it is difficult to turn a distance graduate degree into a tenure track position in the US, Canada, etc. However, it can be done--indeed, at my US university, we just hired a guy working in Japan who'd gone the distance degree route.
How did he distance himself from the other 95+, mostly traditional, applicants? He published more--in Japanese and English. His distance PhD was also from a reputable British university, with at least one letter of recommendation from a top professor there. His dissertation, as well, was both interesting subject-wise and close to publishable in book form. Even then, it was tough--some faculty here did mumble a bit about his "on-line" PhD--but he got the job.
Bottom line: your degree--whatever its source--is only one of many things a search committee will be looking at. Even if you feel you are inadequate in any one area, just make sure you are stronger in the others. |
Taikibansei, I think you made some good points. I might also add that in 5 years post-masters, employers will not look as closely as to how you got your degree (either on campus or distant). They will look at your employment record more.
You will always find prejudices everywhere. Some people don`t like distant degrees because they don`t know much about them or they may not like a particular university either becauer they know someone who went there and they ended up a lousy teacher. You can`t really worry about prejudices because there is little you can do about it. |
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