Job Discussion Forums

[ronin]

Do any of you know anyone who has used one of these "life experience degrees" that you buy off the internet and got away with it? I'm just curious because it takes a lot of balls to use one.

[Ludwig]

'Ronin', such things - though I must confess it is actually the first time I at least have ever heard of such a notion as a 'life degree' - may well have been used in the past in some states in and around S.E. Asia and maybe in some parts of central Africa. After all, toilet paper is not always readily available when trekking around such places.

Seriously though, I have never encountered such a thing and nor would I ever expect to.

I do not think it would ever be the case of someone or other having "got away with it" though, and nor do I believe it would take "a lot of balls to use one". For I do not think that anyone would ever need to 'get away with it'. Rather, I would assume that the sort of employer who demanded a degree and who accepted a 'life degree' would most likely also be just as 'fooled' with a hand written degree transcript and certificate (sketched out in front of them). Similarly, I do not believe that someone daft enough to ever submit a 'life degree' when asked for a degree would necessarily be aware of the 'balls' the action took on their part (at least not in any way we could ever hope to begin to understand).

[sidjameson]

"life degrees" don't actually have that as their title. Rather they are the degree in the subject you feel that your life has given you the most knowledge in. Of course it is still splelt F, A, K, E. But yes I do know of a guy here in Japan that is using one as we speak and has done so for the last 5 years. Before Japan he was a labourer on a building site in the UK.

[zaneth]

There was a program at my university to help people get credit for life experiences.

Now, granted, it was a small liberal arts school started in the sixties, known for environmental studies, with a reputation for radicalism, and the butt of numerous regional jokes regarding the quality of education, so one might have grounds to criticise.

But folks had to spend a year writing up their experiences and putting them into an accreditable form. And there was a certain cutoff of how much of the degree credit could be from this. I knew some folks that were in that program and it seemed like they were working pretty hard. Seemed like a pretty fair system.

[rj]

Are you referring to a Regents degree? I know of several colleges and universities that offer them.

Here is a quote from West Virginia University's web site that sums it up:

[zaneth]

Yeah, that sounds like what I'm talking about.

[Stephen Jones]

I fairly regularly get people applying for a job with one. Some are even employed in schools. If I feel energetic I inform their present employer; if I don't I simply send them references to the varying regulations they are breaking, and mutter things about not knowing what bit of anatomy the Saudis cut off for fraud and forged documents.

[rj]

Regents degrees aren't fake though, they actually do require you to have some experience in life. They are mainly for people who need a degree for job advancement, but going to school would be silly. A nurse with a 2 year degree and 20 years experience is more qualified in nursing than a nurse with a 4 year and no experience (all other things being equal). Going back to school would be redundant for that nurse. However most management positions require at least a BS or BA, even if it isn't in nursing. Regents degrees are more like getting college credit for on the job (life) experience. But as I said, you have to prove you have those experiences to get the credit. Also, they are called Regents degrees, they don't try to pretend that the person attended school to get all their credits.

I believe the OP was referring to the fake degrees where you send in x amount of money and select which degree you want. You don't have to prove that you have life experience because all they care about is the cash. Also, the degree doesn't indicate that credits were earned based on life experience. I'm not sure, but I do believe that you can't select where the degree comes from so you may have to explain how you ended up with a degree from BFE University without ever setting foot in that country.

[Stephen Jones]

[rj]

[joncharles]

I am not sure about "life experience" degrees... but I know I did receive 12 credit hours for my journalism experience in the military and I took a CLEP Test (College Level Examination Program) Where you can take a test on basic university courses, Math, Science, English, ect.ect. If you score high enough you can receive credit for the courses. So, even with those you still have to complete some criteria... However, I have read that some colleges because of declining student rosters are offering programs for people who have been in the workforce for many years and offer credit for experience.

So, far the only degree I know of here in the USA where a student really doesn't have to learn anything is the favorite of many in Athletic Departments: BA or BS in Individual Studies

[Stephen Jones]

I don't know what you mean by a "Regents" degree. There appear to be plenty of them on the web (there are even posthumous Regents degrees, presumably for after-life experience), but a definition of how they differ from other degrees is nowhere to be found.

If the degree is awarded by an accredited university such as Tennessee Technical Universrity, then it is a genuine degree and no more needs to be said. Of course in the US, and to a lesser extent in the UK, some accredited degrees are so devalued as to be worthless, but that is another matter.

As far as I can tell you can only get about one third of your credits from so-called life experience. In fact that does not appear to be the distinguishing mark of those degrees.

[rj]

I have no idea what colleges churn out worthless degrees so I can't offer much comment. However I've never known anyone get laughed at for having a degree from WVU or Marshall (both offer a Regents). As to accepting life and work experience not being a defining feature, I disagree. If you had looked at the websites I linked to, you would see they specifically mention this as something that sets a Regents apart from typical BAs. That is why the degree is a RBA rather than just a BA. The "Regents" is what specifies some portion of the degree is based on life and/or work experience--unlike a fake degree mentioned earlier where you get the same degree title as someone who went through a typical program by paying your $100 or whatever it costs.

I copied this directly from Marshall Universities website. This is a well-known and respected college where I live and they have a nice long list of accreditations.

[Stephen Jones]

Id linked to both the web sites you mentioned and some more. As far as I can tell "life-experience" only counts for a maximum of one third of the credits, and in practise considerably less.

The question for working abroad is are the degrees properly accredited. That is to say does the accredting authority accept an RBA as being the same as a BA.

There is no equivalent UK degree, so please excuse my ignorance on this. The only "life-experience" degrees I have come across in the past are spurious ones, and some even go to the extent of ripping off the punter to the extent of thousands of dollars.

If the degrees are the equivalent of distance-learning or online degrees, then I would say that, provided they are properly accredited, their value depends more on the prestige of the issuing institution and the perception of the employer than anything else. In general distance Masters are looked on much more favourably than distance first degrees.

[rj]

The actual classroom credits required by Shepherd and Marshall are 24 which is approximately 1/5 of the total hours required to get a degree. If you found where they state only 2/3 of the credits can be from life and work experience, I didn't see it. I didn't check WVU, but since this is a standardized degree (at least in West Virginia) I assume it would be the same (24 classroom credit hours). I agree that it would be difficult for someone to gain the remaining 100+ credits from just life and work experience but if they can, it's permitted.

I'm not sure how to compare them to distance learning or online degrees because they aren't the same. All of my work experience is in nursing and once you have a nursing license, any degree from an accredited college is acceptable regardless of how you earned it; my hospital sponsors distance learning programs and offers scholarships for online degrees as well. Since you must have at least an Associates degree to qualify for a nursing license, they may view a BS the same way other professions (requiring a BA or BS for entry) view a Masters. I went straight for a BS out of high school so that isn't something I've ever had to look into. If I didn't know people with Regents degrees, I wouldn't have bothered learning about them either.

I do know that a RBA from an accredited school is the same as a BA from an accredited school here (in the US). Although how an employer views them does differ. Some employers like them because they require a dedication to continual education rather than just higher education and they show the person has experience in a range of things while other employers prefer to see a traditional BA because that is the standard. For working abroad, I would suggest someone with a RBA be prepared to educate prospective employers about what kind of degree it is. Since this appears to be something done only(?) in the US, people may not recognize it simply because they aren't aware of what it is and how it is earned.

And if you don't mind, could you define punter please? I'm assuming it is British since I don't think you mean someone who kicks a ball and that is the only definition I know