Job Discussion Forums

[silent-noise]

just a couple of questions:

which universities offer MA programs taught in english? specifically, i'm looking for linguistics, journalism, communications, (mass) media, and/or advertising...i know there are the branch schools from temple and columbia...but are there any others? i'm not sure which of the native schools offer classes taught in english...

also, i may be heading to japan in march to teach english as an ALT....and i'm hoping that this may open up some other opportunities...what other types of jobs require native english language fluency? i'm looking for something related to the subjects in my first question above...but also open to any others....thanks!

[PAULH]

[Glenski]

Some non-teaching jobs for native English speakers can be found on www.jobsinjapan.com but don't expect much in the way of high quality positions. Some would just rather that you have a visa already in order to start.

Proofreading and translating/editing are in demand, but they are also very competitive.

Some IT and engineering jobs might require native English skills but might also require high fluency in Japanese.

[Doglover]

here are some more links to distance universities in Japan

[JaredW]

Is the modular ph.d program at Birmingham in Appl. Linguistic as prestigious as the regular ph.d? Does it carry the same weight?

Also, from my research on the internet Univ of Birmingham is pretty prestuguous (i.e. Best 100 in the world). Is that true?

[PAULH]

[abufletcher]

Jared, my own personal and therefore necessarily subjective impression is that the relative worth of a Ph.D. depends on what one intends to do with it. If the long-term goal is a tenured position at an American university, then I don't think there is any question that a US-based degree which includes a solid block of traditional coursework will be the most respected. Traditional research degrees from the UK or OZ (such as my own degree from the University of York) may be looked at somewhat askance and you may find yourself needing to assure people (specifically, US members of seach committees) that this is the SAME type of degree that every academic in the UK (or OZ) receives and so unless they would wish to make the outrageous claim that there are no serious scholars in the UK (or OZ) they need to accept that your degree is as respectable as a US degree. That having been said, I think US-based degrees do a much better job than UK universities of preparing doctoral candidates in the actual job of being a professor (e.g. grant writing, professional service such as journal editing, experience teaching graduate-level courses, joint conference presentations, etc.).

Those same people will be even more suspision of anything they perceive to be a "distance degree." There are many very respectable distance degrees out there in the world -- or perhaps better stated there have been many very respectable Ph.D. dissertations written by people doing a degree "by distance." Nevertheless, I do not believe "distance degrees" have quite gained the measure of respectability needed to make them truly competetive against a traditional degree in attaining a US tenure-track position. I think the term "modular program" is particularly worrying to search committtees in the US. The challenge is to somehow show that one's degree is not from a "degree mill" which is how "distance degree" is still viewed by many traditional scholars. If I were going this route I'd want to make sure I had a extremely solid dissertation along with several quality publications related to the dissertation topic before going to the considerable effort of applying for a US positi