10-27-2008, 01:09 AM
Little Arminius Wrote:Have you looked into the possibility of a South African doctoral program? The primary South African DL university is UNISA (University of South Africa), from which I earned a BA(Hons) degree a number of years ago. They are a very large university with international recognition but are also (in)famous for their multi-layered bureaucracy. Even with the difficulties in receiving responses from the school, UNISA is an excellent value - you are getting a very solid, mid-level quality RA-equivalent for the cost of a community college!
UNISA homepage
While UNISA is 100% DL (though they have study centres in various locations in SA and Namibia), B&M SA universities also have provisions for "part-time" doctoral studies in various disciplines. This "part-time" study is essentially distance learning. At the doctoral level in SA (including UNISA) there is no formal coursework but rather a thesis(dissertation) proposal, the thesis(dissertation) itself and the oral defense.
Four additional points:
1) Due to a reorganization and consolidation of the SA university system, many schools focused their specializations in several areas. Hence, perhaps only a handful will offer the program you want.
2) Check how frequently you will have to go to SA. With UNISA you can probably get away with a single visit to defend you thesis*(dissertation) but that may not be the case with all programs.
3) Jack Tracey of DegreeDiscussion was accepted into and enrolled in a PhD program at University of the Free State. He is usually generous with his time and in providing info if you ask.
4) You can find a lot of useful info on UNISA at degreeinfo. Look for posts by Brad Sweet as he actually has a UNISA PhD; ignore anything written by Chip (the owner) as he doesn't know what he's talking about.
* UNISA's Graduate School of Business Leadership offers a Doctor of Business Leadership (DBL) that while 100% DL, also require that you attend several "colloquia" while a dcotoral student. That translates into 4 visits to SA plus yout oral defense.
I've been steered over to UNISA over on DD and am weighing over the cost vs. the apparent bureaucracy issues and possible travel concerns. Having to travel to South Africa really buts a whole new perspective on "distance" learning.
Nevertheless I have a lot of thinking to do.