They will be teaching “instruction in communication skills” for administrators? Isn’t that a prerequisite for such a job, although sometimes lacking in practice?

Maybe some units on “how to fire people” and “how to stop academics bickering” would also be appropriate. Those, in my experience, are the two most difficult aspects of academic administration (along with balancing a budget that is always too small).

Anyway a larger issue is raised. Academics who end up in admin roles don’t need a PhD since they have one — what they need is experience and some guidance. But administrators who were not once profs. and enter management from other backgrounds (corporate sector, service industries, etc) may wel be tempted.

Question is: which group would you prefer to be runnign your university? Ex-academics or professionals who take a mid-career phD to improve their cvs? Unclear to me.

SP, at 7:20 am EDT on October 19, 2007

It has always amazed me that to teach kindergarten you must be certified. To design houses you must be certified. To simply hand out medicine in a nursing home you must be certified. To be a manager at McDonald’s one goes through extensive managerial training. But to be an administrator or instructor at a university, most of the time all you need is a Ph.D. And most of the time any Ph.D. will do!

Richard Baker, Associate Professor at Kansas State University, at 9:15 am EDT on October 19, 2007

What’s it all about ???

After forty plus years of experience as a faculty member, academic dean, college president, private foundation president, consultant, etc. and now again a student, I would love to see a program that focused on issues such as: how and why we learn (including physiology and biology), system ecology, logic and epistemology, the basics of modern science, creativity and the imagination in human and social development. And that would be for starters.

Merle F. Allshouse, Fellow at University of South Florida, at 9:15 am EDT on October 19, 2007

Dumbing down?

So Steve,

Just when did this “dumbing down” of higher education begin its slide? Was it before, during, or after your formal education?

Is it the word “Phoenix” that is so troubling, or the fact that a market for untraditional students -regardless of discipline or age- is serving a need.

Your cheap shot has no context ... come back, offer some. Participate in what our educational systems should be doing, i.e., engaging the dialogue.

Michael, at 11:10 am EDT on October 19, 2007

Wish list for U of P

I am more hopeful about this — HE graduate programs are badly in need of innovative approaches to combat the abysmal ignornance and groupthink that now dominates educational studies.

A spin off could be an Institute of Accreditation Studies (IAS) that would focus on accreditation reform and international accreditation problems.

History of education courses should fearlessly problematize educational expansionism and international credentialism. Critical studies could link these trends with labor market rationalization and the changing organization of the labor force, and the economic theories of social stratification.

Institutional and organizational studies should reach out to embrace powerful new theoretical approaches of neo-institutionalism and structural sociology.

The inclusion of any of these topics would prevent U o P’s new venture from reproducing the crippling path dependence and institutionally induced cognitive deficits now limiting the future of HE studies. I wish them good luck, not for their sake, but for ours!

Glen S. McGhee, Dir., at Florida Higher Education Accountabilty Project, at 11:25 am EDT on October 19, 2007

Future of Education

UOP, AIU, Walden University, Kaplan U, Devry University etc ….the future of education and online too plus with UOP’s research grants pending also.. wow …. the future is so bright…. I think I need shades; Wonder why they all get such a bad reputation from all those traditional brick & mortar linear thinking ‘one way Sam’ anti-alternative educational alumni types?? And to think all are open to investors on the exchanges(that’s a novel idea) …in fact my Alma Mata American Intercontinental University(AIU) shares have increased 60% over the last 12 months with their accrediting body recommending no further action regarding certain issues as of yesterday….no crime…no time. Better invest while the price is still low

UOP is slowly becoming an educational powerhouse….let alone a nonlinear learning champion ….hey wait a minute isn’t that nonlinear learning concept a new educational idea. Now come on folks…you kinda give credit where credit is due….who cares about if the traditional or the non-traditional schools get the most credit for the concept…but then again research grants are a competition….right??

Oh ya…I read Mr. Glen Mcghee’s comments on the Oct17th…poor guy… and to think I come from a family of Mcgee’s….except we spell ours without that (h) must be an education thing?? Sorry Glen….just having some fun… but I know how you feel about us nonlinear alternative learners….and I look for forward to reading all your comments.

Greg Harris, at 11:25 am EDT on October 19, 2007

RE: Steve Finner’s Comments about University of Phoenix

Steve Finner, please produce the evidence, reasoning or statistics behind your broad-brushed, pejorative statement concerning University of Phoenix: “And the dumbing down and cheapening of this country;s [sic] higher education system continues.” If evidence is lacking, you must be speaking from personal experience. Tell us about the incompetence of any University of Phoenix graduates you personally know. What skills or knowledge did they lack? How did they fail to improve or increase the value of your establishment? University of Phoenix has been around for 31 years and receives accreditation from the same state and regional accrediting agencies that other colleges and universities do. Perhaps something else is bothering you, but you are afraid to state it; instead, you hide behind a broad, general statement with no foundation to support it.

Franklin Harvey, at 12:40 pm EDT on October 19, 2007

What do we fear?

With a creative mixture of synchronous and asynchronous components such a graduate program could attract some of our “best and brightest” future educational leaders. What do we fear?

Merle F. Allshouse, Fellow at The University of South Florida, at 2:05 pm EDT on October 19, 2007

If the primary purpose of this program is to prepare “academic managers,” why isn’t this an Ed.D. rather than a Ph.D.?

Mr. Moreland said “We had would-be learners coming to us and asking for this program.”

Of course they would, because prospective students are unwilling to invest the time and effort in a traditional Higher Education doctoral program. They want to do the least amount of work possible to get the degree.

In addition, Jorge Klor de Alva said that the program would seek to produce administrators with “flexibility” because senior college leaders need “the ability to adapt and think on their feet rather than a more bureaucratic education.”

Well, there’s the problem. My experience has been that most prospective students to higher education administration doctoral programs (and Educational Administration doctoral programs) who work full-time and seek the degree for certification are uninterested in learning how to think and unwilling to learn how to use data to drive academic decision-making. They merely want validation for using their previous work experience to guide ‘thinking on their feet.’

Since this will be a Ph.D. program, the U. of Phoenix must hire faculty who have active research agendas disseminated in established Higher Education professional associations and peer-reviewed journals commensurate with the preparation of Ph.D-level researchers. In addition, the U. of Phoenix must publicize the faculty who teach in this program to establish credibility. Otherwise, this will be just another diploma mill to which Steve Finner alluded.

The ‘race to the bottom’ that Art Levine has warned us about continues...

Dr. RingDing, at 4:10 pm EDT on October 19, 2007

So Vicki ....

... does that mean you’re not going to accept UOP advertising on your site?

Patty, at 10:25 pm EDT on October 19, 2007

Bashing Education....Thats a Shame

The above comments are amazing. People bashing education and I have had first hand dealings with UOP via my wife’s current Masters of Arts in Education Degree from UOP. (Thanks UOP) She wanted to quit because the program was “too intense and rigorous” and there was some confusion about how and what based on her lack of hunger for the degree…..not UOP’s fault…in fact it was better than any other traditional programs she attended; at least three brick & mortar traditional Universities.

I myself an educational junkie…and I mean a lifetime student have attended 8 traditional universities and they are filled with bogus faculty or administrators …meaning… ego maniacs professors and employees who ‘will not’ let you get pass their own social morals and hold tradition so dear and close to their precious little hearts and all in the name of America….land of the free.. and seemingly educated …..it s crock of $%##$^%...honest.

Modern Universities like UOP and AIU are here not to bash tradition but to offer an alternative to real learners who are hungry for an education. For Profits specialize in reaching out via marketing with flexible offerings to those who efforts are either derailed because of social conditions or stonewalled from those ego maniacs via the traditional route.

Most important today is technology….it has changed everything and in education delivery is the key. Many a profession today via Corporate America offers alternative educational routes and technology has changed who, how, why and when for everything even business…its called e-commerce; UOP is a leader in this; online learning and online business is here to stay; for profit education and e-commerce is here to stay plus compete if necessary against the old school good ole boy network. Its Graduate and Doctoral programs are equal or better based on modern educational ideas meanwhile traditional schools are trying to still practice the dog waging his tail and in truth the tail is waging the dog.

In both our cases my wife and I we are viewed in a negative light by most linear educated types, we are not offered jobs or interviews and once in house secretly bashed because of the actual degree we have earned from hard work in a ‘Modern Day University’ that is on the cutting edge of the future. Any degree from any school is only as good as one is able to apply it to the real world. A degree and $2.00 bucks will get you a bus ride…nothing more…nothing less.

Greg Harris, at 1:10 pm EDT on October 20, 2007