Questions about Pretoria's theology dept.

[1652Q]

Hello, everyone. I'm in a slightly unusual position. I've already graduated from undergrad and then law school, and am now a practicing attorney. (So I can't take years off work to study full-time.) However, I always wanted to gain a deeper understanding of Biblical history.

Ultimately, I would love to work part-time toward a doctoral degree in theology, Biblical studies, or a related field.

When reading through these forums, I noticed the University of Pretoria's program mentioned as an inexpensive doctoral option with good faculty. Its doctoral program did seem to allow many students to learn from a distance.

Unfortunately, it looks like I'd have to start from the ground up. My undergraduate degrees were in political science, anthropology, and history rather than religious studies, and the doctoral program requires both a bachelor's and master's in a field related to theology.

So I suppose my questions are:

1) Does Pretoria permit distance learning for its undergraduate and master's degrees as preliminaries to the doctoral program?
2) How much do the undergraduate and master's programs cost?
3) Can an international student get any kind of cost-reduction if they're ultimately working on the undergrad/masters degrees as a way to get to the theology doctorate?

Ultimately, these would be questions I'd have to discuss with Pretoria. But I'd hoped that someone else familiar with them might be able to give me preliminary guidance.

Thanks!

[eriehiker]

The degree info forums are a bit more focused on graduate programs and I know that there are some experts in this area there.

DegreeInfo Distance Learning - online degree forum

[bjcheung77]

The degree info forums are a bit more focused on graduate programs and I know that there are some experts in this area there.

DegreeInfo Distance Learning - online degree forum

Further to this, you may want to look into UNISA as they're more well known for distance education in South Africa.

The ones best to answer your questions in regards to the Pretoria program, are the staff at Pretoria.

You can shoot off an email to them just by copying/pasting what you have already to an email.

[sanantone]

I can't remember the prerequisites, but the South African Theological Seminary is cheap. You can also look into getting a masters at Nations University and then transferring to Liberty University or another school for an online doctoral program.

Doctoral programs aren't really meant for someone who has no academic or professional background in a subject. Doctoral programs are definitely not the place to start to gain a deeper understanding of a subject.

[rlw74]

I was going to recommend Nations University as well. It's very inexpensive and self-paced. They will accept you into the Master's program no matter what your prior degrees are in. You can transfer those credits to Liberty.