New FlexPath Doctorates from Capella

[ashkir]

No dissertation?  I can't see how this would be taken seriously.

Not all Doctorates have them. For instance, Eastern Virginia Medical School's Doctor of Health Science degree doesn't have one. Virginia University of Lynchburg's Doctor of Health Administration doesn't have one either. There are others. Certainly when applying to jobs in the academic or research sectors it's going to be scrutinized pretty hard. Outside of that, no one is going to care.

I currently work for a large state supported university and we have a few in the IT and Engineering school with doctorates that had applied dissertations or no dissertations at all. I think that with some universities, their main role is to fill available professorships and to ensure that students do not have to wait for courses each semester. Of course it does differ from university to university and department. For example I could never see our English or Science department accepting a full time professor without a traditional dissertation.

A lot of undergrad professors I've noticed just have Masters, so a doctorate is just icing on the cake.