Looking for 2 year DBA online

[Personherebb9]

I looked up Stellenbosch University in South Africa on ANABIN and the Uni is hold +H (best possible grading score), it part of the official education and the degrees would be usable in EU also, should one wish for.

I believe all universities from South Africa are listed under H+ on anabin. There might be a few trade schools that I'm not aware of, but yeah. Even UNISA holds H+.

Stellenbosch University has a really good reputation (second in Africa I think) and honestly if you do decide to go through with the PhD, I'm sure you wouldn't regret it. They hold their education to a very high standard. 

On another note, you can always email admissions to find out if they will accept your masters without a dissertation. It's common for South African PhD's to have the prerequisite of having a thesis masters, however these requirements can usually be waived and will be evaluated on a case-by-case situation. My Aunt did her PhD through another SA university and she also didn't have a master's dissertation. She emailed the admissions and asked how she could proceed from there. I believe they evaluated her "capstone project" to see if it would be the equivalent to a thesis and she was then accepted. I've also heard of people having to submit like a small dissertation with their application.

But yeah totally up to you.

Hi Personherebb99,

Thank you for the information. So, I have an MBA with a master's capstone project. Stellenbosch was very responsive and I really appreciated their quick feedback (unlike UNISA). I would assume I need to send my foreign US degrees into SAQA and then also email the PHD admission dept. at Stellenbosch to see if my capstone project could be looked at as a thesis. When I contacted them back in 2019, they had mentioned potentially offering an actual research class that could be used as a substitute for not having a master's thesis. I would take the course in the master's program there and as a sort of pre-PHD course and then  I could pursue the PHD program. At the time, they were not offering it. However, especially post COVID, it might have changed. 

I am getting a DBA or PHD for personal development. At 48, I wasn't planning on becoming a full time researcher/academic so the lower cost of below $10,000 USD or preferably under $5,000 USD without student loans is a must. I will contact them and let you know what I found out. The main block for me is that I did not have a research master's and I did not want to do another master's degree just for that program. 

On a totally unrelated note,  I wanted to ask your opinion on how safe South Africa is? I find it fascinating, beautiful country and I think it gets a lot of bad press. My project manager at last project is South African and states certain areas have gotten very bad for crime. On the other hand, with the amount of school shootings, guns, and crime in the USA, I am sure people could have the same impression of the US.

Education Seeker

So what I would do in your situation is the following:

I would contact an admissions advisor/admissions officer at SBS (Stellenbosch Business School) and ask them what alternative routes you can take, since you are not in the possession of a thesis masters. They will be able to give you some guidance on how to proceed, I have mentioned before how they might access the situation. I think in addition to those, I've also heard of a few people who got that requirement completely waived simply, because of relevant work experience, so I would definitely contact them in regards to alternative options. Not having a masters with a thesis is not a trainsmash and you'll find that South African unis tend to be very accommodating in regards to helping you succeed. 

Worst case scenario they'll ask you to take a class to prove that you have the capabilities to write an academic piece of work.

That being said, SBS does not offer DBAs. Professional doctorates are not common in South Africa nor respected, so you'll find that almost no universities offer them here. So if you are set on SBS you would have to go with one of their business related PhDs.

Now cost. Stellenbosch University is a name-brand university. It's considered as like the American equivalent to an "Ivy League" school, up there with UCT. Simply because of its international standing and "brand" it would be considerably more expensive than an university such as UNISA. I looked at their fees for PhD Business Management and Administration and it would total (for everything) at R134 136 or the equivalent to $7793,31. It's currently ranked the 251st best university in the world (according to Times Higher Education) and their business programs have multiple highly respected programmatic accreditations such as AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA.

I can't guarantee that they'll accept your masters, however it never hurts to find out. 

Finally South Africa. Honestly, I really love this country. In terms of crime, as like any country, in certain areas its bad in other areas its basically unheard of. Cape Town was by far the best place I've lived in, a city in between beautiful mountain ranges, while literally right next to the ocean and one of the world's 7 wonders- table mountain. For the most part Cape Town was extremely safe, except for the designated areas here and there, but for the most part I wasn't too worried of ever getting into a sticky situation. I currently live in Johburg, the area itself I live in is fairly safe, but mid-city Johburg is another story. For the most part I think "safety" just depends on the area you live and obviously basic common sense. (Don't wave your phone around in a dark and isolated valley at 2am, etc.)

For reference, I've lived in South Africa for 18 years now and have never been robbed, assaulted, or anything like that. Hell, I've never even witnessed a crime- other than idiots driving of course. It honestly just depends on where you live. In terms of school safety, I've never been afraid of school shootings or crimes at school. Something that seems to be common within the USA. 

Honestly if this country just wasn't run by, for lack of better word, incompetent idiots, I would honestly just stay here for the rest of my life. However, it's a very common trend for foreigners with remote jobs to move to South Africa for the low cost of living. I mean in books South Africa seems like a fairly good example of a "perfect" country, if only it was run right. We have unmatched natural beauty, free health-care, affordable and high standard education, not to mention cheap. (If you're someone that loves meat, you'll be very pleased with the prices of it here.

Socially, (at least for my generation) everyone is nice and friendly, you will not meet friendlier people in the world, I promise you. We are untouched by stupid shit such as "American beauty standards" or stereotypes. In theory our political system is one of the most complex, democratic and equal systems in the world. Honestly, if it just wasn't for our corrupt and idiotic government, this country would prosper. For reference our president has a net worth of over 600 million DOLLARS, while the minimum wage in South Africa is $2000 PER YEAR. NOT PER MONTH, PER YEAR and that's for a 45-hour work week. If that doesn't just smell like corruption and irony, I don't know what does. 

So yeah that is my opinion of South Africa as someone coming from here. If you're someone that's looking into possible immigration, I could possibly not recommend it enough, but only if you are able to sustain yourself financially with a remote American position. If you moved to South Africa with a remote job, paying you $50k a year, you could live in LUXURY and I don't say that lightly. That salary that's typically middle-class range in USA, is like top 1% within South Africa. You would be able to give yourself a life of your dreams with that kind of salary here. 

Now to round off this post:
If you were at all able to find a remote job, I would honestly maybe even recommend attending UCT (University of Cape Town) full-time for your PhD (around $2500 for the full PhD). Take your daughter, do two years abroad. I think your daughter would love to experience the difference between USA and South Africa. Go back to the USA with a PhD from a top 150 university. At that point you'd be set for anything you wanted to achieve further. While it's a big change, life is short and 2 years experiencing something completely new and different might be invaluable and something you'll remember for the rest of you and your daughter's life. I know that might sound very unrealistic, but it might be something to consider. 

Feel free to message me for any other information and let me know what SBS says.