South College DBA

[freeloader]

I read where one individual ( on Facebook), completed 8 courses in 80 days. He is almost finished with course 9. I have also read where folks get to the 10th course and they have been slowed down. This is on Facebook and I am not in the program, so I am just going by their word. I do not have an axe to grind and support all who are working on their doctorates!

That has been mentioned a few times on here and elsewhere, I think, but I don’t really understand. (And this isn’t meant to blast you Tireman, you are just quoting others, I know)

The program is 90 credits, comprising 10 classes. 81 credits/9’classes are subject area classes dealing with business, business research, and the specialization courses. Course number 10 is the Dissertation course.  

A dissertation should take time. Not sure how exactly South College is handling it, but in general you have to design a research agenda, establish research questions, perhaps write and defend a proposal, conduct academic research, compile and analyze your findings, and write up the dissertation articulating what you have done, your findings, and the implications (for the field, future scholarship, etc) of your research. All of that takes time. All of that takes drafts and revisions. The goal isn’t to produce work that is the quality of a term-paper, it is to go beyond that and produce high level scholarship in your field. 

I would love to know how South College is slowing things down. Are they creating unnecessary roadblocks due to bad policies or lack of resources?  Or, are they trying to maintain some academic quality to actually justify the awarding of a doctoral degree to the graduates?

Just because you can finish a WGU MBA in 4 months and 81 doctoral level credits at South College in 6 months, doesn’t mean you should be able to research, write, and revise a doctoral project in a few months.