Re: [xmca] Research Degrees in Europe

From: David H Kirshner (dkirsh@lsu.edu)
Date: Sat Mar 17 2007 - 12:57:08 PST


David Kellogg,
It sounds like you've given some thought to seeking a doctorate from Open
University. Do you know someone there who could argue your case to have the
in-house MA requirement waived? A friend of mine, John Mason (
j.h.mason@open.ac.uk) is a mathematics educator in the math department, so
he probably wouldn't be the appropriate person. But they do have a
department of Education and Language Studies that sounds like a good fit
for you. Perhaps someone else on the list has a contact in that department
(or another that might be appropriate) to whom they could refer you?
David Kirshner

                                                                                                                                       
                      David Kellogg
                      <vaughndogblack who-is-at y To: xcma <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
                      ahoo.com> cc: (bcc: David H Kirshner/dkirsh/LSU)
                      Sent by: Subject: [xmca] Research Degrees in Europe
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                      03/16/2007 09:18
                      PM
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Everybody:

  As someone who is in precisely that position (of needing a Ph.D. which
supports rather than distracts from my current work) I agree with David
(Preiss); you are much more likely to get the flexibility you need in
Europe than in the USA.

  For example, there is the Open University at Milton Keynes in the UK.
They DO, unfortunately, require an in-house MA, though you can get a waiver
if you've got a good one from another British uni or other intellectual
assets and someone who will argue your case before the committee.

  If you can get in, though, they do part-time as well as full-time
research degrees, and a part time research degree will allow you to live
abroad with your data. Nevertheless, it's a real university, not a
cyber-school; and in fact there are some who would argue that it's the best
one in England.

  Another great advantage of Europe (I think) is that unlike America they
let professors teach undergraduates. You may think this is not very
relevant to you, but a LOT of our people who go to the States spend years
working as teaching assistants instead of actually getting their own
degrees. Basically, you are being paid in kind: you get a tuition waiver
instead of a real salary.

  In China, and also under the Park Chunghee dictatorship here in Korea, it
was quite normal to sign a contract with the government, according to which
you get your graduate education for nearly free and in return you agree to
work five or ten years for the state. When they discarded this system in
China we were given industrial quantities of nonsense about free choice and
a market in intellectual skills and so on. But all it really means is that
you do your teaching service BEFORE you get your degree instead of AFTER.

  David Kellogg
  Seoul National University of Education

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