RA_Ph.D.
01-15-2005, 04:23 AM
"You can get an education in many places. But you go to a tertiary institution to earn a degree. In that case, we're talking about the credential, along with the assurances the credential provides. So the question becomes who awards the credential and what is their quality? In the U.S., that is determined by accrediting agencies." Dr. Rich Douglas
I quote Dr. Doulgas here because he holds his Ph.D. in education with a speciality in non-traditional higher ed; thus, his opinion is "informed" by particular learning and is relevant to the meaning and function of degrees as an "expert" opinion.
I surely agree that one can learn in many settings outside universities, but I, for one, went to university for and education as well as a degree, and I do believe that a proper university education confers far more than just a credential. Degrees many be used as credentials, but they also represent, in some universites, a status within the university such a a rank in an academic procession, a voting standing or the right to have other degrees conferred. We need to be careful of the meaning and nature of degrees--honoraries, for example, and not to confuse those with academic quaifications which earned degrees may (sometimes but surely not in all cases) represent.
Other comments on the education vs. credentialism and how this confusion may play into the hands of mills that exploit public ignorance about the other meanings of degrees than as simple academic qualifications ?
I quote Dr. Doulgas here because he holds his Ph.D. in education with a speciality in non-traditional higher ed; thus, his opinion is "informed" by particular learning and is relevant to the meaning and function of degrees as an "expert" opinion.
I surely agree that one can learn in many settings outside universities, but I, for one, went to university for and education as well as a degree, and I do believe that a proper university education confers far more than just a credential. Degrees many be used as credentials, but they also represent, in some universites, a status within the university such a a rank in an academic procession, a voting standing or the right to have other degrees conferred. We need to be careful of the meaning and nature of degrees--honoraries, for example, and not to confuse those with academic quaifications which earned degrees may (sometimes but surely not in all cases) represent.
Other comments on the education vs. credentialism and how this confusion may play into the hands of mills that exploit public ignorance about the other meanings of degrees than as simple academic qualifications ?