APUS Accredited?

[Tedmeister]

This is for Buckwheat Wildebeast (Gavin).


This is in response to an email I sent to the provost.

I congratulated him on the accreditation and asked him when the timeline was for the PhD in history.

His response:

We will apply in the winter of 06

Winter 2006 or Winter 2007?

[Tedmeister]

Tireman,
That is great! I indeed hope they can carry it through!
It was some time ago,maybe a few years when Ted listed the requirment were for a history class. The reading list itself was no picnic (much less the other requirments). At the time I was bewildered why such school wasn't already RA!
They were very serious about the curriculum; hats off to them!
Gavin

Couldn't have been much more than a year ago. I had only just joined the old boards in February 2005, so I've only been posting on dl boards for fifteen months.

[Tireman4]

I am assuming February of 2007, but the class that I took last time stated Winter 06 and it started in January of 2006, so I dont know. I will get clarification.

[aic712]

"According to those in the Student Lounge, there are two listings for American Public University System. One of them has accredited, the other states candidate. Interesting"

That's true, but no matter which link you click on it goes to the "accredited" screen

[Tireman4]

This is the email that I sent this morning at 8:07 CST


Good morning. The gentlemen and I , who are wanting a PhD program in history at APUS, are needing clarification. Do you mean winter of 2006 to mean December 2006 or January 2007 (coinciding with the semester at APUS). When a school applies for a program startup, how long does it usually take for the permission to be granted? Thank you so much.

[Tireman4]

Ted and Gavin,

Here ya go. We have to wait a little longer.

Michael. We will not be applying till early 2007 we hope it will go quickly which means Jan 2008 if all goes well. I know it seems like a long time but now that we are accredited we are on their timetable

[japhy4529]

This is great news! One day, I would really like to attempt the APU MA in Military History w/ a Revolutionary War concentration. The program looks to be rigorous:

http://www.apu.apus.edu/Academics/Degre ... oncid=3954

- Tom

[japhy4529]

This is great news! One day, I would really like to attempt the APU MA in Military History w/ a Revolutionary War concentration. The program looks to be rigorous:

http://www.apu.apus.edu/Academics/Degre ... oncid=3954

- Tom

[Tireman4]

I just received official word that the American Public University System has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association. I received this email today. Unfortunately, I can not copy and paste here.

[Tireman4]

Now that you are regionally accredited will you offer PhD programs?

We hope to be able to offer doctorate programs in the future. Gaining approval from accrediting bodies for degree programs at a new level (especially doctorate-level) is a lengthy process. At this time, we are researching the possibility of developing doctorate programs in specialized areas such as Homeland Security, Intelligence, History and Emergency Management. Once developed, our current research suggests that accrediting any doctorate-level program could take 3-5 years


This is from the APUS website.

[Buckwheat Wildebeest]

Oh Yea, things are looking good!
If I were on the Serengeti right about now, it might be possible to hear/feel a rumbling and view off into the distance a dust cloud being kicked up by a herd of Wildebeests in pursuit of a History Master's/Doctorate
I do believe APU is about to experience a migration pattern...
Gavin

[Tireman4]

Wow. So long ago. They are still working on the doctoral programs. They are in development. Sigh.

[hierophant]

APUS (I still don't like that name) certainly seems to me to have the resources, experience and staff to make doctoral programs work in some of their areas of strength (like military history, I guess).

I'm just speculating, but guess that there may be some pressure being exerted on the NCA/HLC by some of the universities in its region and perhaps by the administration in Washington, because APUS is both DL and for-profit. Both of those things aren't exactly popular among traditional academics and their unions.

[ConstructiveThoughts]

I'm just speculating, but guess that there may be some pressure being exerted on the NCA/HLC by some of the universities in its region and perhaps by the administration in Washington, because APUS is both DL and for-profit. Both of those things aren't exactly popular among traditional academics and their unions.

Very likely. Another possible pressure point in the current climate is the inception of a new doctoral program, as many faculty members at traditional universities are concerned about the oversupply of PhD's. Too many universities operate PhD programs primarily in order to have inexpensive grad student labor to teach undergraduates. Of course, most APUS grads aren't likely to apply for the same academic jobs, nor are they giving up their lives for a number of years to be full-time doctoral students, but it's a hot-button issue that academics react to more often than they think about it. I hold a PhD, and I'm not bitter about either the process or the prospects, but many people in academia are, and are reacting as viscerally to this issue as to "for-profit" status. See the following links for some examples (some ranting about exploitation ahead if you do):

The Professor is In: http://theprofessorisin.com/pearlsofwisdom/page/33/
"The department quite literally could not run without the teaching labor of the graduate students. In one of my departments the entire first, second, and third year language programs in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (some 30,000 credit hours annually) were handled entirely by graduate students."

Social Text: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/social_tex ... squet.html
"it has to be acknowledged that increasingly the holders of the doctoral degree are not so much the products of the graduate employee labor system as its by-products, insofar as that that labor system exists primarily to recruit, train, supervise, and legitimate the employment of nondegreed rather than degreed teachers. This is not to say that the system doesn't produce and employ holders of the Ph.D., only that this operation has become secondary to its extraction of teaching labor from nondegreed persons, primarily graduate employees and former graduate employees now working as adjunct labor—as part-timers, full-time lecturers, postdocs, and so on."

Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/t ... msg1708307
"without inexpensive grad student TAs, there's not enough people to staff the intro courses . . . Part of the story here is a model of graduate education that relied for 40 years on the overproduction of grad students and their cheap labor. It's breaking down, and I think we'll see, in many more places besides SUNY Albany, that it isn't a soft landing."

[Tireman4]

Well they have two doctoral programs...

http://www.apus.edu/newsroom/press-rele ... l-programs